Ethan Gao came into the 2026 NCAA D1 Men’s Golf Championship having won the ACC stroke-play title at 20 under and representing a Stanford team ranked No. 15 nationally. But this isn’t what people on the internet are talking about; a 80-second putt on the 16th hole, which he missed by nearly a foot, is what everyone is discussing.

Zack Thomas (@TFel922) posted the clip on X on June 2, 2026, where it quickly pulled in over 574,000 views. Ethan Gao spent more than 1 minute and 20 seconds reading an 8-foot par putt on hole 16 before missing it by almost a foot. His playing partners could be seen visibly shifting and waiting.

The clip ran 1 minute and 21 seconds and showed not just the missed putt but the drawn-out routine that preceded it, which drew as much criticism as the miss itself.

Slow play has been a persistent issue in amateur golf for years. The NCAA does have a group pace-of-play policy at its D1 Championship, monitoring each group across four checkpoints. Missing a first checkpoint gives the player a warning, a second one-stroke penalty, a third two strokes, and a fourth disqualification. The policy is group, not individual, so one player’s 80-second putting routine can doom the whole group to a checkpoint miss. It remains unclear whether Gao’s group was flagged or penalized.

Ethan Gao finished 142nd, shooting +10 in Round 1, +5 in Round 3, and -1 in Round 4, with Round 2 listed as SUB. That closing -1 round pointed to what he is capable of on a good day. Coming into the week, he had won the 2026 ACC stroke play championship at 20 under, taken first at The Goodwin at 17 under, and gone 4-1-0 in ACC match play, all for a Stanford team that finished the season ranked No. 15 nationally with a 127-48-1 record. Before college, he was ranked No. 3 by Junior Golf Scoreboard, No. 4 by Golfweek, and No. 5 by AJGA and was a member of Team USA at the 2022 Junior Presidents Cup.

The clip arrives at an interesting time, as slow play is under the microscope throughout the sport.

Professional tours have been tightening their enforcement of pace-of-play rules. The tour pros need to hit within 40 seconds of their turn. The conversation got louder around the slow play at the LPGA. Well, this week, when Arpichaya Yubol was handed a one-stroke slow-play penalty at the 2026 ShopRite LPGA Classic, a ruling that directly sabotaged her chances of winning.

So, when a clip surfaced of a college golfer taking more than a minute over an 8-foot putt at a national championship, it was sure to get some attention.

Fans pile on after Ethan Gao’s slow-play video goes viral

The clip needed no context. People watched it, formed an opinion in seconds, and typed.

The sarcasm became the theme of the comment section. With one fan commenting, “And now we have to watch it? Lol.”

Another fan chimed in, “And then he goes and f—ing marks it. This is why nobody wants to party with the golf team in college. They’re lame.”

The frustration was directed at the full sequence. After missing, Gao marked his ball rather than finishing out, which many felt extended an already drawn-out hole.

“If you’re going to take that much time, you have to at least hit the hole. What a horrible effort,” read another reaction.

A user commented, “Deport him back to China.”

This one had nothing to do with golf. Gao is an American golfer from Alpharetta, Georgia, a three-time AJGA Rolex Junior All-American who represented Team USA at the 2022 Junior Presidents Cup. The comment was a personal attack dressed up as sports frustration.

“Unwatchable” was another reaction.

While Gao was not penalized during the round, the clip reignited a debate that golf has never fully put to rest. Slow play at a nationally broadcast championship is the kind of moment that travels fast on social media, and this one was no exception.