There is a view amongst a certain section of golf Twitter that says, ‘Fans like to watch the pros bomb it, it’s that simple’.
Fans of the excellent State of the Game podcast will long have heard Clayton, Shackelford and Morri question this assertion. They point out that if you are standing on a tee at a golf tournament watching someone drive it makes virtually no difference to your enjoyment if a player hits it 280 yards of 380 yards as you’re not going to see it land anyway.
I decided to carry out a very unscientific survey to find out what people thought was the best golf shot they had ever seen a professional hit, either in person or on TV.
The result was fascinating. I know there are biases in the ‘research’. Replies largely came from people who follow me, so may be predisposed to my way of thinking, and have a European bias.
Of the 200+ nominations and votes I received, the vast majority were for long approach shots – Harrington at Birkdale, Faldo at Augusta, Woods in Canada. They were moments of magic which captivated fans from across the world.
Then came some wonderful short game moments – Tiger in 2005 at Augusta, Seve at Lytham.
But out of all of the choices and nominations, only 3 involved a driver hit from a tee. People simply didn’t get excited about players hitting it a long way from the tee.
There is a huge irony in the PGA Tour giving the proposals to modify the ball for professionals the cold shoulder. By supporting players continually hitting the ball further and further from the tee they are undermining the very thing that fans want to see. They are taking away the shots that excite us the most.
It’s the heroic shots, the long approaches and do-or-die shots which the fans love. No-one remembers the long drives and no-one gets excited about a wedge in from 100 yards. But put a 2 iron in a player’s hand and ask them to create something special and the fans will be drooling.
Encouraging players to hit it further from the tee means we will simply see far fewer of these special shots. No-one nominated one of DeChambeau’s wedge shots from the rough at Winged Foot in 2020.
Anyway, I went and tallied up the responses and trawled YouTube for some clips. I’ve got them all to start at just these shots too so you don’t need to do any fast forward to get to the juicy bits!
Here are the results. As I said, it’s not scientific – but there’s not many of these that won’t thrill.
25. CRAIG PARRY – 2004 DORAL. 18TH HOLE, 176 YARDS. 6 IRON.
The defining shot in Parry’s career. A holeout eagle in the first playoff hole against Scott Verplank. This one got a plaque…