Different strokes

Compiled by PHILIP REID

All power but no glory

ALVARO Quiros’ reputation as the longest-hitter on the PGA European Tour is under threat . . . from a Scot.

In the latest Genworth Financial statistics, Lloyd Saltman has moved to the fore in the big-hitting department.

Saltman’s average drives on tour this season measure 324.6 yards, which put him just over six yards on average ahead of the Spaniard who has topped this particular macho stat for four of the past five years.

Saltman’s huge driving ability has yet to transfer itself into the most important stat of all: money won!

He is currently 203rd on the European Tour’s money list and is ranked 74th on the Challenge Tour.

Equipment: What's hot

JEEPERS creepers, talk about timing! The Nike TW ’13 golf shoe hits Irish shelves this week – with a recommended retail price of €200 – and looks set to be one of the hottest items in the market this summer.

Of course, Woods has been wearing prototypes of the shoe for almost a year. The player was the inspiration behind the shoe after he asked his team of researchers and developers to come up with golf shoes to match the feel of the footwear he wore when working out and running. Woods apparently asked the question: “Why can’t I play golf in it?” The Nike team went to work on coming up with golf shoes to provide the same level of comfort as those used in gym work and on-road running, The result? A golf shoe that, according to the company’s marketing material, has: “natural motion engineered outsole is designed to mimic and conform to the natural motion of the foot, coupled with the protection and traction of a lightweight performance golf shoe. This innovative outsole allows the athlete to keep contact with the ground longer, better harnessing the energy of the foot to the shoe and, therefore, the shoe to the ground.”

Rules of golf: Provisional ball or not

QUESTION: At a par three hole, a player, believing his original ball may be lost, plays a provisional ball.

He searches five minutes for the original ball and then plays the provisional ball onto the green.

At that point, the original ball is found in the hole.

Is he required to continue playing the provisional ball for a score?

ANSWER: No.

The player’s score is one.

The play of the hole was completed when the player holed the original ball (Rule 1-1).

Greatest Shots: Tiger's is up there but Bubba’s to win the Masters just edges it

ISN’T it remarkable how one golf shot can create so many fist pumps? On Sunday, it seemed as if Tiger Woods was ready to jump out of the HD television screen so up-close and personal did his pumped-up reaction to holing out that pitch shot by the 16th hole at the Memorial tournament.

Jack Nicklaus might have murmured something about it being the greatest shot he had witnessed but, I’m pretty sure, on hindsight the Golden Bear will accept that there have been greater shots.

Sure, the chip-in gave us another iconic moment of Tiger’s to savour and, given his travails and the state of his game going into Memorial, the timing of his pitch – in terms of where his career is headed as much as actually winning him a 73rd PGA Tour title to equal the career total of none other than his host, Mr Nicklaus – couldn’t have been more apposite.

But what of the greatest golf shots we have seen?

Surely, Woods’s chip isn’t even the best of this season so far. What of Bubba Watson’s daredevil shot from off the pine straw and through a gap in the trees in his play-off win over Louis Oosthuizen in the Masters in April?

Are the memories of that audacious play cast into a netherworld already?

For me, anyway, Watson’s to win a maiden Major title edges that of Woods’ any day of the week.

The arguments for the greatest shot in history offer many different opinions and invariably are subjective. Some observers will plump for the audacious play while others will figure that ingenuity should always win out.

Down the years, there have been many contenders for golf’s greatest shot. Gene Sarazen’s albatross on the 15th hole – where he holed-out with a four-wood – in the 1935 Masters became known as “the shot heard around the world” but, just as in a hole-in-one, there has to be an element of good fortune, if not a fluke factor, involved in finding the tin cup from such a distance.

Other candidates for “The Greatest (Shot)” have included Nicklaus’s one-iron into the 17th green in the 1972 US Open at Pebble Beach where the ball hit the flagstick and stopped inches from the hole; Woods’s chip-in from rough on the 16th in the final round of the 2005 Masters (what is it about Augusta?); Corey Pavin’s four-wood approach to the last at Shinnecock Hills in the 1995 US Open; Larry Mize’s outrageous chip-in from 45 yards to defeat Greg Norman at the second tie-hole in the 1987 Masters; Seve Ballesteros’s three-wood from under the lip of a bunker at Palm Beach in the 1983 Ryder Cup . . . and Tom Watson’s chip-in on the 17th at Pebble Beach to win the 1982 US Open.

In truth, there have been great golf shots down through the years and, thankfully, there will be many more to add to the list. Woods’s chip-in to grasp the Memorial on Sunday was good. Maybe even great.

But it wasn’t the greatest.

It's a classic: Co Down

CO-OPERATION Ireland will hold its annual Golf Classic at Royal County Down on Monday, October 8th.

The classic is celebrating its 19th year and hosted by former Northern Ireland and Arsenal goalkeeper Pat Jennings, the event has become one of the most prestigious outings on Co-operation Ireland’s Calendar of Events. The cost of entry for a four-person team is £1,200. Contact Winnie Orr on +44 (0) 28 9089 1004 or worr@cooperationireland.org

TIGER WOODS

The Memorial Tournament

Ball – Nike Tour D

Shoe – Nike TW ’13

Driver – Nike VR Tour (8.5 degree)

Fairway Woods – Nike VR Pro Limited Edition (15 degree), SQ II (19 degree)

Irons - 3 to PW: Nike VR Pro

Sand Wedge – Nike VR (56 degree)

Lob Wedge – Nike VR Pro (60 degree)

Putter – Nike Method 001