Tiger answers a six-marker without blinking an eye

No one player has revolutionised the modern game as much as Tiger Woods. Although he only turned 26 last December, he has already won seven majors - including the career Grand Slam - and, yet, one of the most remarkable shots that he produced didn't come in a major, with all its inherent pressures, but in the Canadian Open at Abbey Glen in 2000.

It is not often that a player can match Woods shot-for-shot down the stretch of a tournament. On this occasion, however, New Zealand's Grant Waite stubbornly refused to capitulate. The title was on the line as, in fading light and an approaching storm, the pair drove off down the 18th hole (a par five over water), the 72nd of the championship. Woods was ahead by one.

Waite's drive was perfect, and a five-iron approach to the final green rested 30 feet away and gave him a chance of an eagle three. It would have been understandable if a huge sense of satisfaction flowed through his body and he turned to look at Woods, who was staring into a huge bunker. Waite, standing in the middle of the fairway, couldn't believe his eyes, every bit of strategic golf logic telling him what he was seeing was wrong.

Woods had sprayed his drive into the right-hand fairway bunker, 218 yards from the hole. Now, with a six-iron in his hands and a stroke to play with, water short of the green and a sand trap long, surely Woods would do the sensible thing and aim for the security of the centre portion of the green.

But Tiger had other things on his mind. He turned to caddie Steve Williams and confirmed he was going with the six-iron, rather than a seven. In such extremes, Woods is at his most dangerous. The connection was clean and pure, and, with no margin for error, the ball flew high and right at the pin and came to rest just off the back edge of the green, some 18 feet from the pin.

"His ball came out and my caddie's right beside me and I said, 'this ball's going right at the flag'," Waite recounted a bit later, still incredulous. "The calmness inside his body to be able to make that kind of swing just shows you where he has such an advantage on the rest of the players,"

Waite added: "He has calmness of spirit and enough calmness in his body that he has nothing blocking his swing.

"For a guy to take out a six-iron, fire it right at that flag with the tournament on the line, it's just amazing. I said to him in the scorer's tent, 'you know, you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to hit it in the middle of the green'."

It was a shot, Waite believes, that only Tiger would try and only Tiger would make. "I can't speak for other players but, I mean . . . he went at the flag. There's no room there. Water short, bunker long and he hits it right in between them and he made that look easy."

"I was trying to hit that kind of shot," Woods said. "It was between a six-iron and a seven-iron but I decided to hit six to take the water out of play. If I pull off the high fade, I was thinking it would be 15 or 20 feet left of the hole. I over-cut it a little bit, but it worked out all right."

In fact, five feet right or five feet short and Woods would have been in the water - but, like many before and after, Waite was left shaking his head in disbelief at the outrageous shot that Woods had pulled off in the gathering gloom.

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.