With careless stub, Tony Finau joins debate for the shortest missed putt ever

Let the debate begin.

In July of 2023, a number of scribes, including Golf Digest’s Chris Powers, wrote about the “shortest missed putt” in the televised history of the sport. At the Korn Ferry Tour’s Nashville event that season, tour pro Tom Whitney missed about an eight-foot putt low of the cup and had what most surmised was three or four inches left to clean up. With two hands on the club, though not taking any time to aim, Whitney then went to putt the ball in and pushed it with the putter’s toe, causing a power lip-out. Whitney was left dumbfounded.

As Powers noted, the miss certainly seemed shorter than the foot from which Jon Rahm gacked during the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational, and therefore, this had to be the shortest missed putt viewers had ever seen.

Now, another big name has entered the realm of short-putt horror: Tony Finau.

In Saturday’s third round of the Texas Children’s Houston Open, the six-time tour winner arrived at the par-3 15th at Memorial Park even par for the day and seven under in the week. That put Finau in striking distance for a top-10 finish on Sunday.

The hole was playing at a miniscule 122 yards for the round but had exacted, almost inexplicably, the highest scoring average (plus-0.300). Finau hit his approach to 41 feet and rolled his first putt to what Shotlink said was 3 feet, 8 inches. That’s where it got ugly. Finau appeared to pull his short par putt, and it spun out behind the cup. From the opposite side of his ball, Finau nonchalantly reached for a tap-in from no more than about three inches. But the blade stubbed into the ground and only tapped the ball. Realizing what he’d done, Finau paused, and then tapped in. For the record, Shotlink had Finau’s first tap traveling about one inch, leaving him 2.1 inches from the cup.

The sequence wasn’t shown live, but NBC went quickly to it and brought in PGA Tour rules official Mark Dusbabek to discuss what everybody had seen. He confirmed that Finau had indeed attempted to strike the ball on the miss, and that he’d four-putted the hole for a double-bogey 5.

(A tip of the cap to Finau, who bounced back with two straight birdies to salvage an even-par 70.)

So, what is worse, Whitney semi-trying to make his three-incher, or Finau’s “putt” coming up short from three inches?

We’re taking the latter, but let the howling commence.