Image by Bill Liao
The list of the greatest golf shots of all time is one long list indeed. It is too long, of course, to fit into one article, but there are some shots that almost every golfer in the world would surely include in their top five. Choosing the ‘best of all time’ of anything is a rather subjective pursuit, but everybody can recognise a great golf shot when they see one.
In 2005 at Augusta, Tiger Woods produced one of the most magnificent and significant shots golf has ever seen. It was on the edge of the green on the 16th and, with the most delicate of chips, he lobbed his ball up onto the green and let gravity do the rest of the work. The ball seemed to have stopped dead on the edge of the cup for about a second, only to drop into the hole to the amazement of Woods, his caddy and everybody watching. It was almost as if he was filming the new Nike advert right there on the course (indeed, the shot did go on to feature in a Nike TV advert a while later).
In 1950, Ben Hogan defied belief to recover from a head-on car crash with a coach to hit one of the best shots ever seen on the US Open. On the 18th at Merion, he hit a 2-iron that would go down in history as one of the sport’s most significant shots. He went on to beat Lloyd Mangrum by four shots to win the Open against all the odds.
Jack Nicklaus hit many great golf shots throughout his career, so it is difficult to pick just one to stick on this list. Perhaps his most memorable round, though, came at the 1986 Masters at Augusta National. The great Golden Bear was dismissed before the tournament in an article that actually ended up spurring him on to produce one of the best sequences of golf playing in history, in true Nicklaus fashion. He hit an eagle followed by two birdies to set himself well on the way to slipping on that green jacket.
There have been many great hole-in-ones over the years, but Miguel Angel Jimemez’s at the Dubai Desert Classic in 2008 has got to rank up there with the best. He hit a 6-iron on the par 3 7th and watched on as the ball dropped straight into the hole without a bounce or a roll. Straight in. It was one of those shots that blow your mind the first time you see them – you’re left wondering if the cameraman has lost track of the ball until you see Jimenez pluck it from the hole.
It is so difficult to identify the greatest of all great golf shots and the debate will go on for years to come.