A Pro Golfer Spends 12 Frustrating Hours Trying To Sink The Perfect Shot

In the world of golf, a hole in one is the “unicorn” for both weekend duffers and polished pros alike. Favoring the amateurs, the feat doesn’t take any sustained level of greatness, just one perfect shot — accidental or otherwise. However, fortune favors the prepared, and as such, a pro who consistently places the ball on the green would, all things equal, have a better chance of sinking an ace, right?

Well ... in theory.

Eduardo Molinari is a pro on the European tour and sunk a hole in one just this year at the Made in Denmark tournament. However, as the law of independent trials tells us, previous successes (like a hole in one) have little bearing on future outcomes. But many, many attempts increase the likelihood of an outcome, so Molinari took to a golf course to spend 12 hours hitting 500 balls in the hopes that one would find its way to the bottom of the cup.

For those scoring at home, the hole in question was a 145-yard par 3, a promising venue for this attempt.

Remarkably and unfortunately, it didn’t happen. The 36-year-old Italian may have 10 pro titles, but that guaranteed him nothing as we watch him transcend stages of zen, delirium, and everything in between as he soldiered on with what slowly appears to become a Sisyphean task with a picturesque background.

If you’re looking to take on a new skill through brute force, you might want to choose one that isn’t quite so predicated on luck or chaos.

Should you feel like punishing your body in a completely different manner, you could try to teach yourself how to backflip in six hours.

If your time is slightly more scarce, you could take on this training program to land a skateboarding kickflip in five hours and 47 minutes.

Sure, the hole in one feat sounds more pleasant … until you remember that the pro was the only one of these three that didn’t make his goal. And he had twice as long.