Sepp Straka Caps Off Quintessential Nine Holes At U.S. Open With Electric Hole-In-One

If you were to describe the U.S. Open as a rollercoaster, you would not be wrong. Golf's most consistently challenging major championship being contested at the difficult Pinehurst No. 2 is going to present some up-and-down moments, and Sepp Straka got a full taste of that during his opening nine holes of Friday's second round.

Straka, a member of last year's European Ryder Cup team, began his day with back-to-back pars which is a start every single player in the field would sign up for. He then arrived at the Par 4 third hole, and things got weird.

After finding the fairway off the tee and leaving himself just 120 yards to the flag, it was the green light of all green light situations for the Austrian. He took dead aim, and unfortunately hit his approach shot too well with his ball finding the flagstick and coming nearly 50 yards back off the front of the green.

After suffering the bad break, things got even worse for Straka as he caught his pitch shot thin and flew the green leaving him in a difficult spot to even attempt to save bogey. Ultimately, he walked away with a triple bogey after the adventure on the third hole.

Just as the golf gods taketh away, they sometimes hand out gifts, and Straka was on the receiving end of one just six holes after his triple bogey.

Sitting at four-over on the day thru just eight holes, Straka stood on the tee of the 194-yard Par 3 ninth hole likely looking to get out of there with a par. Instead, he hit the perfect tee shot with his ball finding the dead-center of the cup for the first hole-in-one of the week.

Straka's front-nine scorecard on Friday is the perfect representation of the U.S. Open. He made an ace, a triple bogey, two bogeys, and a lone birdie before adding them all up for a 2-over 37.