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Watch: How a PGA Tour rookie made a 13(!) on Friday at The American Express

adam schupak, golfweek
·2 min read
Rickie Fowler shows the danger of playing from the San Andreas Fault bunker on the 16th hole at The American Express tournament at the Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
Rickie Fowler shows the danger of playing from the San Andreas Fault bunker on the 16th hole at The American Express tournament at the Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Oh, to be William Mouw on Friday afternoon.

The PGA Tour rookie tugged his second shot at the par-5 16th at PGA West into the infamous 19-foot bunker and walked off with an octuple-bogey 13.

We’ve all been there – not on the PGA Tour with a gallery and TV cameras trained on our every shot – but we’ve all done this sort of walk of shame.

The par-5 16th at PGA West is called San Andreas Fault. As the story goes, when developer Ernie Vossler, a former Tour player, got his first look at the two-story high bunker nearly surrounding the left side of the green, he declared that Dye had gone too far and demanded he make the crater less penal. Dye refused to give in, so they made a bet. If Dye could splash out within 10 feet of the hole in three attempts, the cavernous bunker would remain as is. Dye needed just one attempt, lofting a shot to two feet.

Mouw, on the other hand, he needed a shovel rather than his sand wedge. His poor caddie had a lot of raking to do.

Arriving at the hole at 6 under par in The American Express, Mouw actually splashed out of the cavernous pit on his first attempt — airmailing the green — but he wasn’t done with the sand. He hit his fourth back into the sand. His fifth and sixth shots stayed in the bunker. Out with No. 7, but back in with his eighth. This train wreck wasn’t over yet. Frustrated and in need of a new strategy, he played safe to the right and away from the green with his ninth shot. He proceeded to chip over the green. He finally found the putting surface with his 11th shot and took two putts for a 13 that will forever be part of the San Andreas Fault lore.  It didn’t get any better for Mouw. He rinsed two tee shots in the water at Alcatraz, the island-green par 3, and needed to sink a 30-foot putt for a triple bogey. Props to Mouw for fist-pumping his way to collect the ball from the hole. One hole later, he signed for an 81. Oof. A freaky Friday for the 24-year-old Korn Ferry Tour graduate with some serious game.  Perhaps Mouw should’ve watched Johnson Wagner show the kids on Golf Channel how to skull-shank it to 8 feet.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rookie makes a 13 at American Express 2025