Ethan Gao of Stanford came into the 2026 NCAA D1 Men’s Golf Championship having won the ACC stroke-play title at 20 under. But this isn’t what golf fans are talking about; instead, everyone is discussing an 80-second putt on the 16th hole that he missed by nearly a foot.

Zack Thomas (@TFel922) posted the clip on X on June 2, 2026, where it quickly pulled in over 574,000 views. The clip showed not just the missed putt but the drawn-out routine that preceded it. Gao seemed to be ready to make the putt before stepping out and thumping on the line with his putterhead. He then walked over to the other side of the hole to get a better read on the slope.

Then he pulled out the yardage book from his pocket, carefully examining it as the cameras zoomed in on his face. After that, he went back, lined up the putt again, and stepped back again to get another look at the line. All the while, his playing partners could be seen walking up and down the greenside rough in exasperation. But when Gao finally hit the putt, he missed it. By a foot as the ball swerved right from the hole. One veteran pro golfer has already dubbed it “nauseating.”

“Nothing will change until people stop watching. As much as we all complain about slow play typically the tv cut away to a different shot and we all move on. Nothing will change. Nauseating and frankly weak,” wrote 52-year-old Greg Chalmers, who now plays in PGA Tour Champions.

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 for groups, not individuals, 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. 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 his 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 quickly drew 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 their thoughts online.

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.

“Unwatchable” was another reaction.

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.