Great Shots by Hale Irwin, Johnny Miller, Tim Herron
Watching the greatest players in the world over the past 50 plus years, I have seen many great shots. Long, straight drives in horrible conditions, long irons to tucked hole locations and pressure-packed putts in crucial situations. However, a few shots stand out and were etched in my mind when I viewed them. My criteria for "best I have ever seen" is threefold. I saw the shot in person, it required skill as opposed to luck, and it had to have been in competition. Here are three that stand out.
1. Hale Irwin, 1994 Masters, Saturday Round, 6th hole.
I have had the good fortune to attend the Masters Tournament four times. The first time when I caddied in 1984, talked about in an earlier blog, and then in 1992, 1993 and 1994 when Jim Gabrielson gave me tickets for being the co-chairman of the 1993 Walker Cup. The Masters is Augusta National. Most of the great players are in the field but there are great players virtually every week on the PGA Tour. It is the golf course which is so special that makes the Masters.
The spectators at the Masters are unique in golf. With an average age over 40, it is well known they are appropriate and polite. But there are so many. The crowds are huge. You can follow early groups on Thursday and Friday and have good viewing. However, the weekend is a challenge with so few groups to follow.
In 1994 a friend of mine at the time, John Harris, was invited to play and playing well, made the cut. He was paired on Saturday with Hale Irwin, one of the strongest iron players ever in golf.
With only 44 and ties making the cut for the weekend, the spectators arrive early to set up chairs on the late holes and then follow other groups until the field reached their chair hole. My friend Jim Lehman and I followed Hale Irwin and Harris until Jim’s brother, Tom, teed off in the final group.
Watching from some distance because of the crowd, we saw Irwin hit a series of wonderful iron shots, having hit all of the greens as he walked to the 6th tee. The 6th is a par 3, 175 yards, playing slightly downhill. Typical of Augusta, it has a very difficult green with a raised shelf on the right side with a severe false front. The green tumbles down to the left into a larger section.
On this Saturday the hole location was near the front of the right side shelf about as far forward as it could fairly be placed. A player was faced with three options: attempt to land the ball on top of the shelf and get it to stop, a most difficult task on a smallish section with the firm greens; play to the left and putt up the hill; or somehow get the ball to hit the six foot section false front and kick up the hill.
Many players fly it to the top and simply deal with a chip back or, if the ball doesn't go too far over the green, putt from off the green.
Up first, Hale chose a six iron. With the only sounds the birds from surrounding trees and a far off cheer for a birdie at number two, Hale made a beautiful swing striking the ball perfectly. His plan was to hit the six foot upslope and have the ball kick up on the green and finish somewhere around the hole. If he did not carry the ball far enough it would roll back and off the green leaving a very difficult chip. However, if he carried it too far the ball could bound over the green, leaving another difficult play.
We stood and watched as the ball landed exactly where it needed to, kicked up the slope and trickled forward on the lightning fast green to two feet. Remarkable that he had the distance control to do what he did.
“He may be the best iron player for decades and I don’t know who would have been better before that,” said Jim.
I later asked John Harris about playing with him and the iron play exhibition he put on. “I was completely intimidated the entire day,” he said to me.
We left Hale Irwin and walked over to the first tee to watch Jim’s brother Tom start his round, talking about the fantastic iron shots we watched, including one of the greatest shots I have seen.
2. Johnny Miller. Pikes Peak Invitational, May 1969
Throughout the 60’s and 70’s Colorado College and the Air Force Academy jointly hosted the Pikes Peak Invitational Collegiate Golf Tournament. Held on the East Course of the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, it was one of the only events in the country where teams could play a tournament outside of their conference championships. At the time, teams played dual meets. Today schools play only tournaments with 12 or more teams in the field. As a result, the Pikes Peak Invitational attracted some of the best college teams in the country.
The tournament field in 1969 was particularly strong because Colorado College and The Broadmoor Golf Club would be hosting the NCAA Championships only a few weeks later. In addition to the usual teams of BYU, Houston, Colorado, and Oklahoma, Wake Forest traveled from the east coast to compete. Wake Forest would win the NCAA.
It was May and Johnny Miller, who as a freshman in college finished eighth in the US Open in 1966, led the BYU team. Houston, perennially the number one team in the nation, was filled with future PGA Tour and Walker Cup team members. Wake Forest had four future PGA Tour players in the lineup; Jack Lewis, Leonard Thompson, Lanny Watkins and Joe Inman.
As Johnny Miller came to the 36th and final hole, BYU and Houston, already in the clubhouse, were tied for the team lead, while Johnny Miller was tied for the individual lead with John Mahaffey. The 18th is a downhill par five, 535 yards with water across the fairway 80 yards from the green. In the days of persimmon woods and balata golf balls, a big drive would leave a risk-reward shot over the water, but anything wayward would require a layup in front of the water.
Johnny’s drive drifted just enough to the right to require a layup, which he accomplished.
The hole location was cut in the back right corner of this front to back uphill sloping, round green. Hitting a pitching wedge Johnny took a very aggressive line at the hole. The ball hung to the right and flew over the right back of the green.
He walked past me looking toward his ball. Johnny was a lanky 6’ 2” in his sky blue team issued slacks and three button, white golf shirt with the BYU logo on the left chest. The ball was on the backside of a small swale surrounding the green, in lush rough. He had short-sided himself, leaving himself a downhill lie to a green sloping away. The hole location was about four yards from the back right corner of the green. It was a difficult shot with a downhill lie, to a downhill sloping green, ten paces from the hole.
I stood a few yards away from his ball, as he walked to the hole examining the shot. The best he could hope for was a 20’ putt back up the hill to tie for the individual and team championship.
Wasting no time, Johnny walked back to his ball, picked up his blue and white BYU bag and pulled a sand wedge. After a second quick look and two practice swings he lobbed a shot that landed in the rough just short of the green. It kicked softly out of the rough with one bounce and rolled smartly into the hole.
BYU won the tournament by one and Johnny Miller won individually by one. I stood in amazement, stunned at what I had seen. The greatest make things happen.
I reminded him of the shot when I saw him at the 2008 USGA Women’s Open at Interlachen where he was announcing. “Happy to have made it, “ he said. “Those Broadmoor greens were always difficult to come down and play.”
3. Tim Herron, 1993 Walker Cup Match, Interlachen CC
It was the second day of the Walker Cup at Interlachen. After a rainstorm washed out the morning round the first day, the schedule was shuffled. Tim Herron and John Harris were now playing foursomes (alternate shot), in the final group on the second morning, against Dean Roberson and Raymond Russell. Even though the US had taken a 7 1/2 - 3 1/2 lead by winning the first three matches of the second morning, the winner of the 1993 Walker Cup was still in doubt with much great golf still to be viewed.
As they approached the 18th tee the match was all even. Tim Herron hit a good drive finding the fairway, as did Roberson. The crowd of 5000 + spectators surrounded the fairway and green in a stunning sight.
Against the wind, to this uphill par four, Harris pull hooked a six iron, into the trees, 20 yards left of the green, deep into the crowd. Russell’s shot found the green but came back down the false front to the front edge.
The crowd engulfed the players and caddies as they made their way toward the green.
Over to the left of the green, Tim looked over the shot. A large elm tree standing slightly forward and to his right was the main obstacle he would have to deal with. He looked at a green with a punch bowl slope all around the back of the green.
"It was a muddy lie from the rain and all the spectator traffic," Tim told me later. "I had to hit it a little left of the hole, but not too far, as the punch bowl green would roll it all the way around and off the green. I was just slightly past hole high, thus the entire green sloped away from me."
There was a good chance no matter what he did, the ball would not stay on the green, upon careful examination, Tim found an opening through the tree, that by fitting the ball through the window the ball could get to the green.
An observer would give him little chance to get the ball close to the hole. The huge crowd was hushed as Tim, with a soft, full swing lofted the ball up through the opening, carried to the green, landing just a bit left of the hole and running to 4’ from the hole. The gallery exploded in applause.
"Under the circumstances, it was one of the greatest shots I have ever hit," Tim told me.
It was a remarkable shot, surprising the GB & I team. After a poor putt up the hill, Russell missed their par putt, making a bogey. Harris then made the four-foot putt and the US won the match, sweeping the morning foursomes.
"It catapulted us into the afternoon round and a big win," Tim said.
It was a remarkable shot by Tim Herron. The tree he tangled with has long since come down, leaving an open shot from the left of the green. Even with no obstacles and a good lie, the chances today are slim to get the ball to stay on the green.
I have seen many great shots in over 50 years in the game, but none better than these three In A Life In Golf.
