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Stefani’s drive on the sixth hole at PGA National found a water hazard, but the water was shallow enough for him to try to hit the ball and escape by avoiding a penalty stroke and subsequent drop. Stefani got down to his underwear, got in the ankle deep water and took a cut. He advanced the ball 45 yards out of the hazard, leaving a mid-iron up-and-down to make par.
This was a choice rooted in the odds.
“I was just trying to make the cut,” Stefani said. “If I had taken a drop, I would have had to do it in the rough, 20 or 30 yards back. I would have been hitting a long iron into a green where you can’t stop the ball.
“All I was trying to do was make the best decision, and I think it was the best play. I fought hard until the end. It’s a tough golf course, but I never quit. I never gave up.”
While he found the green with his third shot, he didn’t make the save from 10 feet. He finished at 2 over par, two shots outside the cut.
“Hopefully, my wife wasn’t disappointed,” Stefani said. “But I was out there fighting for my family. I was fighting to make the cut.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.