Golf

US Masters: Five shots heard around the world

On the eve of the 2019 US Masters, Philip Reid looks back at five of the most famous moments

Tiger Woods and his caddie, Steve Williams, celebrate after Woods chipped in for birdie on the 16th hole during the final round of the 2005 US Masters. Photograph: Harry How/Getty Images

Philip Reid's face
Philip Reid in Augusta
Wed Apr 10 2019 - 17:33

1 Gene Sarazen (1936)

Albatross at No. 15

Gene Sarazen in action at the 1936 Masters.

The original of the species, Gene Sarazen's albatross on the Par 5 15th hole became known as the "shot heard 'round the world" for its impact. Truth is, the galleries at the time were small by comparison with modern ones. Sarazen's 235 yard approach with a 4-wood cleared the hazard, took two hops and rolled up onto the green and into the hole. He had trailed Craig Wood by three shots but drew level with the albatross and went on to win the following day's 18-hole playoff.

2 Larry Mize (1987)

Chip-in at No. 11

“I throw my club up and run around screaming like a madman.”

Faced with what seemed an impossible shot from off the 11th green in the second hole of a playoff with Greg Norman (Seve Ballesteros had departed the scene at the first hole of sudden death), Larry Mize - who had worked the scoreboards as a teenager - holed out for an audacious winning birdie. "I hit it and I'm frozen watching it. It goes in the hole and I throw my club up and run around screaming like a madman. It was total elation," Mize would later recall of the chip-in from 35 yards to a pin placement on a razor-fast green with the water hazard behind.

3 Tiger Woods (2005)

Chip-in at No.16

Tiger Woods’s then sponsors Nike couldn’t have asked for any more from their man. Woods was involved in a titanic duel down the stretch with Chris DiMarco when his eight-iron tee shot missed the green long and left. Woods identified a mark the size of a coin on the green and used it as a guide as he pitched from a tight lie to the top of a ridge. The ball trundled slowly towards the hole and stopped on the edge of the cup before finally falling in for birdie. Woods would beat DiMarco at the first playoff hole for his fourth Masters title.

4 Phil Mickelson (2010)

Approach shot recovery from pine straw on No.13

When Phil Mickelson walked up to his ball after an errant tee-shot on the Par 5 13th, his seemed a hopeless cause: the ball nestled on pine straws behind a tree trunk, and with only a four-feet wide gap to aim through to a flag 187 yards away over Rae’s Creek, the safe option would have been to play back out to the fairway. Not Phil. With a cavalier approach, his six-iron finished three feet from the flag. He would miss the eagle putt but that shot’s audacity, and pulling it off, acted like a hammer-blow to his nearest challenger Lee Westwood and Mickelson ultimately free-wheeled to a three shot winning margin.

READ MORE

5 Bubba Watson (2012)

Recovery from trees on No.10 (second play-off hole)

Bubba Watson on the second sudden death playoff hole in 2012.

A wild tee-shot down the right - his ball finishing up on pine straws - seemed to have ruined any prospect of Bubba Watson winning a breakthrough Major. On reaching his ball, he found it deep in trouble and his route to the green was entirely blocked out by trees. Watson proceeded to play a gap wedge, hooking the shot some 90 degrees, to miraculously find the green and two-putted for victory over Louis Oosthuizen.

LATEST STORIES