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Brian Phillips

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #25 on: April 12, 2010, 04:39:03 PM »
I always liked Nick Faldo's shot to the 13th against Greg Norman.  He kept changing his mind and everyone thought he was going to lay up when he hit a beautiful shot to the green with the ball above his feet.
Bunkers, if they be good bunkers, and bunkers of strong character, refuse to be disregarded, and insist on asserting themselves; they do not mind being avoided, but they decline to be ignored - John Low Concerning Golf

Bob_Huntley

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #26 on: April 12, 2010, 05:09:30 PM »
Bill McBride's hole in one at The Kings Putter.


Sean,

Come on, a sliced driver from 167 yards, what next?

Bob

Mike Benham

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #27 on: April 12, 2010, 05:13:59 PM »

Just about any good tequila, heck, even bad tequila will warm the soul ...
"... and I liked the guy ..."

Alex Miller

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #28 on: April 12, 2010, 05:18:24 PM »
It's already been mentioned, but Van De Velde's putt was HUGE. Greatest and worst triple bogey I've ever seen.

Ben Stephens

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #29 on: April 12, 2010, 05:20:22 PM »
How about Seve ..... (written in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/mar/13/joy-of-six-seve-ballesteros)

Joy of Six: Seve Ballesteros's greatest shotsFrom driving the green at The Belfry to an amazing piece of wizardry at the 1983 Ryder Cup, here are half a dozen moments of Ballesteros brilliance

For many European golf fans, Seve ­Ballesteros was, is, and will forever be the greatest. Arriving on the scene at a time when the US's long-lasting domination of the sport seemed utterly indestructible, Seve combined flair, nerve, power and finesse to hammer holes into American supremacy. Between 1976 and 1995 he accumulated 48 official European Tour wins and ended his career with 87 worldwide victories as a professional, including five major championships (two Masters, three Opens). That's an impressive haul by any standards but, with Seve's talent, you almost feel he underachieved.

Ballesteros was the most exciting player of his generation, and, indeed, many ­others. In picking six of his finest ever shots, there is a wealth of material from which to choose. There's the mind-boggling three-wood he played through a tiny gap in the trees at Oak Hill's 13th hole in his singles match against Tom Lehman during the 1995 Ryder Cup. Or the equally memorable five-iron he played from 216 yards to just a few feet at Wentworth's 1st hole to win a play-off against Colin Montgomerie at the 1991 PGA Championship. And how about the cheeky little chip shot he ran between two bunkers on to the green at Royal Birkdale's 18th during the 1976 Open Championship – the shot John Jacobs said "convinced me Seve was a genius". Here is our definitive half dozen (after sneakily giving you three already).


1) The 1978 Hennessy Cup, a team event between Britain and Continental Europe, at The Belfry
The situation: Ballesteros is one up in his match against Nick Faldo as the pair arrives at the short par-four 10th. The ­sensible play is a mid-iron short of the water and a sand wedge on to the green.

The shot: Ballesteros hits his ­Persimmon-headed driver, and carries his soft, wound, balata ball 280 yards over tall trees guarding the right side of the green. He is the first man to reach the target from the tee, the ball finishing 10 feet from the hole from where he makes a simple birdie. Countless golfers have since repeated the feat, most of them from a forward tee and with the help of a titanium-headed driver and modern, multi-layer ball. Seve wins the hole and the match 2&1.


2) The first round of the 1983 World Match Play Championship at Wentworth
The situation: Seve is two down to 54-year-old Arnold Palmer with two to play. He wins the 17th but is in a tricky spot short of a greenside bunker 50 yards from the hole after two shots at the 18th. Palmer is safely on in three.

The shot: Using an eight-iron, Ballesteros bunts a low-running chip that clears the bunker, pitches just a few feet on the green and sweeps perfectly down the right-to-left slope into the hole for an eagle three. Seve then wins the match at the third extra hole. "I should be mad," said Palmer. "But I have done that to so many other people in the past I suppose I can't complain."


3) The final round of the 1984 Open Championship at St Andrews
The situation: Seve arrives at the notorious Road Hole, the 17th, level with Tom Watson in the group behind. Seve's drive goes left into patchy rough.

The shot: With 193 yards to the flag, Ballesteros hits a smooth six-iron on to the front of the putting surface, avoiding the treacherous pot bunker in front of the green and the road behind it. "It was a thrilling shot in the circumstances," said Dan Jenkins in Sports Illustrated. Seve two-putts for his first par of the week at the hole, and birdies the last to win by two shots.


4) Final round of the 1988 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes

The situation: Zimbabwe's Nick Price starts out two ahead of Ballesteros and Faldo. Between the 6th and 13th holes Seve is six-under-par, and with a tap-in birdie at the 16th takes a one-shot lead. At the 18th he pulls his second shot left of the green, the ball finishing hole-high but in a slight depression.

The shot: With Price 35 feet from the hole in two, Seve has to put his chip shot close and, standing slightly awkwardly, lofts his ball deftly on to the green. It lands halfway to the hole and slowly creeps ever closer, brushing the edge of the cup before settling a couple of inches away. Price fails to hole his putt and Seve has his third Open title. A few years later, a young Australian by the name of Geoff Ogilvy makes his first visit to Lytham and immediately heads to the small swale by the side of the green from which Seve had hit his exquisite little chip. "I just had to see the spot where he had been," said Ogilvy. "I had played that shot in my mind so often."

5) The final round of the 1993 European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland

The situation: Seve arrives on the 18th tee needing a birdie to have any hope of catching the Englishman Barry Lane. His drive sails way right and stops five feet from an eight-foot high wall that stands between his ball and the green, 130 yards away. To make matters worse, there is only a tiny gap between the top of the wall and several tree branches.

The shot: After ignoring caddie Billy Foster's advice to chip out sideways, Seve lays the face of his sand wedge wide open and sends the ball almost vertically up over the wall, but beneath the tree limbs. Amazingly, given how close he is to the wall, the ball makes it to the edge of the green from where he chips in for a birdie. Asked why he took on such a dangerous shot instead of chipping out safely, Seve replies: "I just like to keep going forward." His birdie isn't quite enough, however, as Lane wins by a stroke. But the tournament will forever be remembered for another bit of Ballesteros brilliance.


6) Singles match against Fuzzy Zoeller in the 1983 Ryder Cup at PGA National in Florida
The situation: Having been three up with five to play Ballesteros now stands on the 18th tee all square. Seve smothers his drive into deep rough from where he can only hack the ball into a bunker. His stance and lie suggest a sand wedge sideways is his only option but the situation demands something slightly more adventurous. Seve pulls his three-wood.

The shot: 245 yards from the hole cut on a green surrounded to the right and back by water, Seve's position is beginning to look desperate. The shot he attempts has an off-the-chart difficulty rating and will, in all probability, put him in more trouble. Seve now looks odds-on to lose a match he really should have won. Seve picks the ball cleanly off the surface and glares as it curves 50 yards from left to right before landing just off the putting surface. "He swung, he hit, he gave the ball that incredible Seve stare and it flew miles and miles, right to the fringe of the green," said the Guardian golf correspondent, Dai Davies. "It was an impossible shot and it was greeted first with a stunned silence, and then by incredulous laughter that greets something that is outwith the experience of the watcher. It was, in the literal sense of the word, fantastic." Moments later Seve chips and putts for par and halves the hole and the match


Ben Stephens

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #30 on: April 12, 2010, 05:21:47 PM »
Padraig Harrington's rescue club to the wacky 17th green at Birkdale in the 2008 Open - awesome under pressure!

Anthony Gray

Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #31 on: April 12, 2010, 05:44:23 PM »

Just about any good tequila, heck, even bad tequila will warm the soul ...


  The Bear is out of hibernation.



PCCraig

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #32 on: April 12, 2010, 05:59:56 PM »
Sergio at Medinah?

Justin Leonard at TCC in the Ryder Cup? (that's a really hard putt)

Ben Hogan at Merion?

H.P.S.

Matthew Petersen

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #33 on: April 12, 2010, 06:01:41 PM »
Sergio at Medinah?

Justin Leonard at TCC in the Ryder Cup? (that's a really hard putt)

Ben Hogan at Merion?



I think it would have to result in a victory of some sort--context matters. That puts Sergio's out.

I think highly of Leonard's putt in the Ryder Cup. What an unlikely bomb that was--and to cap off such a stunning comeback.

Thomas McQuillan

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #34 on: April 12, 2010, 06:56:26 PM »
Jack's shot from nearly in the bush on the 18th at turnberry in the duel in the sun. His put wasn't bad either.

I'd have to second Tigers chip on 16 at augusta against di marco even though everyone knows that the sub-air system was activated as his ball sat on th lip ;D


David_Madison

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #35 on: April 12, 2010, 07:01:09 PM »
1975 PGA at Firestone. Jack Nicklaus' 4th shot on #16 in the 4th round. A 9-iron from the right rough 165 yards straight up over a tree, over the pond, and close to the hole - he then made the putt for an incredible par and held on to beat Bruce Crampton. I don't know of anyone else in the game back then who could come close to hitting that shot. It certainly wasn't the most important shot ever, but it did help Nicklaus win a major and failure likely would have resulted in a double or triple bogey and loss of the event.  

Mike Hamilton

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #36 on: April 12, 2010, 07:05:36 PM »
Yang's 210 3 hybrid to 8 feet...the final dagger in making him the only person to take a 54 hole lead away from Woods in a major has to get an honorable mention.

PCCraig

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #37 on: April 12, 2010, 07:10:50 PM »
Yang's 210 3 hybrid to 8 feet...the final dagger in making him the only person to take a 54 hole lead away from Woods in a major has to get an honorable mention.

I thought the pitch in for eagle was more of a dagger.
H.P.S.

Tim Johnson

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #38 on: April 12, 2010, 07:18:01 PM »
Tiger out of the bunker on the 18th at Glen Abbey. 216 yards and all carry. Poor Grant Waite, he played well.

Phil McDade

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #39 on: April 12, 2010, 07:21:22 PM »
I think this topic needs some further specification. My categories would be:

-- "Greatest shot ever" that led to a major tournament win. Leading candidates -- Sarazen's double eagle, Watson's chip-in, Hogan's 1-iron.

-- "Greatest shot ever" in terms of pure execution of a difficult shot. I'd have to think Tiger has a monopoly on these (Hazeltine shot mentioned already, the Canadian Open one over the lake, the 16th chip-in at the Masters), although glad to see someone mention Seve's 3-wood out of the bunker during the Ryder Cup.

-- "Greatest shot ever" in producing a spine-tingling, electric get-out-of-here moment. Shivas's reference to Jack's tee shot on #16 at Augusta in '86 is a leading candidate here, although Tiger's chip-in is as well, along with Leonard's putt at Brookline. This is where I'd put Lefty's second to the 13th Sunday -- it was a nervy shot, in keeping with his all-or-nothing personality (thus heightening the tension of the shot), but didn't by itself seal the deal.

Which one shot best encapsulates all three categories? Not Tiger's chip-in; he nearly blew the tournament on the next two holes, and he was battling with Chris freakin' DiMarco. Jack's tee shot was incredibly electric, made all the more so because of the great cast of golfers in the chase at the time. Watson's chip-in certainly is a candidate for all three -- that was a very tough chip, and happening at the 71st hole of the US Open (when he was tied for the lead) was plenty exciting. I think Sarazen's dougle-eagle deserves a spot on all three lists, in part because it helped create the aura of the Masters as a new major. Category #3 is biased, of course, toward modern shots -- anyone have any historic recollection of the reaction to Sarazen's shot?

Phil McDade

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #40 on: April 12, 2010, 07:41:47 PM »
But how many high 5-iron fades had Jack hit in his lifetime prior to the '86 Masters? About a million? I think Jack's shot suffers a bit on the difficulty scale.

Michael Dugger

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #41 on: April 12, 2010, 07:57:07 PM »
Doesn't matter, Phil.  I think everybody on the planet expected him to suffer from post-eagle f-up there.  That shot, in and of itself, wasn't much.  But its impact was enormous.

The greatest shot has nothing to do with the ease or difficulty of the shot per se.  It has everything to do with expectations, shock value and the "Holy Crimeny" reaction.  And that's all about the moment. 

How do you measure the greatest shot?  In decibles. 



In that case it would have to be Woods ace at Pheonix ;)
What does it matter if the poor player can putt all the way from tee to green, provided that he has to zigzag so frequently that he takes six or seven putts to reach it?     --Alistair Mackenzie--

Tim Gavrich

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #42 on: April 12, 2010, 09:01:35 PM »
I feel like if we are assessing the greatest single shot ever, we can't have it hinge on any other single shot.  The circumstances can be a factor, for sure, but not directly a shot hit before or after it, IMO.

That's why Mickelson's shot on 13 had to be one of the five to ten greatest ever.  The fact that he knew his club was going to scrape the tree in front of him on the follow through just blows hy mind.  It really doesn't matter that he missed the putt, because that 206 yard six-iron through the trees, all carry over water, to 4 feet from the hole, was RIDICULOUS.  Any amateur can get lucky and hole a 50 foot putt, but only a handful of people on the planet can physically execute the sot Phil hit yesterday.  Same with Tiger's 216-yard mid-iron at Glen Abbey.
Senior Writer, GolfPass

archie_struthers

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #43 on: April 12, 2010, 09:11:03 PM »
 ;D ::) ;D ;)

how about Van de Velde's putt to get in the playoff after a complete meltdown   to this day I give him credit for not yipping it!

jkinney

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #44 on: April 12, 2010, 09:18:45 PM »
One that I witnessed first hand - Corey Pavin's four wood from 228 yds. to 5' from the hole on the 72nd hole of the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock. It was a deliberate low, sweeping hook that, aided by the right to left trade wind, bent around the fairway and just cleared the left front bunker complex and then bounced and rolled right up to the hole. The shot won the Open. I was behind and to the right of Pavin by about 20 yds. when he struck it. It was a semi blind shot and he went sprinting up the hill on the 18th fairway to see it land.

Tim_Cronin

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #45 on: April 12, 2010, 09:38:44 PM »
"Greatest shot ever" in terms of pure execution of a difficult shot. – Phil McDade

For this one, I nominate Gary Player, 70th hole, 1972 PGA Championship, Oakland Hills. A 9-iron out of the rough, over a willow blocking his view, over a pond eager for a ball, to within about three feet. On ABC, Henry Longhurst called it "a staggeringly good shot." I am not about to argue with Henry Longhurst.

Oh, and Player won the tournament.

For longtime historic value, it's got to be Sarazen's albatross on the 15th. Nicklaus' eagle there in 1986 was dramatic, helping swing the tournament his way, and it's not even the best shot on the hole! (Sort of like his 1-iron to the 17th at Pebble; Watson came along and trumped it, and him, a decade later.)

For a purely electric moment, any hole out from wedge and deeper range at the last to win. Lew Worsham in the 1953 World Championship, Aoki in Hawaii in the 1980s, any of a dozen (almost) guys beating Norman. I saw Martha Nause hole out from the fairway at the last for an eagle 3 and a 65 to win an LPGA tournament in Oak Brook, Ill., in 1991, and it's still one of the top three or four shots I've seen firsthand, even though it means little in the grand scheme of the game. Martha, though, cherishes it, and Kris Monaghan, whom she beat, won only once more on the Tour (for a total of two wins).
The website: www.illinoisgolfer.net
On Twitter: @illinoisgolfer

archie_struthers

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #46 on: April 12, 2010, 09:39:12 PM »
 JKinney  ;D ;D ;D  might have the winner with Pavin at shinny 18 to win the Open  hard hard shot for him or anyone
..
Micheel at 18 to gimme range to win PGA pretty good also

and  E.T. would never speak to me if I didn't remind you of the great gentleman ...truly a great gentleman...Iron Byron Nelson and his spectacular eagle at Philly CC to win the Open  and beat Sam Snead
« Last Edit: April 12, 2010, 09:42:09 PM by archie_struthers »

Tim Martin

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #47 on: April 12, 2010, 10:01:00 PM »
Constantina Rocca`s putt at 18 in the 1995 British Open at St. Andrews to get a playoff with John Daly is up there.

Kevin Pallier

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Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #48 on: April 12, 2010, 11:00:38 PM »
I'll keep it to those I've seen on TV that looked absolutely amazing (not incl. short shots / putts): a choice between Pavin's 1995 US Open feat on 18 at Shinnecock, Yangs on the 18th in last year in the US PGA, Mickelson's on the 13th at Augusta yesterday and Harrington's wood onto the 17th at Birkdale in 2008.

Jim Nugent

Re: So What is the Greatest Shot Ever?
« Reply #49 on: April 13, 2010, 01:37:26 AM »
Marion Hollins drive over the water at CPC to create the 16th hole there.

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