By Ryan Herrington
A lot of people talk about the Golf Gods and the cruel and peculiar ways they wreak havoc, mentally and physically, on unsuspecting lugs just trying to get their ball in the hole in as few a shots as possible. (That doesn’t include me, mind you, as I don’t dare directly talk about the sport’s mystical overseers, least they punish me with a case of the yips or the shanks. I instead refer to them indirectly, and strictly in the name of journalism.)

It wasn’t the Golf Gods, however, that necessarily got Nacho Elvira on Sunday at the Maybank Championship. More like Mother Nature. Elvira, seeking his first career European Tour win, had led heading into the final round at Saujana Golf & Country Club in Kaula Lumpur but was now one stroke back of Scott Hend, the 45-year-old Aussie competing with Elvira in the final group, as they were playing the 569-yard par-5 closing hole. Under ominous skies, the Spaniard was set to hit his third shot on the 18th, a short pitch just shy of the green. Yet just in the middle of his swing, a loud clap of thunder rolled through, distracting Elvira and causing him to leave his ball a disappointing 30 feet from the hole.

The European Tour originally had a video of the unfortunate coincidence posted on Twitter (which we embedded when we originally posted this story this morning), but the tour has since, disappointingly, taken it down. If you didn’t see it earlier this morning, it was pretty amazing how precisely as Elvira is about to hit the ball, you can hear the boom.

After that thunder, tournament officials, as John Huggan wrote in his piece about the conclusion of the final round, had no choice but to halt play and wait out the electricity in the area before letting them finish up. Hend was facing a 20-foot birdie try himself that could have ended the affair in regulation.

And wait they did … for 1 hour and 40 minutes. The delay could have rattled Elvira, but impressively the 32-year-old didn’t let it. When he returned to the course and face the crucial putt, he stepped up and created a jolt of his own.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!@nachoelvira87 has drained it! pic.twitter.com/O1lfYU5FHQ

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 24, 2019

Hend could not top it, and the pair went to extra holes, the first playoff of the 2018-’19 European Tour season. But Elvira could not keep the momentum going, hitting into a greenside bunker on the playoff hole, a return to the 18th, and making a bogey to Hend’s birdie. Elvira will have to wait for the maiden victory some other day. In the meantime, we don’t blame him if he takes the Golf Gods Mother Nature’s name in vein.

The post Watch how this European Tour pro recovers after some horribly timed thunder hits in the middle of his swing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
He had to wait to claim the title at the Maybank Championship. Twice actually. But, in the end, it was worth it for Scott Hend. First, after a one-hour, 40-minute delay because of “dangerous weather” on the 72nd hole, the 45-year-old Florida-based Australian had returned to the 18th green at the Saujana Golf & Country Club in Kaula Lumpur to complete what looked like a fairly straightforward victory.

Maybe 25 feet away from the cup in three on the 569-yard par 5, Hend was 15 under par and one-shot clear of his playing partner, Nacho Elvira. The Spaniard was 30 feet or so out, also putting for birdie. And in it went. Two putts from Hend later, the European Tour had its first playoff of the 2018-’19 season.

The second test of Hend’s patience was a bit shorter. One hole to be exact. Bunkered off the tee on that same 18th, Elvira could do no better than par. And when the Aussie got up-and-down for birdie from a greenside bunker, he had his third career European Tour win.

“I had my mind on the job the whole time,” said the champion, who had lost two playoffs since his last victory at the 2016 Thailand Classic. “Nacho holed a magnificent putt to tie, which just shows that anything can happen in golf. I had to think he would hole it. But I still had a chance to win. I’m just glad it went my way.”

RELATED: Scott Hend purposely plays shot off grandstand, setting up an easy par

For the record, Hend shot a closing 67, overnight-leader Elvira 70. Jazz Janewattanond of Thailand was third alone on 13 under, with Oliver Fisher, the first and so far only man to shoot 59 on the European Tour, T-5 alongside Max Kieffer of Germany. Four-time major champion Ernie Els was one of a six-strong group tied for seventh. It was the 300th top-10 finish of the 49-year-old South African’s long professional career.

Of all the contenders though, Elvira was initially counting himself most unfortunate. Pitching to the 72nd green in what had rapidly turned into a torrential downpour, a loud clap of thunder disturbed the Spaniard’s backswing—the natural prelude to the lightning that left the tournament director with no alternative but to halt play—the ball coming up well short of its intended target. No matter. The putt that led to the playoff was never going anywhere else but the bottom of the cup.

Earlier, the leading pair had indulged in quite a battle. Elvira’s initial advantage was gone by the seventh green, the result of the big-hitting Hend’s four birdies to that point. One more birdie at the ninth saw the eventual champion out in 31 and ahead for the first time. Both men dropped their only shots of the day at the 10th, before another—predictable—Hend birdie at the par-5 13th established a two-shot edge that was halved by Elvira’s birdie at the penultimate hole.

He's done it!@hendygolf wins the 2019 Maybank Championship! ? pic.twitter.com/qZwGgSnIb3

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 24, 2019

The post Euro Tour veteran Scott Hend hangs on through thunderstorm, playoff to grab first title since 2016 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Hend, who had just birdied the par-3 17th to get to five under on the day, hit his second shot at Saujana Golf & Country Club’s par-5 18th well right and into some trees, leaving him with a tricky third shot into the green. With the pin in a position where he’d need to hit a high shot to get close, Hend was in trouble, because a lofted shot likely would have clipped some tree branches and/or possibly come up short in the bunker. He had to go low, which gave him no chance of getting the ball close. Or so we thought.

The two-time European Tour winner got very creative, pulling out a low iron and hitting a line-drive punch that caromed off the grandstand like a baseball off the right-field wall. The ball rolled back toward the pin and set up an easy two-putt par. Check it out:

He meant that! Off the backboard.

Amazing creativity from @hendygolf. pic.twitter.com/MNlxGl1BS5

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 23, 2019

Judging by Hend’s cheeky reaction, this was absolutely planned, something Hend confirmed on Twitter when asked:

Played that way…. 121m to base of grandstand….. play a 140m shot low into the boards and see if it will bounce back…. ??‍??‍??‍ seemed to work out ok. My caddie bounced many balls off the stand testing the bounce during practice.

— Scott Hend (@hendygolf) March 23, 2019

As you heard one of the announcers say, players had been practising this shot earlier in the week, but to see it done in tournament play and executed as well as Hend executed it is pretty wild.

Hend’s par capped off a third-round 67 that vaulted him up the leader board into a tie for fourth at 10 under. He’ll begin his final round on Sunday in Malaysia three back of Spain’s Nacho Elvira. If he can catch him, Hend could win for the first time since the True Thailand Classic in March of 2016. We’re guessing he’ll remember this bold play for a long time if he’s able to pull off the comeback.

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