Players and pundits pick the shots that made even them say ‘wow, that’s impressive!’
Rory McIlroy hit 4,338 shots on the PGA Tour last year. Dustin Johnson hit 5,977. There were 106 eagles, 27 aces and one albatross… Yet none of them make it onto this players’ list of the greatest shots ever seen.
To be a truly great shot, it needs something extra special. The degree of difficulty; what’s on the line; how much risk and reward is involved... It’s a tough question – top players and pundits have seen a LOT of shots! But that didn’t stop us asking Major champions and Tour winners to pick the best they’ve ever seen, either in person or on TV.
It takes one to know one, and so when the shots in question immediately popped into the minds of the people we asked, you know they were really good. And it was no surprise to us that three names – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Seve Ballesteros – cropped up more than once...
JORDAN SPIETH: Three-time Major champion
The shot: “Tiger’s chip-in at the 16th at the 2005 Masters. I’ve been there and seen how difficult it was – and still is, with his ball up against the collar. It’s just unbelievable that he produced that shot at that crucial time with the feeling that the title is in his hands at that moment... again something which I know all about. To have the nerve to achieve perfect contact, to know exactly where to hit it and to produce it at that particular time... absolutely unbelievable.”
KARRIE WEBB: World Hall of Famer, eight-time Major champion
The shot: “I’ve seen so many great shots, so it’s hard to think of one in particular. I should be thinking of women’s best shots, but my favourite tournament to watch on TV growing up was the Masters. So Tiger’s chip shot from the back of the green on 16 is hard to go past. Only he could hit that shot. I’ve maybe made one or two putts to win on the last hole in my career – but he was, at one point, seemingly able to do that two or three times a year.”
ROD PAMPLING: Three PGA Tour wins
The shot: “The bunker shot Tom Watson hit on No.9 at Colonial around 2000 was right out of the top drawer: he was either in the lead or sharing it when faced with a downhill hanging lie and he struck this picky 8-iron across the corner of the water from about 130 yards and hit it to within six feet.”
RIGHT: Tom Watson at Colonial. PHOTO: Getty Images.
CAMERON MCCORMICK: Coach to Jordan Spieth
The shot: “I have to go back to Tiger’s shot on 16 at Augusta, I mean just to be in that difficult situation down, short sided, left of the green and to have to convert like he did, just the theatrics and the dramatic nature of the shot. That one was awfully special.
So even the shots you maybe haven’t seen on TV and weren’t quite as climatic as that, the situations you find yourself in at Augusta, some of the shots are unfathomable how these players can pull them off. Anyone that’s ever played there, even outside of the competition, can tell you that. But then when you see guys in competition when it gets shaved down and gets firm and fast, a lot of the shots they do around the greens, it’s pretty amazing.
I’ve seen plenty of ‘are you kidding’ moments from Mr. Spieth, so pick out any of those. Any of the bunker hole outs, the one at Travellers last year was just, it’s an understatement to call it epic right? I’d have to pick out one of Jordan’s but it wouldn’t be fair to pick out just one.”
BERNHARD LANGER: Two-time Masters champion
The shot: “At the par-5 18th at the 1983 Ryder Cup at PGA National, Seve drove into a bunker. I’d have used a 7-iron to clear the lip and lay up for a wedge or a 9-iron into the green. There was water everywhere. But Seve pulled out his 3-wood! He didn’t just clear the lip, he drew it, starting it over the lake, onto the green ... then made birdie! It was miraculous, and confirmed Seve was a genius.”
BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Former Tour player, now Golf Channel analyst
The shot: “It was at Q School in Arizona in the mid-1980s and was a really cold week – so cold I didn’t fancy getting out of the car to warm-up, preferring to listen to “Eye of the Tiger” – the Rocky movie theme – to get me in the right frame of mind to play. I was playing really well and on the last day was paired with Bob Eaks, who not many people would have heard of – all the talent in the world, but not the greatest disposition to play golf. He was really long and hit the ball straight up in the air with his peculiar swing – he had really high hands and didn’t turn his body much. The last hole was a par-5 and he’s right on the bubble of making it, but he’s ballooned his tee shot into air and it’s finished 50 yards behind me. With a creek in front of the green, it’s a clear lay-up. So I couldn’t believe it when he pulled out his wood.
I couldn’t believe it either when his ball landed in the middle of the green and rolled up by the hole. I said: ‘Bob, that’s the greatest 3-wood I’ve seen in my life’ and he nonchalantly replied with ‘it wasn’t a 3-wood, it was a 5-wood!’ No pressure like Q School pressure.”
CHRIS WOOD: 2016 BMW PGA champion
The shot: “On the 18th green in the 2008 Open at Birkdale, Ian Poulter had a 20-footer for par. That was before Padraig Harrington birdied the 15th and eagled 17, so in a lot of people’s minds it was for the Open, or to get in a play-off. He holed it and I remember my dad – who was caddying for me – shaking his hand and saying ‘balls of steel’.”
BROOKE HENDERSON: Five-time LPGA Tour winner
The shot: “I’ve seen so many great shots. But I’ve been lucky to have seen quite a few holes-in-one over the years. I’m not sure it’s the best shot that I ever hit or seen, because I got a bit lucky with the roll off the apron, but I had a hole-in-one on the par-3 13th at Sahalee a few years back. It helped propel me to the lead to win my first major, so I’ll take that one. It was a 7-iron from 152 yards.”
JUSTIN THOMAS: 2017 PGA Champion and Player of the Year
The shot: “I was playing with Phil Mickelson in a US Open practice round at Pinehurst in 2014 and he was short right of the green, close to a bunker, off this tight lie. Any other player would have putted it, including me! But Phil takes out his lob wedge and tosses the ball inside two feet, almost jarring the hole. Classic Mickelson.”
BERND WIESBERGER: Four European Tour wins
The shot: “I was playing at the 2014 PGA Championships at Valhalla on the Saturday with Phil Mickelson. On the par-4 3rd, he tried to drive the green. The landing area was quite big at the front, but it was a lot narrower towards the back of the green; maybe three-and-a-half paces to each side. Mickelson drove right of the green and then had to play off a downslope from the rough with a bunker just in front. It was a really tight pin, but he took a really big swing and it landed so softly. It ended up about two feet from the hole. He made it look like the simplest shot in the world, but it was a 35-40-yard lob shot. That was impressive.”
VAUGHN TAYLOR: 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach winner
The shot: “I was competing at the Bob Hope Classic about six years ago, playing with an amateur off about 20 who hadn’t been finding the clubface in the two previous rounds! We arrived at the 204-yard par-3 5th – surrounded by water – fearing the worst. He only went and holed out with a 6-iron for the most unlikely of aces. His father had recently died and the chap was flooding tears. With Dottie Pepper and the TV crew on site, it made his golfing life!”
HANNAH GREEN: LPGA Tour player
The shot: “Well it’s probably one of Tiger’s putts – probably the one at TPC (Sawgrass) on the 17th in 2001. I don’t remember where I was watching it, I don’t think it was live because I was probably at school. But I remember watching it and I was like, ‘holy crap, wow, that’s when you know you can play’. I thought it was awesome.”
BEN CRANE: Five PGA Tour wins
The shot: “I was playing with Tiger on the Saturday at Bay Hill, probably 2013, when he hit a kind of spinny 3-wood off the 15th tee. It floated into the wind and didn’t even get up the hole far enough to reach the dogleg. He’s got this huge bush in front of him and I couldn’t see how he could make the green from there. Wrong.
He takes a 3-iron into the wind and from around 210 yards, cuts it maybe 30 yards and puts it to within a foot of the hole. On the next hole, a par-5, he hits a 5-iron about the same distance against the wind to within three feet to go birdie-eagle. Pure genius.”
JUSTIN ROSE: 2013 US Open champion
The shot: “Sergio Garcia’s shot into the 18th on day one of the foursomes at Gleneagles in the 2014 Ryder Cup. Playing with Rory they were one-down, but they rescued a half after Sergio hit this 5-wood through a gap in the trees with a high cut to the back left of the green. Rory holed the 25-footer and they won the hole and halved the match. It was a critical, shifting moment.”
RIGHT: Sergio Garcia during the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. PHOTO: Getty Images.
LEE WESTWOOD: 23 European Tour wins
The shot: “Probably Phil Mickelson’s shot out of the trees on
13 at Augusta in 2010.
In Detroit at that Ryder Cup, Tiger Woods hitting a 3-wood, massive cut into the 2nd, the par-5. He obviously didn’t have a club for it. He was in the fairway, pin was cut front left and he started it 40-yards left of the green and hit a massive high balloon cut with 3-wood. He only had like 230, so he had to take plenty off it and I mean it just come in so soft to about four feet.”
BILLY FOSTER: Lee Westwood’s caddie
The shot: Phil Mickelson on 13 at Augusta – the second best golf shot I’ve ever seen. Seve Ballesteros behind the wall (Crans Sur Sierre, Switzerland), undoubtedly. Incredible. To have the imagination to see it in the first place is beyond all … nobody else would see that shot. I told him to chip it out four times.
Arguably the best shot I have seen, it was Seve at Hazeltine, the 16th that goes around the lake and it goes into like a peninsula green. There used to be a massive oak tree on the right corner off the tee and it got hit by lightning, it knocked it down and its not there anymore but it was a massive Oak tree. He’s hit a 3-wood off the tee and he was probably 30-yards from the tree and it just covered the whole green and it was like 150-160 yards, it was like an 8-iron shot really. And he said watch this and pulled a 3-iron out and he must of hit it 80-yards left at the clubhouse, I mean an 80-yard cut with a 3-iron. Just opened it up and he cut it 80-yards onto that peninsula green and it was just bonkers how good a shot that was. It wasn’t in competition, it was in a practice round.”
WADE ORMSBY: 2017 Hong Kong Open champion
The shot: “Adam Scott holing that putt at The Masters in the playoff for sure.”
ROBERT GARRIGUS: PGA Tour winner
The shot: “I’ve got to go with Tiger Woods and his 3-iron out of a bunker at the PGA Championship, 2003 I think. He somehow
hooked it 220 yards under the wind to within 15ft and made the putt. Probably
one of the best shots you’ll ever see in
your life!”
RIGHT: Adam Scott at the 2013 Masters. PHOTO: Getty Images.
NICK O’HERN: Two PGA Tour of Australasia wins. Open champion
The shot: “Probably the putt Retief Goosen hit in Qatar for eagle to beat me by one. That was back in about 2007 I think. He knocked it back edge in two on the par-5, which was the 72nd hole, about a 50 footer with 10-foot of break, straight down the hill and back of the hole straight in.”
RICKY BARNES: Runner-up, 2009 US Open
The shot: “It has to be Tiger on a par-5 at the 2003 US Open at Olympia Fields. Blocked out by trees with his second shot, he carried his 3-wood about 270 yards, cut it about 55 yards and it rolled up and onto the green. He two-putted for birdie. I was playing with him and Ernie Els and we simply nodded, ‘great shot’. As good as I’ve seen.”
DANNY WILLETT: 2016 Masters Champion
The shot: “There is a really famous one of Tiger’s at the Canadian Open out of the trap that was obviously amazing, I wasn’t there but you still see it televised. It’s funny though isn’t it that some of the best golf shots you will ever see are actually from some of the worst first shots you will ever see. Tiger’s chip-in on 16 (2005 Masters) was amazing, how he’s got there is a miracle. But then to chip in is then a ridiculous miracle. Tiger’s Canadian Open is probably one of the top three golf shots that you ask anybody who plays golf and they will remember Tiger’s 6-iron from like 215 out of the trap.
The 4-iron that he holed at The Open at Hoylake, when it was burnt out as anything, he hit iron everywhere that week, didn’t go in a single bunker, hit it 260 off every tee with a 4-iron and boxed one. In fairness to Tiger, there is going to be a lot of Tiger’s golf shots in the highlight reel.
But then I am going to throw in mine on 16 at Augusta from 176 with an 8-iron, because of the situation. It’s the one you can only remember purely because about what it meant. I’ve hit a lot of good golf shots but in the situation I think with everything going on, when your hands are shaking, it’s always nice to know you can still hit shots like that.”
TED SCOTT: Bubba Watson’s caddie
The shot: “Obviously, everyone talks about the hook shot Bubba hit on No.10 at Augusta, but one of my best moments was on No.11 when he was deep in the pine straw on the right on the Friday in the 2012 Masters. We were three under at the time and I said ‘hey, let’s just chip it out’ because the worst he was going to make was bogey. But he said he wanted to make a big old hook, starting it left of the water at the scoreboard from a terrible lie. Firstly, I’m thinking how is he going to keep it low enough, under 15ft, for the first 30 yards? And secondly, how can he hook it about 20-25 yards to miss the water? He insisted ‘I’ve got this’ and I’m thinking it’s end of tournament time. He actually over-hooked it and it caught the slope and ran onto the front of the green. A shot I’ll never forget.”
ANDREW ‘BEEF’ JOHNSTON: 2016 Spanish Open Champion
The shot: “It was at Oakmont (2016 US Open) I think it was Patrick Rodgers, he hit one of the best putts I’ve ever seen, ever. It was the 9th hole and they put the pin on the right and he was front left. I mean it was a 60-foot putt, but he’s got to putt it across like two tiers and anything that goes past the hole is basically going off the green. I putted it off the green from 30-foot, someone else nearly putted it off the green from 15-foot, and he was about 60-foot away. And Rodgers has hit this putt across the green and its gone like past the hole, over a ridge and sort of just got over the hill and he has knocked it to like literally tap in, and I mean it was ridiculous. There is no way he could do it again.”
SIR NICK FALDO: Six-time Major champion
The shot: “The one that pops into my mind was by Phil Mickelson on the 13th at Augusta in the 2010 Masters. He was under the trees among the pine needles and had to fire over Rae’s Creek to a tight front right pin. He managed it and finished a few feet away, but just missed the eagle. To imagine the shot, to stay steady on the pine needles and to execute on one of the trickiest holes and in the final round, was amazing. A great shot has to be coupled with the relevance of the moment, and he went on to win.”
RIGHT: Mickelson during the 2010 Masters. PHOTO: Getty Images.
AARON BADDELEY: Four PGA Tour victories
The shot: “I was playing alongside Phil Mickelson during a practice round at Augusta National. He was left on the mounds on No.8 and the pin was cut on the front; he opens up his new lob wedge, it takes one bounce and on the second bounce it’s still on the downslope, spinning on the spot ... I was thinking about checking out his grooves!”
BRETT RUMFORD: Six European Tour wins
The shot: “Tiger Woods at the Canadian Open I think. 18th hole, 72nd hole in regulation play, across the water 6-iron out of the bunker. I think that’s amazing in the circumstance, what was he tied for the lead, birdie to win. Pretty cool. 6-iron from 210, whatever it was, that was insane.
“I mean you see some amazing golf shots but Tiger just had, I mean 6-iron from that distance, swinging at that clubhead speed, it’s just something we may never see again.”
GARY PLAYER: Nine-time Major winner
The shot: “I’ve seen many in a lifetime in the game, but none to surpass Seve Ballesteros at the 1979 Open at Royal Lytham. He was only 22 and held a two-shot lead when he drove his ball into a car park along the 16th fairway. He had a decent lie considering where his ball landed, but there was enormous pressure and it still impresses me how he remained so focused. That’s the sign of a champion.”
JACK NICKLAUS: 18-time Major champion
The shot: “Tiger was playing with David Duval in the 2001 World Cup. The Americans needed an eagle on the par-5 to force a play-off and Woods faced a chip shot from a downslope to an elevated green and hole cut a few paces from the edge. And he made it. I don’t think under the circumstances, I’ve ever seen a better shot.”
JOOST LUITEN: Six European Tour wins
The shot: “I can remember watching John Daly playing the 18th hole at Hilversumsche in the Dutch Open in 2002. It’s a bit of a dogleg par-5 with trees on the right. The line that he took – straight over the trees – left a 7-iron in. Everyone else was playing safe, but he just pumped it over the corner. It was one of the first times I’d watched a pro tournament live and that really stuck in my mind. It was so impressive and it was at a time when he could do things no one else could.”
ERNIE ELS: Three-time Major Champion
The shot: “We were completing our second round at the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine early in the morning when Tiger found a left fairway bunker on the par-4 18th. There was a tree in front of it. He was standing outside the bunker – his feet right up against the bunker’s edge – and this was like 7.30 in the morning. He picks a 3-iron out of the sand, over the tree, onto the green. I mean, you just can’t make this stuff up. He hit this thing, it had to really climb quickly. At 7.30 in the morning, to hit that kind of a shot, crazy.”
MICHAEL SIM: 2017 Queensland Open Champion
The shot: “The first thing that comes to mind, I mean I played a few rounds with Tiger Woods. Probably just Tiger in general. I was fortunate enough to play with him and just the sound of the ball coming off the club and just the awe he brings.
I remember playing in the US Open (2009) with him and you know I thought he was going to win the tournament. I’m out there and I’m practically watching him and I am going this guy’s going to win the tournament, and I was like hang on a minute I’ve still got five holes to go and I’ve got to worry about my game. Because he was just on a roll.
There was one shot he hit into the 7th just before they blew the siren he hit this 5-iron that went 200 yards, straight over the trap to like 8-feet and it was probably something I couldn’t do."
RYAN FOX: Two PGA Tour of Australasia wins
The shot: “I’d say the one I’ve seen is the obvious choice, the Tiger chip-in on 16 at Augusta. I mean that’s one of the most iconic shots in golf.
The best one I’ve seen personally hit, and it wasn’t in a professional tournament, it was in an amateur event.
I was playing foursomes with a good mate of mine, Ben Wallace, maybe eight years ago. I hit him well in the crap on a par-3, we’ve got absolutely nothing, on hardpan, 20 yards over a green, uphill to the pin, long rough, he’s got no shot. And he’s got sand wedge out from under this tree and hit this low, spinning bunker shot off the hardpan and it landed 25-foot, long left of the flag, and the greens thankfully were soft and he has spun it back to three and half feet and I’m standing there going I couldn’t have hit that on the green let alone hit it to three-feet. So that’s probably the best shot I’ve seen in a tournament.”
MARCUS FRASER: Three European Tour wins
The shot: “Probably John Daly, I was playing with him in China, used to have a BMW tournament there, he was in the right rough in some pretty heavy rough, it was I think about a 2-iron across water. He’s already hit his second shot in the water, took a drop and hit his fourth shot across the water, it’s like a 195-metre carry, hit it to about 8-foot in, it was a downhill lie, you couldn’t exaggerate it was that ordinary. And somehow he’s hit this, it was typical him. I think he would have stood there and hit 20 shots if it didn’t come off, but I couldn’t believe his ball just came out. He’s just one of the most naturally gifted golfers of all time.”
PETER LONARD: Nine PGA Tour of Australasia wins
The shot: “In 1999 at the Australian Masters there was a playoff between Craig Spence and Greg Norman, and Spence hit a 5-iron into the last in the playoff to about four-feet. I was standing on a table in the Huntingdale clubhouse watching. That was incredible, because you know he was playing Norman and I think everyone expected him to fold. And he has just hit the purest shot into, they used to have this back left-hand corner pin that was impossible to get to unless you were willing to lose.”
ROCCO MEDIATE: 2008 US Open runner-up to Tiger Woods
The shot: “I can’t just pick one! Two Tiger shots are ingrained in my mind. Firstly, at the 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black, where he had 271 yards to the par-5 coming in. He was one ahead and struck this sublime 2-iron to within about 25ft. Think about that... 2002, 270 yards to the hole, a little downwind admittedly, and a 2-iron to within 25ft. He two-putted for birdie and went on to win by three or four.
Unfortunately, he hit another unbelievable shot when he beat me in the 2008 US Open play-off at Torrey Pines. He was 30 yards right of the fairway in a bunker on No.15 – I’d hit it to 20ft with a 5-iron – and my caddie Matt says ‘where’s Tiger?’ Then we heard the ball – at the time we didn’t know he was in the bunker – and Matt asked ‘where’s that gone?’
I said just watch the flag and it lands within 15ft. I saw it a few days later on a TV replay and thought OMG! It was a ridiculous shot, although he did actually miss the putt.”
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