If there was ever someone you would think could hit a one-in-a-million golf shot, it would be Tiger Woods.
We’ve seen him knock it stiff from behind trees, in bunkers, sometimes both. There was even that time he did it from the middle of a pond.
But on Saturday at the Genesis Invitational, Woods hit a shot he might never have shot he could do. And it wasn’t intentional this time.
On the 13th hole after starting on 10, Woods blocked his tee shot right on the dogleg left par-4. There aren’t any fairway bunkers on 13, but somehow, his ball did not come to rest on grass. It bounced and stopped in a fan’s jacket pocket.
Perhaps the throngs of people following Woods this week at The Riviera Country Club and the cool weather this week increased the number of potential pockets enough that this wasn’t as unlikely an occurrence as one might think. Woods still appeared to laugh it off during the ESPN+ coverage.
The fan explained to Woods and a PGA Tour rules official that the ball bounced into his jacket pocket and then fell out.
“It stopped right in my jacket. Then I pulled off my jacket and it fell right down,” the fan said, gesturing to Woods’ ball just a few feet in front of him. “[I was standing] right here. I haven’t moved.”
The official and Woods then determined he would get relief under Rule 11.1b(1) even though his ball was no longer in the man’s jacket. The rule states: “…if the ball comes to rest on any person, animal or moving outside influence, the player must not play the ball as it lies. Instead, the player must take relief…”
Woods then took relief, dropping within one club length from the point where the ball stopped in the fan’s jacket.
The man, who seemed to be having the time of his life, smiling on the broadcast, then did what any other person would reasonably do after getting hit by a Tiger Woods tee shot: he thanked the 15-time major champion and tournament host.
Whether it was for hitting him, getting him front and center on the ESPN+ broadcast, playing the tournament this week, hosting the tournament this week or even for just his general contributions to the game over his nearly 30-year pro career, we may never know. However, it will certainly be a story he can tell family and friends for years to come.
Then he wished he could have done something to have Woods thank him.
“f I could, I would have pushed it out [into the fairway],” he said as the crowd laughed.
As for Woods, the drop likely didn’t alter the shot he would have had anyway. Playing from matted-down rough where the gallery had been standing 172 yards from the pin, he hit a solid approach to 28 feet and nearly made the putt for birdie.
