Ranking the 9 Greatest Shots in Masters History, From Bubba and Phil to Jack and Tiger

Why is the Masters so beloved? Sure, maybe it’s the mythology and azaleas. But above all, it’s the moments.

The tournament has no shortage of drama. And one simple swing can forever etch its place in golf lore.

Of course, there have been many indelible shots in the Masters Tournament’s 89 editions. Here are our favorite nine shots, ranked.

9. Louis Oosthuizen, 2012. Hole: Par-5 2nd

The South African began the round two strokes back of the lead, but two holes into the final round he jumped to the top of the leaderboard with one swing.

On what is historically Augusta National’s easiest hole, Oosthuizen had 260 yards to the hole after his tee shot. The 2010 British Open champion then plopped his shot 60 yards short of the flag, and the ball rolled across the green and into the cup for an albatross.

It was the fourth double eagle in Masters history, and the first on the 2nd hole.

After Oosthuizen scooped his ball out of the cup, he tossed it to the patrons behind the green. It was caught by Wayne Mitchell, a 59-year-old from New Tripoli, Penn., and he would later donate the souvenir back to the club.

Oosthuizen would fall to Bubba Watson later that day in a sudden-death playoff.

8. Sandy Lyle, 1988: Par-4 18th

The Scot was trying to make history as the first British player to win the Masters.

Tied for the lead on the 72nd hole, Lyle teed off with a 1-iron and hit his ball into the left fairway bunker, at the foot of the upslope. He’d respond with one of the Masters’ most famous 7-iron shots, where he stuck his 160-yard approach onto the green. The ball then caught the slope and rolled back to 10 feet.

Lyle would sink his birdie putt for the title, by one stroke over Mark Calcavecchia.

7. Phil Mickelson, 2010. Hole: Par-5 13th

There’s a reason he’s called Phil the Thrill.

Trying to finish off his third Masters title, Mickelson found trouble, hitting a wayward tee shot into the pine straw on the famed par-5 13th. That left him 187 yards to carry the creek in front of the green with a gap between the trees “about the width of a box of a dozen balls,” his caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, would recall.

Mickelson then did the unthinkable. With a 6-iron, his cleanly-struck shot settled 4 feet from the hole. He missed his eagle putt, but Mickelson made birdie and won by three strokes, thanks in part to arguably the best shot of his career.

6. Jack Nicklaus, 1986. Hole: Par-3 16th

A 46-year-old Nicklaus was making the charge of a lifetime.

Winless in the previous two seasons, he trailed by six strokes. Then, after an eagle on No. 15 he trailed by one. He’d played his last five holes at 7 under.

What came next was arguably even more impressive. He hit his tee shot right of the flag before the ball kicked left and nearly fell in the hole, leaving him a roughly 4-footer for birdie, which he’d make. Ironically, 11 years earlier, Nicklaus dropped a 40-footer on the same hole en route to victory.

Nicklaus went on to become the oldest Masters champion in history, a feat that still stands today. It’s perhaps the most heralded Masters ever.

5. Bubba Watson, 2012: Hole: Par-4 10th in sudden death playoff

Honestly, does this one get enough credit?

On the second hole of a sudden-death playoff against Louis Oosthuizen, the left-handed Watson pulled his drive into the trees, and his hopes for a green appeared all but over.

Watson didn’t feel that way. In fact, he considered the pine straw “almost” like a fairway.

So, with a clean lie, 163 yards from the flag (one that he couldn’t see), Watson snap hooked a 52-degree gap wedge nearly 10 feet from the hole.

“Hooked it about 40 yards, hit about 15 feet off the ground until it got under the tree and then started rising,” Watson said. “Pretty easy.”

Two putts later, he was a Masters champion.

4. Rory McIlroy, 2025. Hole: Par-5 15th

Trying to become the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam, the Northern Irishman had a four-stroke lead making the turn. That had evaporated, though, by the time he walked to the 15th tee, following a double and a bogey.

McIlroy would then smash his drive 332 yards, setting up an approach that lives in Masters lore. With a 7-iron, 207 yards to the hole, standing in the rough as his ball sat on the edge of the left fairway, he drew his shot around the trees, landing inside 10 feet.

“The shot of a lifetime,” CBS’s Jim Nantz exclaimed on the broadcast.

McIlroy missed that eagle putt and yes, two holes later, McIlroy knocked his approach to 2 feet. And his second shot in the sudden-death playoff on the par-4 18th settled 4 feet from the cup, essentially securing him the green jacket.

But that slinging approach on No. 15 Sunday is the defining moment of McIlroy’s historic and long-awaited victory in Augusta.

Poised to make eagle. Rory McIlroy goes for glory on No. 15. #themasters pic.twitter.com/hAM0zxnkM7
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 13, 2025

3. Gene Sarazen, 1935. Hole: Par-5 15th

It’s known as the Shot Heard ‘Round the World’. The Augusta Chronicle has dubbed it “the most famous and important shot in Masters Tournament history.”

With four holes to play in the final round of the second-ever Masters, Sarazen trailed Craig Wood, the clubhouse leader, by three. Then, after a superb tee shot, Sarazen decided to go for the green in two. His strike with a 4-wood cleared the pond, hit the green and rolled into the cup for an albatross.

“Well, I couldn’t see it go in the hole,” Sarazen said in 1998, a year before his death. “All I could see were those 25 people [around the green] all getting up and throwing their arms up. I knew something had happened. The ball was either close, or it was in. And my caddie said, ‘I think that it’s in the hole.’”

That shot eventually got Sarazen into a 36-hole playoff against Wood, which Sarazen would win by five strokes.

That year, Sarazen made the Masters into the Masters.

2. Larry Mize, 1987: Par-4 11th

The Augusta native, four years removed from his last win, found himself in a sudden-death playoff with two legends of the game, Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros.

Ballesteros fell out of the playoff by three-putting the 10th hole, leaving Mize and Norman. And after both players landed in the fairway, Mize poorly struck a 5-iron, trying to avoid the water left of the green. The ball did leak right, but 40 yards off the green. Then, however, the improbable happened. He two-hopped his chip before the ball rolled into the cup.

He threw his club in the air and ran in circles as Norman watched in disbelief. Norman would miss his 50-foot birdie putt, giving Mize the fairytale victory.

“I hit it and I’m frozen watching it,” Mize told CNN in 2017. “It goes in the hole and I throw my club up and I ran around screaming like a madman—it was total elation.”

1. Tiger Woods, 2005: Par-3 16th

“In your life, have you seen anything like that?”

Those are the famous words of Verne Lundquist on the CBS broadcast when Woods’s ball paused and then fell into the cup on the 70th hole, 21 years ago.

Moments earlier, Woods, leading Chris DiMarco by one shot, pulled his tee shot with an 8-iron left of the 16th green.

The ensuing moment is frozen in time. Woods’s ball was on the fringe of the green, 30 feet from the hole. He chipped about 25 feet north of the pin, with the ball squirting across the putting surface and then taking a sharp right turn. It trickled closer and closer to the hole and hung on the lip of the cup for nearly two seconds, flashing the Nike swoosh, before dropping to an earthquake from the crowd (and “the worst high five ever” with caddie Steve Williams).

“Under the circumstances, it was one of the best I’ve ever hit,” Woods said afterward. “All of a sudden, it was pretty good, then really good, then it was, ‘How can it not go in?’ Then it went in.”

Many forget what happened next, though. Woods made bogey on No. 17 while DiMarco made par, cutting the margin back to one. On the final hole, Woods hit his third shot from the bunker to 10 feet, but missed his par putt to win. DiMarco made his, sending the duo to a sudden-death playoff, where Woods quickly rolled in a 15-foot birdie for the title.

But without that immortal chip-in, Woods wouldn’t have won his fourth Masters.