Mickelson's Incredible Shot on 13.

[BallStriker]

What i loved was the discussion between him and his Caddy. His caddy told him, definetly enough to get it over the front of the green. When he said that, i thought he would take one more club and make sure its center of the green, not put the ball 2 yards from being in the creak. That was nuts. I don't care what you say, a shot from the fairway isn't gaurenteed to get there or stay safe. he had two trees, pine straw.. the golf course saying, "Bring it on, Phil" This is what the master's is suppose to be about. The insane chip from Tiger years ago, to this shot, to Freddy's miracle save on the par three in the early 90's.

I don't know whether you happen to catch the interview with J. McKay (Phil's caddie), but he had an interesting comment on the siutation....basically he said that part of the phsycology with Phil is just getting out of his way and letting him be the golfer he wants to be....regarding that specific shot, it appeared to me that McKay was trying to talk him into hitting the 5 iron (during the coverage, I heard him mention that the ball will not go as far off the pine straw).....in any event, in his post-round interview with golfchannel, McKay said that Phil told him "that this is a 6 iron, you just need to let me execute the shot." And the rest is history.......

[Flypaper]

Definitely the gutsiest shot i have ever seen. I'm not a fan boy - but I'm glad Phi won.

[jurban05]

Apologies it's not in English, can't find anything better on YouTube.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. that was a pretty amazing shot :)

[authentic_golfer]

The shot was one for the ages, but not even Phil could have meant to hit it where he did. Surely he was aiming 30 feet left of where it finished.

Of course, that's the whole point of aiming away from trouble -- give yourself room for error.

Sean

[normdamarine]

This is a classic story... If he missed that shot we all would be calling him a bone head once again for going for it. Lets be real here, its the 13th hole on Sunday at the Master and he was leading. Behind a tree off pine needles! I do not care what you say that is an extremly hard shot to hit let alone on Sunday at the Masters. If he would have hit the middle of the green it would have been a smart shot but to land it where he did was a miss. No one can tell me that is where he was trying to hit it, he got away with one there....

Either way, one of the greatest shots I have ever seen. I was on my couch in disbelief...

[PuttPutt]

It was a spectacular looking shot to be sure, but I sensed that Phil played it with a lot of confidence in the outcome, i.e. he didn't consider it that risky of a shot. To me it seemed that Phil was playing calmly and within himself the whole day, unlike on other occasions when he'd get too keyed up when in contention and you sensed a bad decision might come at any moment .... His short game was firing as usual and he was reading the greens well so his chances of an up-and-down if he'd ended up in the creek were very good - not such a big downside.

The following is from Amy Mickelson:

Source: MSNBC

“I could see he was going for it,” Amy said. “I like that about him. I know people say, 'It’s a mistake' and 'why did he do that?' when he takes chances. But I don’t. He goes for it. I knew he wasn’t coming out here to finish second.”

This pretty much sums it all. For the whole story,

Click here

[laconic517]

I agree with the guy who said Yang's shot was better. If Phil made that youd have an argument. Yang made his putt as well and it was on the last hole with all that wind to beat tiger.

[sean_miller]

I agree with the guy who said Yang's shot was better. If Phil made that youd have an argument. Yang made his putt as well and it was on the last hole with all that wind to beat tiger.

This line of reasoning makes little to no sense to me. Since when is making a putt the criteria for quality of an approach shot? I guess Constantino Rocca made a helluva nice chip at the 72nd of the 1995 British Open.

[laconic517]

This line of reasoning makes little to no sense to me. Since when is making a putt the criteria for quality of an approach shot? I guess Constantino Rocca made a helluva nice chip at the 72nd of the 1995 British Open.

a putt is a putt. Theres nothing after it so it stands on its own. A shot definately depends on the putt if its that close. Had he hit some crazy shot from the trees to 30 ft and then 2 putted the shot would be ok. He hit the shot so close that he had to make it to make it. Its like knocking it to a foot on a par 3 and then missing. Your great shot was erased.

[zeg]

great shot and great hole are not synonymous. This was great shot, good hole.

[mcfc_nick]

This line of reasoning makes little to no sense to me. Since when is making a putt the criteria for quality of an approach shot? I guess Constantino Rocca made a helluva nice chip at the 72nd of the 1995 British Open.

the putt matters because now that he missed it there would be no difference than if he had layed up, wedged it in to about a foot and tapped in

[sean_miller]

the putt matters because now that he missed it there would be no difference than if he had layed up, wedged it in to about a foot and tapped in

He gave himself a putt for eagle after hitting from the trees. That constitutes a great shot. I didn't say it was his greatest hole. That was 18.

If he'd played safe and missed the same putt - his approach was pretty freaking close - he'd have been a lay-up loser like Rickie Fowler.

[beisenhauer]

Right before that shot I said to my wife, "I'm afraid this is going to be another I'm-Such-An-Idiot moment." I was really glad to see him pull it off, though. I loved his comment in one of the interviews afterward: "A great shot is when you pull it off. A smart shot is when you don't have the guts to go for it." Pretty much sums up Phil.

[Elvisliveson]

He gave himself a putt for eagle after hitting from the trees. That constitutes a great shot. I didn't say it was his greatest hole. That was 18.

I could not agree more. It was an unbelievable shot because he took a punch out situation and turned it into a 3 foot eagle putt. The fact he missed the putt has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the approach.

[FHopper]

It was a great shot and props to Phil for taking the swing. I think that part of what makes the shot look so spectacular is that he is left handed, it adds an awkwardness to the shot in our perception of it. I am not a Phil fan, and as for golf shot of the "whatever" Tiger has made too many to count that were better golf shots. The big draw around the trees on Thursday was a better shot.

[DarkPrince]

I guess taking another look at it, I'm not sure the shot is as bad as TV makes it, as Phil did seem really confident about it. The angle of the camera I think make it seem like the ball is much closer to the trees in front of him, whereas he actually had enough room to do a full swing and follow through. Not to make it a tiger v phil thing, but I also remember a clip of a shot on the 11th (I think?) a few years ago where he ended up just breaking his iron in the process of the shot. He also had a pretty good gap between the trees, knew the exact distance he needed to hit, and certainly had to have had a damn good lie on the needles. Was there a lot of luck in the shot? Hell yes, if it were likely 2 feet further forward I'm not sure he could have done it, or if his ball had buried a little in the pine straw, if he went for it then, then we might be talking winged foot 2.0 :P I still think it was a great shot, I admit i was doing a holy f*ck double take, but a few days removed I can see why he took it so casually in the interview lol

[cignatz21]

That was an extremely risky decision him and caddie "Bones" made. When he cleared the water, I knew there was no way that he was going to let the green jacket slip away. This is just how Phil plays, no guts no glory. Obviously he has all the glory in the world now.

[spitz20]

Phil is amazing....his short game reminds me of my own :P lol