The Players Championship: Can anyone catch Webb Simpson?

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A single grain of sand. Had it slipped between Tiger Woods’ 6-iron and golf ball, one rogue grain could have sunk his hopes of winning the RBC Canadian Open in 2000, becoming the first since Lee Trevino in 1971 to win golf’s Triple Crown – the U.S., British, and Canadian Opens in the same year. So was it the ultra-fine margin? The stakes? The absurdly improbable physics of the shot itself? Yes. Yes. And yes. All of these things compelled Scott Verplank, among others, to call it “the greatest shot I’ve ever seen in my life,â€� Woods’ 218-yard masterstroke from the wet sand at the par-5 18th at Glen Abbey. Woods’ caddie Steve Williams would return to the bunker once the commotion had died down, still struggling to get his head around what he’d seen. Others have made the same pilgrimage and tried to visualize what Woods had, tried to feel what Woods felt, for this was magic. Many lost sight of the ball; the sky was too gray, the raindrops too distracting, the ball too high. Or maybe it was Woods himself — having scorched a 380-yard drive to set up an eagle on the hole two days earlier and bidding to win for the fifth time in seven starts and ninth time that season — who was flying too high. What people saw when they got to that bunker was the row of greenery down the right side that blocked any view of the pin, and the yawning lake waiting to claim another victim, and the safe and sensible bailout area to the left. Woods, perhaps, saw none of these things. Herewith, an oral history of perhaps the most audacious shot of his incredible career: Woods, 24, was eight wins into his masterpiece season, when he would set or tie 27 TOUR records. As an amateur, he had finished 11th in the rain-shortened 1996 Bell Canadian Open at Glen Abbey. Now, naturally, there was heavy speculation about whether he would return. Bill Paul, former Canadian Open tournament director: “I began talking to him about coming to Glen Abbey at the beginning of the 2000 season, and by August, I was 98% sure he would play, but if you announce it and he changes his mind, that 2% magnifies to 2,000% because people are so disappointed. I started preparing with all the additional spending on bussing and food services and security. I never told anybody; people thought I was crazy.â€� A week before the tournament, Woods lost the made-for-TV Battle of Bighorn to Sergio Garcia – whilst battling the flu. Some now feared that he’d skip Canada, but he announced three days later, on a Thursday, that he would indeed come to Glen Abbey. Paul: “Within 20 minutes, there were helicopters flying over Glen Abbey, TV stations wanting interviews. Staff worked until 2 a.m. that night to handle ticket requests, and on Friday, we had a line outside my office over four football fields out the front gates of Glen Abbey, all of them wanting tickets. It was mind-boggling. I had to stop ticket sales Sunday morning.â€� Woods (on camera): “This golf course is tailor-made for my type of game, guys who hit it high off the tee and high into the greens generally do well here. I played well in ’96 and my game has improved, and hopefully I can play well again in 2000.â€� The day Paul had to stop ticket sales, Grant Waite, a 36-year-old New Zealander with a single PGA TOUR victory, finished second to Rory Sabbatini at the Air Canada Championship in Vancouver. It was a bittersweet result, and Waite vowed to win next time he got the chance. It came quickly, as he shot 69-64 to get into contention again at Glen Abbey. Woods, commanding huge crowds, opened with a lackluster, even-par 72. The next day, though, he went birdie, eagle, birdie, eagle on holes 15 through 18, signed for a 65, and also got into contention, four back. Bob Weeks, Senior Reporter, TSN: “In those days, we had a separate Canadian broadcast, and I was out walking with one of the earlier groups as the on-course reporter for their rounds, and I don’t think I went on air once. No one was interested in anyone but Tiger.â€� Grant Waite: “Tiger was at a different level than I was, but I was feeling pretty good about my game and what I was doing. I played with him in ’93 at Byron Nelson when he was 17; he hadn’t won the U.S. Amateur at that point. That was really before the whole Tiger Woods aura had kind of begun. You could tell that he was really good; he was very raw in his game. He hit the ball very far. He was an undeniable talent. You could tell that he was going to be successful.â€� Woods shot 64 in the third round, Waite 68, including a missed short birdie try on 18. They were tied at the top at 15 under and had a date for the final round. Waite had played with the legends of the game, though, once going toe-to-toe against Jack Nicklaus, and was unintimidated. Waite: “I’d played with Jack in the final round of the 1988 Australian Masters, when I’d been a pro for only four or five months. It was a little bit shocking standing on the first tee and seeing this guy you’ve watched on TV. It was blowing 25 mph, a very, very difficult day, and Jack shot 77 and I shot even-par 73 and finished third. Greg Norman won. Jack didn’t play particularly well, but I learned that the player you’re paired up with can’t stop you from executing your shots. I carried that with me when I played against Tiger in Canada.â€� Waite and Woods traded final-round birdies until the par-5 16th, where Woods birdied from 12 feet and Waite failed to convert from slightly farther away after an indifferent third shot. Woods found trouble at 17 but got up and down from the greenside bunker for par. They were still separated by a shot as they came to the 508-yard, par-5 18th. With the skies gray and fans holding umbrellas, Woods lost his tee shot into the right fairway bunker. Waite split the fairway. Bill Paul: “I remember it being cloudy and it was drizzling; the rain was starting. I remember thinking how much I hoped they would get this in. There were so many people out there.â€� Waite hit 5-iron to the fat of the green, well left of the pin – the sensible play and one that would leave him with an easy two-putt birdie. To hold him off, Woods would likely need to also make birdie, and he faced the choice of laying up or going for it from the fairway bunker. Paul: “Grant was in a great position. He had a long eagle try, and at worst a birdie.â€� Steve Williams: “I certainly got the required yardage should Tiger decide to lay up, but knowing how he thinks, there was no doubt in my mind he was going to try and knock it on the green.â€� Sandra Post, eight-time LPGA winner and former TSN broadcaster: “I was standing in the fairway, about 20 yards away. It was getting dark. The air was a bit heavy. He had a pretty good lie. He needed to make 4. I don’t know what was going on in his mind; probably aim left and cut it a little bit.â€� Waite: “He needed to make birdie, not eagle. The prudent play would be left of the flag where the green is a little bit wider. He’s a smart golfer, great course manager, so in my mind I was anticipating his ball going to the middle of the green.â€� Paul: “I never saw anyone go at that back-right pin from the right of the fairway or the bunker. The odds are totally against you. There’s an oak tree on that corner that blocks the hole. I was standing behind the green and everyone thought he was going to bail out; most players would hit their second shots to the end of the fairway to leave themselves a short wedge into the green.â€� Weeks: “Not only was he going over water to a small part of the green, but there were thick spruce bushes on his right side which blocked a direct line to the pin. I didn’t think there was any way he would go for the pin. I thought he might play to the left-center of the green or even the back bunker to be safe. Then I distinctly remember when he took his stance, my jaw dropped – it was clear where he was going.â€� Woods could not see the pin, but at the height of his powers, he had it in his mind’s eye. He set up left of it, took a mighty rip – and absolutely flushed his 6-iron. Post: “I remember the sound. You could hear the speed with which the clubhead went through, and the crisp contact. Then there was the waiting, and him watching it with those eyes. The ball seemed like it stayed up there forever; I think people lost it.â€� Waite: “When he made contact and the ball was to the right, I thought, ‘Oh, his ball is going to go in the water.’â€� Bill Kratzert, ESPN’s on-course reporter following the last group: “Bruce Devlin was out there with me, and I think he said, ‘Kratzy, that looks a little right.’â€� Although the ball did appear to take off too far right, it never left its tiny target, landing short of the pin and trundling past it before settling on the green’s back collar. The crowd erupted. Weeks: “When the ball landed, the roar shook the ground.â€� Kratzert: “The contact had to be perfect, and he didn’t even flinch. Maybe he did push it, but I’m gonna say he pushed it 15 feet, max. It was one of the top two shots I’ve seen him hit.â€� Williams: “Tiger hit an incredible amount of brilliant shots whilst I was caddying for him. Given it was the 72nd hole with the tournament on the line, the approach shot to the 18th hole at Glen Abbey from the fairway bunker at the 2000 Canadian Open tops my list.â€� Woods (on camera): “That one shot I did hit, it was pretty good, but you know what? I didn’t hit the green; I hit it over the green, so it wasn’t really that good.â€� Waite: “One grain of sand between the clubface and the ball could have changed my life for sure, but it didn’t. Tiger, at that time, couldn’t do anything wrong.â€� Paul: “To me, it was everything that went on that week, and the prior four to six months to get him there. That shot was the last chapter of the book; it felt preordained.â€� Waite missed his eagle putt, settling for a birdie that Woods matched after chipping his third shot to tap-in range. Afterward, although it was nearly dark, some eyewitnesses felt compelled to return to the scene of the shot, as if still disbelieving what they’d just seen. Williams: “Following the presentation, when it had all quietened down, I walked back to take a second look at what was an incredible shot – 218 yards from wet sand, water short, bunker left that leaves a difficult up and down. Absolutely has to hit every bit of a 6-iron and then some. A very fond memory from one of the great TOUR events.â€� Weeks: “After all the press conferences (where Tiger joked that ‘I pushed it a little’), I walked out to the spot with a colleague and looked at the line he took. It was ridiculous to me that he would ever contemplate hitting that shot with the tournament on the line. It just shows me how much confidence he had in his game at that point.â€� Many have tried to recreate the shot. Harold Varner III succeeded in hitting the green with a 5-iron, but now it’s harder than ever, if not impossible, to do so. (Glen Abbey is no longer the host course for the RBC Canadian Open.) Weeks: “Those bushes I mentioned have today grown up to the point that the shot is no longer possible but for years, almost everyone who played at Glen Abbey went over to that bunker and attempted to re-create that shot. I’m pretty sure no one was ever successful.â€� Post: “It’s my hometown, so I’ve played Glen Abbey a lot. People always try to recreate it because he made it look easy, but you try carrying it over water 218 yards from wet sand, over the corner and to a target you can’t even completely see, with everything on the line.â€� Waite finished his career with one victory, at the 1993 Kemper Open, and five runner-up finishes. Now 55, he lives in the Orlando area, where he’s a teaching pro and still competes. Waite: “I lost twice in a row to birdies on the last hole, but to play at that level two weeks in a row is exceptional for most of us. I talked to Tiger, and he said, ‘Yeah, that was a little bit right of where I wanted to go,’ but that was about it. He said I’d forced his hand, that he felt compelled to take the shot on. So at least I made him work for it. There’s not too many times you finish second and people remember it. Bob May, I’m sure, has the same thing going on with the (2000) PGA. I shot a tournament record at 21 under and lost. Tiger shot 22 under. The next guy was 15 under, Sergio Garcia. But such is life in competition. It was an incredible shot.â€�

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In the last three months, Scottie Scheffler has achieved what many would call a career’s worth of success. The 25-year-old has won four of his last six starts, including the Masters, to ascend to No. 1 in the FedExCup and Official World Golf Ranking. Scheffler has amassed a 1,236-point lead in the FedExCup, meaning it would take at least two victories for even second-ranked Cameron Smith to catch him, a significant lead in the world ranking and also earned over $10 million in prize money. Yeah, that’s not a bad start to the season. It’s been an eventful few months for Scheffler, who also signed with TaylorMade after his first two PGA TOUR victories. Last week, he got to enjoy some downtime after his life-changing victory at Augusta National. He was able to relax, be at home with his wife, Meredith, and reflect on his recent successes. During his off-week between the Masters and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans – he’s playing alongside fellow Texan, and former Zurich Classic champ, Ryan Palmer this week – GolfWRX.com’s Two Guys Talkin’ Golf (TG2) podcast caught up with Scheffler to talk equipment, signing with TaylorMade, winning the Masters, and what his first big purchase was following the major victory. Enjoy the Q&A below (which has been slightly edited for brevity). GolfWRX.com: Congratulations on the Masters victory, Scottie. Awesome win. Here at GolfWRX, we’re all equipment junkies. The first question we have is, you started off great this year, playing really well, and then you signed with TaylorMade, What made you want to join the TaylorMade team? Scheffler: Yeah, there’s a few different reasons. That’s not a decision I’ll make very lightly. I would say first and foremost would be the driver. I already used the (Taylormade P-7TW) irons for awhile. I like the irons. But the (TaylorMade Stealth Plus) driver, when we did testing over the winter, I saw some pretty nice gains. It was one of those things, like, I know I’m going to use this driver, I know I’m going to use the irons, so maybe let’s see if we can work something out. Just because having consistency with their brand, obviously I trust what they do. To be part of the family and be part of the team was pretty cool for me, and so we wanted to work something out with them, and we were able to get it done. I’m happy to be part of the team. GolfWRX.com: On that note, you had a Nike VR Pro Limited fairway wood in the bag for a long, long time. What did it take the team at TaylorMade to do to get that VR Pro out of your bag and into a TaylorMade Stealth? Scheffler: There’s a few things. One of the things I’ve struggled with was actually hitting 3-woods too far, and also just not seeing all my shots. These guys did something to the (Fujikura Ventus) shaft, honestly I can’t even remember what they did, but it was something with the tipping. They may have tipped it a couple extra inches and moved some weight around the head, and then started with a higher loft and bent it down. Adrian (Rietveld, Senior Manager of Tour at TaylorMade) and those guys, they did all kinds of stuff to it. … Austin was a good area for me to be like, ‘OK, I’m only going to hit this off the tee maybe a few times, let’s put it in the bag and see what I can do with it.’ And it was a pretty seamless transition. I saw the shots I wanted to see. My mishits were more accurate with the TaylorMade than they were than my Nike. I’ve seen some significant improvements already. GolfWRX.com: So you’re 25 years old and having this unbelievable year. Where do you see yourself going from here? Scheffler: I don’t really look too far into the future, so right now I’m just getting some rest at home. I think the last few weeks have been pretty draining emotionally, especially The Masters with it being a major. But then there was all the hype in Austin, that being a place that’s also so special to me and really wanting to win that event. Right now I’m just emotionally drained. So I’ve just been chilling at home, getting some rest, doing stuff around the house, just being normal. It’s been great. Going from here I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. I’ve put myself in a good position in the FedExCup. I just got my first major. For me, I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, working hard, keeping up the work in the gym, and just keep trying to improve. Goals for me, and stuff like that, nothing’s really going to change. GolfWRX.com: How much are you going to wear the Green Jacket over the next year? Scheffler: You know, it’s kind of funny. I put it on the other night. Meredith and I were just sitting around – I thought it’d be kind of a funny joke – we were having dessert, and I just went back in the other room and grabbed the Green Jacket and put it on to eat my ice cream with the jacket on. Just being us at home, having fun with it. Honestly, probably not too much. It’s just one of those cool things I’ll keep in the golf room. I want to represent the club well. I’m only going to wear it for certain, special occasions. GolfWRX.com: So like you said, you’re going to take a break. What does Scottie Scheffler do in this time? What’s your plan of relaxing between now and the next time you tee it up? Scheffler: You know, we have a little backyard here at our house. I went to Lowe’s yesterday and got some pool equipment to clean the pool. We’re redoing the grill area in the backyard, and I asked one of the guys that helps us around the house what I should do to clean the leaves up, and he was like, ‘You have to get this leaf vacuum.’ Now I’m kind of jacked up about the leaf vacuum. So I’m going to go to the store after this and get that. Just clean, get outside. The weather is so good here at home. I’m used to being outside practicing, but right now I’m just getting a bit of rest, maybe go clean the yard, go for a swim. Just do nothing. GolfWRX.com: So yeah getting back to a little bit of club stuff, you play the P7TW – the Tiger Woods iron – but TaylorMade also makes the P7MB. What made you go with the TW over, say, the P730 or the P7MB? Is it a Tiger influence, or was it a performance difference? Scheffler: I would say the reason I tested it was definitely a Tiger influence. I used the P730’s for a number of years, and I played with Tiger at The Masters in 2020, and I watched him it. He hits it so solid and he flights it so well and does all kinds of stuff with the ball. It kind of clicked in my head, I was like, ‘I used Nike clubs for so long when he was helping develop those irons.’ I’m like, why wouldn’t I at least test his new irons with TaylorMade because they’re his irons, and he obviously had some influence in the process of developing and producing the irons. I went home in the off-season, tested them out, and I saw that I was able to hit more shots with them. I was able to flatten out the flight a little bit more if I wanted to hit it low or hit it through the wind. And when I wanted to hit it higher, I could do that, as well. It gave me a little bit more variety in what I could do with the golf ball than the P730. And it’s not a big difference, it’s just when you put yourself in a 20mph wind in your face and want to flatten it out a little bit. I can flatten it out and have the ball be a little bit more stable with the head. It’s only a couple yards, but for me it felt like a huge difference. GolfWRX.com: You’ve achieved something literally every golfer has dreamed about, I’m curious what you’re feeling right now. World No. 1, and you just put on the Green Jacket for the first time. Can you put that feeling into words for golfers who have always wanted to feel what you’re feeling? Scheffler: Yeah, the walk up 18 was pretty special. Sunday had been such a long day and such a grind. Teddie (Ted Scott, his caddie) and I just enjoyed the walk up 18. What I’m feeling right now is it still hasn’t really sunk in. I’m pretty tired. I’ve just been chilling at home and enjoying the moment. Meredith always asked me how I would want to celebrate getting my first win, and winning tournaments what I wanted to celebrate, and one of my favorite things is just going back and just living our normal lives. Really, we’ve just been hanging out at home, reflecting the last few days, and trying to let it sink in. GolfWRX.com: If you could go back and give your 10-year-old self advice on life or your golf career, what would you go back and tell him? Scheffler: I’d probably tell my 10-year-old self not to take myself so seriously. I think you really build up what you’re doing at the time in your head, and I had a good support system around me that helped me not do that as much. But, when you’re a kid, sports are so important to you. So for me, just don’t take myself so seriously and understand that bad things are going to happen. It’s not a perfect game or perfect science. Just enjoy it. GolfWRX.com: Well said. Any idea what’s going on the Champions Dinner menu next year? Scheffler: You know, my guess would be, I’m from Texas, so y’all can probably predict 90% of my menu. I’m a meat and potatoes guy. I hope everyone there enjoys their meat and potatoes. If not, they might be going hungry.

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