Free of the tree but not of Woods

Greatest Golf Shots: Number Three ...Sergio Garcia: 1999 US PGA

Most great shots win tournaments, but not all of them. In the 1999 US PGA Championship played at Medinah, on the Sunday and in a final round pursuit of Tiger Woods, Spain's Sergio Garcia watched from the 16th tee-box as his drive to the dog-leg par-four veered right and then further right until it eventually came to rest between two roots of a huge oak tree.

At the time, Garcia was three shots behind Woods and the wayward drive, it seemed, had put paid to any lingering hopes he had of catching the world number one. To most, it seemed that the most that Garcia could do was to chip the ball back out onto the fairway and get involved in a salvage operation. But Garcia had other ideas.

Once he had made the near 300-yard walk up the fairway from the tee-box to where his ball lay, and after he pursed his lips and shook his head in bewilderment, Garcia's mind started to look at an option other than the obvious. If he was to have any chance of catching Tiger, he would have to attempt the apparently impossible and, so, instead of reaching for a wedge, the 19-year-old with the world at his feet retrieved a six-iron from his bag.

Garcia had 189 yards to make the green, unlikely and all as that seemed to everyone other than the player himself. The fear was that a full shot would damage his wrist, that the roots of the tree would inflict an injury that would seriously affect the teenager who didn't know how to retreat.

But there was to be no soft option of chipping out. Instead, Garcia, eyes closed at the point of impact, let rip with all that he could muscle. The ball flew and, almost immediately, Garcia was racing after it and up the fairway, trying to get a better look at the ball as it curved dramatically around the tree and towards the green.

With the ball soaring towards the surface, he did a jump and simultaneous scissors-kick - more reminiscent of a rock star than a golf star - in order to catch a glimpse of the end result of his miracle shot.

How Garcia had made such an impact with his eyes closed and head turned away beggared believe, but he had - and the roars of the crowd by greenside acknowledged that he had also managed to find the putting surface.

He got the ball on the green, and two-putted for par; and, to one and all, the arrival of a player deemed capable of taking on Woods, of forging a rivalry like that of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, had appeared to materialise.

That amazing six-iron approach shot on the 16th didn't win the US PGA championship for Garcia - he was to eventually finish one stroke adrift of Woods, who looked like someone who had gone 12 rounds in a heavyweight fight as he walked off the 18th green - but it signalled the young Spaniard's arrival as a serious contender for majors.

Woods won; but Garcia's shot on the 16th had been a huge talking point. He had taken on a shot that most other players would have backed away from; and, not only that, he had pulled it off.

A great shot, but not good enough to win the tournament.

At the end of the series, readers can vote for the Five Greatest Golf Shots Ever - the reader whose selections correspond with the shots selected by our Irish Times panel will enter a draw to win a custom fit Titleist 975J driver.