Billiards players will be familiar with the concept of “in off” but it’s not everyday you see it on the golf course. When the shot is a hole-in-one, puts the player -7 to par and wins him a $50,000 car. Altogether a particularly rare sort of an eagle. Leif Olson hits the green slightly left and beyond the flag on #15 of Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario at the 2009 Canadian Open and watches as at screws back, ricocheting off his partner’s ball and into the hole to win him a BMW Z4 Roadster.
First the facts: Rory McIlroy makes the cut on the number at the Quail Hollow Championship to scrape in for the final two rounds. Shoots a 66 on Saturday then blitzes the field with a course record 62 in the final round to win by 4 shots just two days short of his 21st birthday. Leading by one playing #15 McIlroy hits a majestic five iron to 3 feet setting up an eagle then holes a forty footer on the last to finish in spectacular style and plays the final five holes in 5 under par.
Now watch one of the most beautiful swings in golf. If anyone ever EVER disputes with you about golf being a sport then point them over to this blog to see this shot. Effortless power, poise and balance launches the ball onto the green with a precision that is the equal of any sport.
An absolutely magnificent golf shot.
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No account of great golf shots should omit Gene Sarazen’s double eagle (albatross) on the 15th at Augusta National in the 1935 US Masters. Dubbed “the shot heard around the world” it has gone down in folklore. Unfortunately no footage of the shot was taken and other than Sarazen, his playing partner Walter Hagen, their caddies and probably 25 other hardy souls no one else saw it, so fortunately for history one of those souls was Bobby Jones. There is no doubt that the context of the shot makes it one of the most legendary shots in golf. Sarazen did say later that over the years he met about 20,000 people who claimed to be there at the critical moment. When standing on the tee at #15 Sarazen thought he would need to birdie 3 of the last 4 holes to catch Craig Wood who himself had birdied the 18th posting a clubhouse score of 282. Television coverage of The Masters has made #15 a familiar hole with a lake in front of the green sowing seeds of doubt in the mind of a golfer wanting to go for it in two. Sarazen knew that this hole was critical if he was to catch Wood so he just had to go for the green. Following a drive of 255 yards he still had 232 to go, over water from a lie that was sitting down in the grass and to a slick putting surface. After consulting with his caddie, who thought he needed a 3 wood, Sarazen decided on a 4 wood but toed it in for a little more distance, it’s a good job he did because his ball barely cleared the lake guarding the green, skimmed low onto the green, rolled out to the flag at the right back of the green and dropped in for a double eagle. Can you imagine the pandemonium, fist pumps and high fives that such a shot would create today? Sarazen was much more phlegmatic, calculating only what he needed to do to catch Craig Wood. He subsequently parred the last three holes, by all accounts with difficult putts, to force a 36 hole play off the following day. It was obviously pre-ordained that he would win claim the title as he triumphed by 5 shots.
Even though there is no actual recording of the historic shot I thought you might like to see some archive footage of Gene Sarazen’s swing.
