Tiger!

Way too many great shots in this guy’s career to pick one – but here are a couple of my favorite moments.

Don’t remember the tournament – but on the first hole of a playoff, he hits his tee shot into a fairway bunker on the next fairway over to the right. The bunker hadn’t been raked and someone had walked through leaving two craters – Tiger’s ball finished on top of the sand between the two craters. No stance in the sand, he had to squat so low that he looked like he was sitting on a chair for a toddler. Instead of playing a safe shot, he pulls out 3 iron and rips the ball out of the sand and hooks it over the trees and onto the green.

The other one isn’t a shot – but his reaction to Phil Mickelson when they were paired together in The Ryder Cup. Alternate shot match and Mickelson flairs his first tee shot way left up against the bushes. His “are you kidding me” expression was a classic “if looks could kill” look.

but the one I love was the putt on 18th to tie Mediate in last years US Open, that was as clutch as you’re ever going to find in sports.

Early 2003 at (I think) Torrey Pines, Buick Invitational. Tee shot (don’t remember the hole – a par 4) finds ankle-deep left rough, about 170 yards from the hole. What’s more, there is a tree approximately 60 yards in front of him on his line to the green.

Tiger pulls a six iron and takes a massive swipe through the rough and hits a high, arcing hook that sails just over the flag and lands (and inexplicably stops) 15 feet above the pin. I still have no clue as to how he got that much club on that ball.

I called my dad immediately – he just answered the phone with a “Yeah – I saw it.”

saw him in person that year, just remember him trying not to laugh on the first tee when he was announced because the old guy doing it had a nasaly voice and some kind of accent on top of it. showed the human side and got everyone else in the gallery laughing too.

When he starts it off to the right contrary to the announcer’s belief, and the ball just swings from right to left to right and falls right in. Tiger’s fist pump is so classic, as well as the announcers reaction