The Shots are on Me.

This will generate some arguments, many from yours truly...

Golf Digest has a fun slideshow picking the best shot with each individual club, i.e., best driver, best 3-wood...  Now this is a fun idea, though they can't seem to decide on any consistent criteria for what constitutes the best.  Are we looking just at the quality of the shot, or do we factor in the shot's significance.  They can't seem to decide, and as a result it's a bit of a muddle, all in good fun of course.

Selected choices and my rebuttal follow:

Angel Cabrera - in  his Sunday yellow.

Best Driver:  Angel Cabrera - 18th hole at Oakmont in the  final round of the 2007 U.S. Open

Honorable Mention: Andrew Magee - 17th hole in the first round of the 2001 Phoenix Open

Me:  I still remember Cabrera's drive, which I think is still rolling.  But the first round of the Phoenix Open, excuse me while I stop laughing.

3-Wood:  T.C. Chen holed his second shot on No. 2 at Oakland Hills for the first albatross in U.S. Open history.

Honorable Mention:  Phil on No. 17 last year at Muirfield.

Me:  I actually didn't remember the Chen shot, since he became more famous for a later "2."  Phil's shot was quite amazing, but equally unwise.  But so be it...

4-Wood:  Annika's first tee shot at Colnial

Honorable Mention:  Corey, No. 18, Shinnecock.

Me:  Annika????  You're serious about this?

5-Wood:  David Toms' hole-in-one in the third round at Atlanta Country Club on the way to winning the 2001 PGA over Phil.

Honorable Mention:  Padraig, kick-in eagle at the 17th hole at Royal Birkdale to clinch the 2008 Open Championship.

Me:  No real quibbles, though Paddy should get an asterisk because of the dreadful 17th green built by Peter Dawson, which has subsequently been ripped up.  I made birdie on that hole before the change the green, so  with my shot I halved the hole with Paddy.

Hybrid:  Y.E. Yang, 18th at Hazeltine in the 2009 PGA.

Honorable Mention:  Todd Hamilton, in the playoff with Ernie for the 2004 Open Championship.

Me:  I like both choices.  The former because it was when the world changed for Mr. Woods.  The latter because it's a completely different use of the weapon.

1-Iron:  John Daly's second shot to the 630-yard 17th at Baltusrol in the 1993 U.S. Open

Honorable Mention:  Joey Sindelar...blah, blah, blah...Quail Hollow.

Me:  Do you folks watch any golf?  Ever heard of Jack William Nicklaus, who owns this club.  And by the way, you didn't even pick the best one-iron at Baltusrol, which was struck in 1967 and has a plaque in the 18th fairway memorializing it.  Personally I'd pick the rope through the howling wind at the 17th at Pebble to lock down the 1972 U.S. Open.  Or perhaps the entire 1966 Open Championship at Muirfield, when he "One-ironed her to death."

I'll leave you to the rest, as I've run out of steam (but I did need to get the one-iron rant out of my system).  There's notable omissions, of course, including Phil's 6-iron from the pine straw on the 13th at Augusta.  He picks Jack's putt on No. !7 at Augusta in 1986 for best putt, and gives HM to Tiger on the 18th at Torrey and Constantino Rocca from the Valley of Sin to get into a playoff at The Old Course in 1995.  Like me, you might have expected to see Tiger's putt that was, how did he put it, "Better than most."

Just to show off, for best putt of all time I nominate Bobby Jones on the 18th green at Winged Foot in the final round of the 1929 U.S. Open.  I wasn't there, but from a Golf Digest story before the 2006 Open:

...real aficionados also tackle Bobby Jones' putt that forged a tie with Al Espinosa in the 1929 U.S. Open. Only a 12-footer, the putt was downhill with a vicious left-to-right break, prompting Grantland Rice to call it "the greatest single putt I have ever witnessed."

Bobby Jones sinking the putt needed to get into a playoff with Al Espinosa at the 1929 U.S. Open

Espinosa was a religious man, and Jones famously interceded with the USGA to push back the time of their Sunday 36-hole playoff, and the two sat together at services that morning.  Jones, at the peak of his abilities, then went our and beat Espinosa by 23 shots in the playoff, for his third U.S. Open title.  His fourth would come the following year as part of his Grand Slam.