Francesco Molinari delivers walk-off ace to make cut at U.S. Open

PINEHURST, N.C. – A hole-in-one to make the cut? It’s a fantastical scenario in any golf tournament, let alone the U.S. Open.

Italy’s Francesco Molinari delivered the improbable Friday at Pinehurst No. 2.

Molinari stood 7-over for the tournament as he arrived on his final hole of the second round, the 194-yard, par-3 ninth. The cut line was projected 5-over (where it eventually settled). There was zero chance of a 6-over cut. He needed to make the ace for a weekend tee time in the Carolina Sandhills.

Molonari made the ace, striping a 7-iron that landed on the green’s left-middle portion and released favorably off a slope, funneling toward the hole and dropping in with perfect pace. The crowd roared as Molinari shrugged his shoulders in faux disbelief. Playing partner Ryo Ishikawa raised his hands and returned to the tee to offer congratulations.

"What are the chances, really? I don't even know what to say," Molinari said afterward. "Just incredible ... It was the last chance to have a chance to play the weekend.

"That's golf in a nutshell."

It was the day’s second hole-in-one on No. 9; Austria’s Sepp Straka made his first career TOUR ace on the same hole earlier Friday, en route to a second-round 70 and a weekend tee time at 2-over total.

Molinari will join him with a place on the Saturday tee sheet at the season’s third major – and he’ll have a memory to last a lifetime.

"You're trying to hit a good shot," Molinari said. "You have a thought, knowing it's the last chance you have. I just bogeyed eight. I was hoping I was able to par eight and then having to make two at nine, with that flag, if you hit a good shot, you can get it within birdie range, but when I dropped a shot at eight ... standing on the ninth tee, it was just, 'Put a good swing on it and see what happens.'

"But the chances are incredibly small, so I don't know what to say."

His 7-iron did the talking. One swing delivered two more rounds at the U.S. Open.