Editor's note: With the Masters Tournament postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Aiken Standard will look back at a Masters-related topic each day.
Today would have been the start of the 84th Masters Tournament. Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player would have hit honorary tee shots, and then the field would have started play. Great shots would have certainly followed. Executive Editor John Boyette and Sports Reporter Kyle Dawson rank the most memorable shots in Masters history.
John Boyette
- Gene Sarazen, 1935: There’s really no other choice, is there? Sarazen’s double eagle, or albatross, in the final round of the second Masters put the tournament on the map and helped him get into a playoff. (Sarazen beat Craig Wood in the tournament’s only 36-hole playoff.) The 4-wood shot from 235 yards out remains the gold standard.
- Tiger Woods, 2005: Seventy years after Sarazen’s deuce, Tiger produced a chip on the 16th hole that made the earth shake. Locked in a memorable duel with Chris DiMarco, Woods used the green’s slope to his advantage. When the ball tumbled in, pausing briefly to flash the Nike logo, Woods, caddie Stevie Williams and the patrons roared their approval.
- Larry Mize, 1987: The Augusta native was a decided underdog when he entered a sudden-death playoff against Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros. But on the 11th, wide right of the green and facing a 140-foot shot, Mize holed it for an improbable birdie that stunned the Shark and made the hometown boy a Masters champion for life.
- Phil Mickelson, 2010: Lefty had a two-shot lead as he played the par-5 13th, and his tee shot came to rest on the pine straw. With a narrow opening between two pines, should he lay up or go for it? You know Mickelson never lays up; he pulled off the shot and set up an easy two-putt to seal his third Masters win.
- Bubba Watson, 2012: On the second hole of a sudden-death playoff, the left-handed Watson appears to be in jail when his tee shot goes far right into the pines. But Watson improvises, hooking his ball from 140 yards out and finding the green to set up his first Augusta victory.
Kyle Dawson
- Gene Sarazen, 1935: It is the "shot heard 'round the world", after all. Sarazen's albatross on the par-5 15th made the Masters the Masters, and his playoff victory over Craig Wood gave him the career Grand Slam. It's the game's rarest shot struck by one of its most beloved champions at one of golf's iconic venues. This shot has everything – except video footage.
- Tiger Woods, 2005: So, yes, Tiger's chip-in at 16 is actually the most memorable shot because millions watched it live and it has since been seen by billions of eyes. Still, I couldn't rank it No. 1. I remember exactly where I was when it happened and, as a nod to Verne Lundquist, in my life I haven't seen anything else like that. Just, you know, forget 17 and 18 and go straight to the playoff.
- Jack Nicklaus, 1986: "Be right." "It is." This, to me, is the defining shot of the greatest day in the history of golf. The 5-iron tee shot on 16 was perfect – and Jack knew it. The ball slid just by the cup before coming to rest 3 feet away, setting up a birdie and a roar from the patrons that surely played some part in Seve Ballesteros' hooked second shot into the water on 15.
- Larry Mize, 1987: This is one you just couldn't make up. The Augusta native Mize worked the scoreboards at the Masters as a kid, and here he was in a three-way playoff against world No. 1 Greg Norman and No. 3 Ballesteros. His wayward approach into the 11th, the second playoff hole, should've doomed him, but he miraculously chipped in from 140 feet for a birdie that was far less likely than the ball rolling into the water.
- Phil Mickelson, 2010: I'll get this out of the way first: I don't care that he missed the eagle putt. Mickelson's second shot on 13, a 207-yard 6-iron from the straw between two pines to 4 feet, is the greatest go-for-broke shot of a go-for-broke career. He matched Lee Westwood with a birdie to stay ahead by two on his way to a third green jacket. Dozens of shots could've gone here instead, but this is a personal favorite of this lefty.
