Some Things are Oddly Memorable

I've golfed enough to realize that it isn't always the best shot that is the most memorable one. In the movie "Rounders" they talk about how few professional poker players can remember the hands that built their bankrolls, but that all of them can remember each hand they lost when they went broke the first time. Sometimes it is just the odd things in life that are the most memorable.

That's true for Tiger Woods as well. He is in a familiar spot. Leading after two days in the World Golf Championship. He has won the last three tournaments he has played in. He shot well under par today, but nobody is going to remember his great putting, or precision iron play. They'll remember only one shot from today's round.

A nine iron. 167 yards away from the hole. He was in the rough. He hit it a little further than the 167 yards it needed to travel. In fact, it when over the grandstand of spectators, over the cart path, and hit the roof of the club house. It then actually struck the golf cart of an employee who was unloading boxes for the concession area. He simply though someone was throwing golf balls at him, so when he saw the ball, he picked it up, put it in the carts cup holder and drove away.

You get 5 minutes to find your golf ball in a PGA event. Seconds before Tiger's time was up, they realized what happened. Luckily, "over the clubhouse" is in no way officially marked out of bounds. Also, because the grandstand he went over is a temporary structure, but is also immovable, Tiger got to drop his ball to a place that was the same distance away, but with nothing between him and the hole. It was now just a matter of figuring out the distance. It took many officials, and lasers to finally get it right. Somewhere around 97 yards away. He chipped close, and two putted for his only bogey of the day, and is currently the tournament leader.

It's the math that is amazing to me. He hit a 9 iron 267 yards. Granted it got bounces off a roof (even a ride in a cart that didn't count in the distance) and probably on some kind of path, but that is further than I can hit any club.

It took almost an hour between his nine iron shot, and them finalizing the distance. It's just one of those things that will always be remembered, not because he won a tournament with that shot, or because it was a good score to put on his card, but because it was so odd.