Oakmont (United States) (AFP) – France’s Victor Perez made a hole-in-one at the par-three sixth in Friday’s second round of the US Open at Oakmont. The 32-year-old Frenchman, who missed the cut in 11 of his 16 prior major starts, blasted the ball 192 yards with a 7-iron, and it bounced twice onto the green and rolled into the hole.
“Obviously a hole-in-one takes a little luck,” Perez said. “I was trying to hit something maybe 15, 20 feet past the hole and it maybe spun a little bit more and bounced in. So a little fortunate, which I’ll definitely take going into the weekend.”
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Perez was joyful in celebrating, exchanging a chest bump with his caddie, James Erkenbeck, then waving his left hand in the air and exchanging high-five hand slaps with his playing partners, Americans Adam Schenk and Jacob Bridgeman. “You try to just make pars and survive, and when you get kind of a chip-in, bonuses, something like that, it definitely is nice to let off a little emotion,” Perez said.
Perez’s magnificent shot was the 54th hole-in-one in US Open history but only the second ace at a US Open at Oakmont, after American Scott Simpson aced the par-three 16th in 1983’s opening round. Perez followed the hole-in-one with three pars to finish a round of level par 70 to stand on 141 for 36 holes.
Perez had a triple-bogey eight at the par-five 12th hole, but the ace moved him from being at risk of missing the cut to standing in the top 10. The Frenchman said he made two aces earlier this month at home in the Bahamas. “I guess I’m on a hole-in-one run at the moment,” Perez said. “It might dry up for the next few years now, who knows, so, yeah, really happy.”
Perez, a back-nine starter, ran into trouble early with his big number at the 12th but battled back. “It wasn’t an ideal start, and I kind of put myself a little bit behind the 8-ball after three holes,” Perez said. “I had two chances on 10, 11, tripled 12, so it was a bit unfortunate. Was able to keep my head going and bounce back and put up a good round.”
His effort came on a punishing Oakmont layout. “It’s definitely not easy by any means,” he said. “I think the rough is going to get patted down, hopefully. I think some of the wide misses are probably going to be able to maybe get away with it, so might be hitting more drivers. But at the same time, you can still get penalized. The bunkers around the fairways are just as penalizing. Sometimes you’re just trying to advance.”
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