Nothing like being told a ballistic missile is headed your way to take the the sting out of too many three-putts, an out-of-control driver or missing the cut in a PGA Tour event.

That’s what Chris Stroud, Andrew Landry and the rest of the field in the Sony Open discovered Sunday morning in Honolulu. All is well that ends well, of course, but for 38 harrowing minutes confusion, fear and panic ran rampant on Hawaii’s big island.

You have, no doubt, seen accounts of it by now: The initial warning of an inbound missile, followed a few minutes later by the assertive statement, “This is not a drill.” Then there was video of people running, a father forcing his daughter down a manhole and a family entering a 1950s-era bomb shelter.

In an instant, the thought of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un became all too real. As far fetched as it seemed, the guy called “Rocket Man” by President Trump must have actually pushed the button.

Stroud and Landry, with poor Friday rounds having caused them to miss the cut, were up early on Sunday. Both of the Port Neches-Groves exes had plans to fly out later in the day to start preparing for this week’s tour stop in Palm Springs, California.

When the warning came, neither was sure what to do. Each professed to a degree of confusion, skepticism and, ultimately, and a level of fear.

“I had an early breakfast about 7:15, then went and walked on the beach,” said Stroud. “I came back to take a shower, saw the emergency warning on my phone, then a guy at the hotel repeated it over a loudspeaker.

“It just didn’t feel right. I turned on the TV and started flipping
channels. All the stations were going through the same process of trying to figure out if it was real or not. One guy said something that eased my mind — that if a missile had been headed this way it would have been blown out of the sky.

“I admit it was pretty scary for about 6 or 7 minutes until I heard that. I could tell people all around were freaking out. It was really bad in the main lobby of the hotel. Things got pretty crazy. I have to admit there was a brief period of fear for me. I was wondering what I needed to do and where I would have to go.”

Soon thereafter came the all clear. Stroud phoned his wife Tiffany back in Houston to update her on the situation and began with, “Your are not going to believe this.”

“At the end of the day it was really spooky,” he said. “People had to be scared out of their mind.”

Landry, meanwhile, had gone to breakfast with his wife at a lounge in the hotel that hosts of the Sony Open provided for tournament contestants and family. When he received the text that a missile was headed toward Hawaii, he was skeptical.

“I didn’t think much about it at first,” he said. “I just felt there was no way the military would let that happen. But then they made the announcement over the speaker that this was not a drill, and it got scary. I thought to myself, ‘This is crazy but we better find shelter.’

“My wife was pretty shaken. Most of the wives were pretty shook up and the guys were trying to be cool. I was thinking, ‘This can’t be happening, maybe somebody hacked the system.’ There was really nothing you could do, but we moved away from the windows and anything that was glass.”

Amidst mass confusion, the all-clear warning came.

“It was flat crazy,” Landry said. “We were blessed that nothing happened.”

The extremes of player reaction came from John Peterson and Justin Thomas.

Peterson tweeted, “I am under the mattress in the bathtub with my wife, baby and in-laws. Please let this bomb threat not be real.”

Thomas, on the other hand, was totally laid back. “I sat up my couch, opened up the sliding door, watched TV and listened to music,” he was quoted as saying. “I was like, ‘If it is my time, it’s my time.”

No wonder Thomas deals with pressure on the golf course so well.

CHIP SHOTS

As has steadily been the case since the calendar flipped over
to 2018, miserable weather conditions limited golfing opportunities.

In the Monday Cooksey 2-ball Game at Babe Zaharias, there was a tie on the front at 4-under between the team of Jim Huebel, Don Olsen, Earl Richard and Mike Lansford and the team of Dennis Walsh, David Girouard, Jerry Boudreaux, Mike Brown and Larry Thompson. The Walsh team won the back at minus-6.

The Thursday Senior Game at Zaharias was contested in a stroke play format with full handicaps. First Flight ended in a the between Joe Landry and Adam Noel after each posted a 70.

In Second Flight, there was a four-way tie at 71 between Bim Morrow, Brad Royer, Ron LaSalle and Tommy Duhon. Closest to the pin winners were Morrow on No. 2 and Dwayne Benoit on No. 12.

The Wednesday Zaharias DogFight was won with 15 points by the team of Raymond Darbonne, Harrell Guidry, Larry Johnson and John Ramsey. Closest to the pin winners were Larry Foster (No. 2), Guidry (No. 7, No. 15) and Don Duplan (No. 12).

Golf news should be mailed to rdwest@usa.net.