Normally, this probably would have been detected. But, because the inside of the hole is painted for television purposes at all Tour events and the paint had concealed the slight distance between the cup and the inner side of the ground, this time it went undetected. The greenskeeper and a rules official always double check all cups when they are installed, and the fact that neither noticed the irregularity is evidence of just how tiny the error was. To his credit, Joe never publicly placed any blame. As a matter of fact, Joe and his wife Carol were the only two people who seemed to have forgotten about the whole incident by the end of the week.
Bad breaks are an integral part of the game.
But when this bad break happened to Joe, everybody suspected that it just might go down as one of the most tragic in history if the worst possible scenario played itself out and Joe missed his Tour card by one stroke. Joe tied for 37th and finished, you guessed it, one shot out. Casey Martin, whose Tour career could come to an end when the U.S. Supreme Court hears his cart case in January, also missed by one. And Todd Barranger joined the group of eight who hit 418 shots for the week, but needed 417. There were plenty of players who did leave the theater with two thumbs up.