CHASKA, Minn. -- Recapping the repertoire is a dizzying task, really.
There was the risky shot from a fairway bunker and over water on the last hole to cement the 2000 Canadian Open, the 40-foot roller-coaster ride on the 16th green at the 2001 Players Championship and the shot in the dark on the 18th to win by 11 strokes at Firestone Country Club in 2000.
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| In the 2002 PGA at Hazeltine, Tiger Woods watches what all who witnessed it call the greatest shot they have ever seen. (Getty Images) |
The four attention-arresting shots have three things in common: They were all struck by Tiger Woods and eventually led to another victory by a man who now can count 70 wins on the PGA Tour.
The third thread is that in the mind of Woods, none represents the greatest shot he has struck as a professional. That brain-twisting, less-heralded blow came in 2002 at Hazeltine National, where Woods returns for the first time to play this week at the 91st PGA Championship.
Feel free to roll whatever mental video tape you possess, yet there's a good chance this one isn't in your gray-matter highlight reel for reasons we'll explain. By Woods' way of thinking, it was beyond compare.
"That was best shot I've hit, yes," he said, succinctly.
We've come here not to argue the point, but aggrandize it.
Of the dozens of memorable shots he has struck in competition, including the clutch, title-turning 8-iron he hit to within a foot on the 16th hole last week at Firestone, the Hazeltine hero shot ranks numero uno with the world No. 1. It was sick, filthy and whatever other contemporary parlance might apply, though it hardly needs more street cred to those lucky few who witnessed the shot.
Here's some friendly editorial advice: Before watching the video clip, let Woods set the scene as he describes what he faced as he stood with his calves pressed against the lip of a fairway bunker, some 202 yards from the green shortly after the crack of dawn on a wet weekend in Minnesota.
"I hit a nice, quick hook into the left bunker," he recalled last week. "The wind was coming 20 [mph] off the left. I had to stand an inch closer to the golf ball than I normally would because my heels were up against the bunker. Now the ball is below my feet, but I had to get it above the lip, above the trees and hook it with a 3-iron. It's not exactly an easy shot."
That's the short version of events, too.
• PGA Championship | B/R: Greatest shots in PGA Championship history
Playing partner Ernie Els and his longtime caddie Ricci Roberts, watched from a few yards away, waiting for Woods to punch out into the fairway. Then he launched a majestic shot into a bristling crosswind that dropped within 12 feet of the hole. Reminded of the shot last week, the two South Africans said, almost in harmonic unison, "Best golf shot I have ever seen."
The difference between this blow and the other highlight-reel shots that are more fondly recalled is the timing. Woods, Els and David Toms, who each had won major championships in 2001 and were the marquee threesome in the first two rounds at Hazeltine, hadn't finished their second round when a patch of horrid weather prompted play to be suspended on Friday.
They restarted on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. and had two holes left, which means that by the time Woods climbed into the bunker on the 18th fairway, it wasn't yet 8 a.m. While there were plenty of hearty fans in the stands, it was a smaller crowd than Woods usually sees.
Moreover, unlike the oft-viewed final-round shots cited above, Woods didn't win at Hazeltine, tainting its relevance some. Despite making birdies on the last four greens to throw a world-class scare into Rich Beem, Woods ran out of holes and fell one stroke short in 2002.
Consequently, the shot arguably hasn't gotten its just deserts. Seven years later, Woods, never one to embroider the truth or toot his own horn, almost waxes poetic about it.
"When I hit it, it was probably just the most pure shot I've ever hit," he said. "It just felt like nothing, like when guys hit a home run, [or] describe a home run, how easy it felt, even though it went 460 feet. It just felt effortless; that's how that shot felt. And I made the putt, too."
The 18th at Hazeltine is a bear of a hole, a 465-yard par-4 that doglegs left and tilts slightly uphill. As the video indicates, with the wind still howling from the overnight storms, had the flags on the grandstands had flapped any harder, they would have frayed at the edges. A stand of five trees stood 72 yards in front of Woods, including one that towered 60 feet above him, caddie Steve Williams said.
As Els and Roberts watched in disbelief, Toms, the defending PGA champion, spoke in hushed tones to caddie Scott Gneiser.
"When I saw him in the lip of the bunker, I figured he would try to get it somewhere up there short of the green," Toms said, laughing at the notion.
"David and I were standing out in the fairway, going, 'He's going to try to hit that shot? What's he going to do, pop something up, lay up in front of the green?'" Gneiser said. "Then we saw the long iron come out. But if there was anybody that could hit that shot, it was Tiger.
"It was unreal. I couldn't believe he had to hit that shot, couldn't believe he tried to hit that shot, and then he actually pulled off the shot. At that point in the tournament, I remember thinking he could make a big number and put himself out of the golf tournament. Best shot I have ever seen."
The fairways were wet and the air was heavy. Els had bombed a drive and a 2-iron onto the green from 210 yards on a shot that Roberts said "played like it was 240." Toms had barely reached the fairway with his drive and came up short of the green with a fairway wood.
"It's blowing, it's cold, because there was that front that came through, remember?" Els said. "I mean, I hit a good drive and was in the fairway, and hit 2-iron for my second shot. I thought, 'Man, that's one of the best shots I have hit this week.' As I told Ricci, we had seen a lot of his great shots, but up to that point, it was the best shot he had ever hit. And he [Woods] basically agreed.
"See, the thing is, it was 7:30 in the morning, freezing cold, most of us are still trying to warm up and stretch, and here's a guy hitting 3-iron over a tree with the ball a foot below his feet. And then he makes the putt."
Said Roberts: "When I shook his hand, I said, 'I think that's the greatest shot I have ever seen.' And he said, 'Yeah, I think it's the best shot I have ever hit.'"
Seven years later, who are we to quibble?
"If he says it's his best," Toms said, "then that's saying something."
Just as he did a moment after Woods knocked in his birdie putt on the 18th seven years back, Roberts is still shaking his head in amazement.
"You look over and it looks like he could make six -- he could make anything," Roberts said. "His heels are up against the trap, the face is right in front of him and the tree is right there. He just, fwooooosh.
"I said to Stevie, 'That's the greatest shot I have ever seen in my life.' He said, 'That's probably the greatest he has ever hit.'"
Williams, never the most glib guy on the planet, shrugged when asked to reminisce about the greatest shot not heard 'round the world.
"I don't think there is anything more that needs to be said other than it was the best shot that Tiger has ever hit," Williams said. "Simple."
He's spot on, except for the last part.
There was nothing simple about it.
