I can’t imagine he’ll lose but he did choke at Augusta. But if he did manage to lose today would that be the biggest choke in (meaningful) pro sports history? By meaningful I mean in a championship game or other key match?
If not the biggest choke in history would it at least be the biggest choke in non-team sporting history?
Since he hasn’t lost yet, I nominate this thread for “Most Misleading Thread Title of 2011”.
WTF?
I think solo sport chokes are always bigger than team sport chokes. On a team there is certainly one or two guys who don’t choke and contribute something stopping it from being legendary. But solo all you got is one little human brain that can hit total meltdown.
Yup. 799 consecutive successful left turns, and he screws up the last one.
NM
I added an “If” to the thread title.
Greg Norman took a 6 shot lead into the final round of the 1996 Masters, but ended up losing by 5 strokes to Nick Faldo. Rory could end up playing better than Norman and still lose.
Or Kevin Costner.
I really hope Rory keeps it together. He comes across as a decent lad, and I don’t often say that about sportsmen, especially young ones. He isn’t over the line yet, a couple bad strokes, a bit of bad luck, a charge by another player and he could be under huge pressure.
Yankees had 3 games to zero lead on the Boston Red Sox and one run lead in the 9th inning of game 4. Yankees had arguably the best relief pitcher ever on the mound. Yankees lost the game and then lost 3 straight to lose the series.
Oh yeah. Forgot that one. That’s A contender for sure.
Through 5 holes McIlroy has increased his lead by another 2 strokes, so it doesn’t appear he’s choking.
He’s making the turn with a 9 shot lead, so I think he’s safe.
And he almost made a hole-in-one just now at 10. Norman '96 or Van De Velde '99 this ain’t.
If he was serious about choking, I think he would have needed to start sooner than this. Looks like he may have to settle for first place.
He’s still got time to 5-putt the last 4 holes if he really wants to.
All right, folks, pay attention, because I’m only saying this once.
If my aunt had what would, on a male such as myself, be considered testicles, it would make her my aunt with a weird quirk. Not my uncle. I know that human biology is a complex subject, but you do not turn something into something else just by adding or changing some random part. In fact, she wouldn’t even qualify as a hermaphrodite aunt, because a hermaphrodite has a COMPLETE set of male and female genitals. Furthermore, she can’t be a hermaphrodite because they’re sterile, and she’s given birth to two sons.
I could ask her opinion about the subject, but it’s kind of a hot-button issue, and I’d rather avoid big hassles on a Sunday, thank you very much.
Oh, and Van De Velde wasn’t a choke. It was just mind-blowing hubris. Ever wonder why sportscasters don’t rag on golfers for playing it safe, laying up, being conservative? Because this is what happens when you don’t do that. And the announcers called it! He should’ve played an iron off the tee; hitting a driver was a stupid, stupid risk that he never should’ve even considered. And somehow, despite hitting a horrific slice (the kind of slice that led to Kevin Na carding a duodectuple bogey not too long ago), he avoided the burn and ended up in light rough with a clear shot at the fairway. So of course, he comes to the brilliant conclusion that nothing bad can ever happen to him again and guns it for the green, with, in hindsight, depressingly predictable results. This is like playing Russian Roulette with three bullets in and pulling the trigger twice; that something horrible happens is only to be expected. Norman at the Masters, that wasn’t a choke either, that was a plain 'ol slow death. Don’t forget that he finished five strokes behind Nick Faldo and almost fell out of the top 2 altogether. Inexplicable 11th-hour collapses do happen in golf, but they’re pretty rare, mainly because the die is usually cast long before then.
Anyway, since this is completely subjective, I’m going to nominate whatever I want, and what I feel is the biggest choke of all time is the UH women’s volleyball team going up 2-0 in the final, then blowing sets 3, 4, and 5. This was our bestest-bestest chance to win our first title in forever, with arguably our biggest star ever, and they don’t close the deal. Something of a theme among chokers.
Most Hawaii sports fans would also put Konishiki starting the May 1995 tournament 13-1 and then dropping two straight to Asahifuji up there. Thing was, though, Konishiki’s period of greatness wasn’t all that long. Nobody who’d seen them in action seriously beleived that he was better than Asahifuji, and even though dropping both matches was disappointment, it wasn’t especially surprising.
How about the 1986 World Series? At the risk of boring you all to death, this bears repeating: Even if Bill Buckner had made the out, the Red Sox probably would’ve lost the Series anyway. The lead was blown, the shoe dropped, the tide turned, the chain of catastrophes set into motion. One more extra inning was worth diddly-squat to the haunted Sox. Jes’ delay’ the inevitable, it woulda.
1980 Olympics men’s hockey gold medal game! Yeah! We’ve been hearing miracle this and triumph over the evil empire that that we’ve completely forgotten that the Soviets, by rights, should’ve turned those kids into borscht. They pulled to a 2-0 lead, then gave up a couple of stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid [bunch of other "stupid"s] goals before being hit with one of the most infamous bonehead coaching decisions in history.
Ooh, that reminds me…1950 World Cup. Back then a win was worth 2 points and the final was a 4-team frooraw just like the first round. Going into the last game, Brazil (the nation that lives and breathes soccer) was in the lead with 4 points, with Uruguay (the nation that Homer Simpson mistook for a homophobic slur) second with 3. That means that a draw wins Brazil the Cup. And get this…THEY SCORED THE FIRST GOAL! So of course, Uruguay roars back to win 2-1. In light of this, perhaps the only surprise about the suicides was that there wasn’t more.
And now I see that McIlroy just won the US Open by 8 strokes. Hmph. Well, it’s been fun.
God, I miss my old bong.
It wasn’t the Gold Medal game.
Saw the video - was there an explanation what happened? did he just lose it, or was there a mechanical difficulty there?