Golfer Emerges Muddy and Soaked After Futilely Hacking at Ball Near Water Hazard

Peter Malnati learned a damp lesson in the importance of occasionally cutting your losses and just taking the drop this week at a Web.com Tour event. 

Malnati, a 28-year-old professional golfer from New Castle, Indiana, was playing in the first round of the WinCo Foods Portland Open on Thursday, when a shot of his dropped into a spot right on the mucky cusp of the water along the No. 12 hole. 

He would've been well within his rights to take a drop, it would appear, but he opted to play the ball, removing his shoes and hiking up his pants before the attempt.

SB Nation's Mark Sandritter spotted video of Malnati's whack. He chopped down strongly, dislodging the ball from the mire in a spray of mud and water.

He looked up to watch its flight but dropped into a half-crouch as it tumbled back in the mud:

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

"Are you kidding me?" Malnati shouted, releasing the words that fill the hearts of golfers everywhere. "All that...for that?" 

Yeah. All that for that.

And not to pile it on any further (but I am), a Getty photographer captured some sublime, high-def images of Malnati's shot and its aftermath.

The setup:

The shot:

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

And the ah, damn it all: 

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

The good news is Malnati would walk away wet but unbowed.

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

He sits at three-over par for the tournament, with the projected cut hovering around one-under.

The most ironic part of all this is Malnati just did his laundry:

In a personal blog post following a disappointing outing at the News Sentinel Open in Knoxville, Tennessee, last weekend, Malnati wrote about how he did, like, mad laundry to wash away the bad juju he had accumulated:

"

I did three loads of laundry last night (Sunday) at my house in Knoxville, Tennessee. Doing laundry at the end of a tournament week is nothing unusual, but this time it was a little bit different. It felt symbolic, almost. I washed everything: light clothes, dark clothes, and every golf towel that was in my bag or car. I needed to wash away the attitude that I carried around the course with me over the weekend in my hometown event.

"

Walk it off, Malnati. You'll be fine. When it rains it pours, and sometimes the precipitation is mixed with fertilizer and mud and is of our own creation.

No matter what happened, you had the stones to step down there and take a cut when most wouldn't have. Foolhardy? Maybe. But you gave it a try, and I tip my cap to you.

Plus you've got a bunch of fresh clothes on deck! Silver lining! 

Dan is on Twitter. The last time he went golfing, his driver head flew into a pond and he left it there because forget golf.