Sports
Twenty years ago, Tiger Woods' chip shot hung in the balance, and a Masters moment was created
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Funny how time works.
Twenty years seems so short.
And 1.8 seconds seems so long.
That’s how long the golf ball that Tiger Woods hit teetered on the edge of the 16th hole at Augusta National in 2005 before tumbling into the cup — nearly two agonizing seconds — his chip-in the signature moment of his fourth Masters victory.
That Sunday miracle from behind the green ricocheted around the sports world, not only because of the transcendent player who made it but because the ball lingered on the lip just long enough to theatrically display its Nike swoosh, which was tilted vertically, before disappearing into the cup.
“Maybe the greatest shot in the history of the game,” CBS announcer Jim Nantz said. “Arguably the most commercialized and most seen.”
His network colleague Verne Lundquist, greenside at 16, was gobsmacked.
“Using all of my language skills, when it fell in I went, ‘Oh, wow,’” the retired Lundquist said this week with a chuckle. “Just relying on my vast vocabulary.”
The full call — viewed untold millions of times on a wide array of platforms — was, “Oh, wow! In your life have you ever seen anything like that!”
The behind-the-scenes story with CBS involved a truckload of intuition and a bit of insubordination, resulting in one of the great moments in televised sports. That a full two decades have passed is hard for the 84-year-old Lundquist to believe.
“Dear God,” he said, “has it been 20 years?”
The Situation
It was the final round of the 2005 Masters and Woods was battling down the stretch with Chris DiMarco, the two jostling atop the leaderboard. They got to the par-three 16th, where the Sunday pin position was in the back left of the green, just over a ridge. Woods was clinging to a one-shot lead after bogeys on the previous two holes.
Woods hit a poor tee shot that sailed long and left of the green that wound up on the fringe and left him with a nearly impossible chip, downhill, slick as a greased garage floor, with a severe left-to-right break.
His caddie, Steve Williams, didn’t know what to expect as they made their way off the tee. As he and Woods got closer to the green, Williams glanced up to tour pro-turned-analyst Ian Baker-Finch, who was in the tower at 15.
“I motioned to Ian, ‘Is he OK?’ and he gave me the thumbs up,” Williams recalled.
OK? Yes, but in a terrible position — especially considering DiMarco had hit his tee shot to within 5 feet of the cup.
The Shot
Woods and Williams took a long time surveying the situation, discussing the slope, speed and what the ball might do with spin. The idea, Williams said, was to land the ball 30 to 40 feet right of the hole, then let gravity do the work.
“He picked out a ball mark on the green and said, ‘Do you think if I landed on that ball mark it won’t pick up too much speed as it goes up the hill?’” Williams said. “I said, ‘That looks pretty good,’ and amazingly he landed right on that ball mark … and the rest was history.”
When the shot reached its apex on the slope, it made a hard right turn and meandered down to the cup, pausing for what felt like an eternity before tumbling in. Woods erupted, raising his fists in front of him as if curling an imaginary barbell, and the gallery behind him unleashed a roar.
“I was in a tower at 18,” Nantz recalled. “It felt like the ground was shaking all the way up there.”
The Decision
The drama of that 1.8 seconds of television almost didn’t happen. Steve Milton, who was directing the CBS broadcast, thought the ball was done rolling. He instructed technical director Norm Patterson to switch to an angle capturing Woods’ reaction, and away from the camera of Bob Wishnie, who had the ball perfectly in frame.
But Patterson ignored that order, instead staying on the ball for a couple more beats.
“Norm just followed his instincts,” Lundquist said. “And because he did, everybody remembers the shot.”
That was no casual decision on Patterson’s part.
“That’s a fireable offense,” Lundquist said. “It’s like being on the bridge of a ship and ignoring the captain’s orders.”
In a Golf.com article five years ago, Milton recalled those tense moments.
“I said, ‘OK, let’s cut,’ and Norm didn’t cut,” the director told the website. “He waited. He paused.”
The ball fell in the cup, and both Milton and Patterson exhaled.
“Thank you, Norm,” Milton said.
“Steve,” Patterson said, “we’re a great team.”
The Aftermath
Woods went on to win his fourth of five green jackets in a sudden-death playoff with DiMarco, and that shot was one of the most iconic and viewed moments of his storied career.
“I remember seeing the video later after I holed that shot, and there was a gentleman in back,” Woods recalled in 2019. “He just slams his hat on the ground.”
Of course, the overwhelming majority of the patrons behind him exploded with cheers.
The gallery celebrates after Tiger Woods makes a birdie putt at No. 18 in the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the 2005 Masters.
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“That’s fun,” he said. “It’s exciting to be part of situations like that, that people will look back on my career and say, ‘I saw him pull that shot off.’”
The chip-in plays a prominent role in “Together We Roared,” a recently released autobiography by Williams and sportswriter Evin Priest about the caddie’s glorious run carrying the bag for Woods.
“We tried to give the reader a backstage pass to arguably one of the greatest periods of golf played by anybody,” Williams said.
Almost immediately, Nike cut that footage of the shot into a commercial.
Tragically, Patterson died of an apparent heart attack less than a year later while in San Diego to cover a golf tournament. He was 45.
Lundquist, who retired last year, counts the drama on the 16th hole as one of the great highlights of his career.
“Tiger and I have a relationship because of that shot,” he said. “He said at a news conference, ‘The two of us will be tied at the hip together because of what I did and how he described it.’
“I treasure those comments.”
Twenty years, 1.8 seconds, yet forever timeless.
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The WNBA season has been in session for about a week, so it is far too early to make assumptions about teams. That doesn’t mean we won’t make them; it’s just too early to really believe it. I lost my first WNBA bet this season, so I’m hoping to avenge that loss here as the Sky take on the Mercury.
The Chicago Sky are one of the most poorly run franchises in basketball. They have had some great names on their team and only one championship to show for it.
Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner shoots over Indiana Fever guard Aerial Powers in the first half at PHX Arena. (Rick Scuteri/Imagn Images)
There really isn’t a clear indication of what is wrong with the franchise, but they’ve never been able to retain their talent. Aside from Kamilla Cardoso, I can’t name a player on this team that they’ve actually drafted. They just seem to get good players and then show them the door.
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Even though they’ve had questionable front office decisions, they seem to have put together a solid team for this season – something I didn’t expect before the season started.
They are 2-0, which is too early to really say they are a good team. I also want to reserve judgment until they face a team with a longer history than last year. The Portland Tempo played their first-ever game against the Sky, and Golden State was good last year, but still is in just their second season of existence.
The Phoenix Mercury are actually considered one of the best franchises in the league. I’m sure there are issues that people have reported, but for the most part, they have good facilities, and people want to play for their team. They made it all the way to the WNBA Finals last season before falling to the Las Vegas Aces. This year, they are looking to restart that journey and see if they can win the last game of the year.
Phoenix Mercury guard Kahleah Copper dribbles the ball in the second half at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., on July 27, 2025. (Emily Faith Morgan-Imagn Images)
It will need to come with some better play than they’ve shown through three games this year. They are just 1-2 for the year with a 0-1 home record. The lone win was a blowout victory over the Aces (a clear revenge game if we’ve ever seen one). Then they lost the next two games against Golden State and Minnesota. Losing to the Lynx wouldn’t be a problem, but they didn’t have Napheesa Collier, who still has an ankle injury.
I expect the Mercury to make some adjustments for this game. They haven’t looked very crisp to begin the year, but they’ve been strong on offense, averaging 87 points per game.
The Sky are going to keep relying on their offense to do just enough and their defense to lock in. The Sky do have an edge on the interior, so they can get buckets fairly easily down low. I like the over 166.5 in this game.
Chicago Sky guard Skylar Diggins chases the ball during the fourth quarter against the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on May 13, 2026. (Bob Kupbens/Imagn Images)
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I also think it is worth betting on Kahleah Copper to go over her point total. Copper had two rough games before she broke out in the last game. Now she has the same sight lines and can attack the bigs from the Sky with her athleticism. Since going to Phoenix, she has scored 29, 7, 16, 25 and 28 points in five games against them.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
Tom Harp has been coaching volleyball at Granada Hills High for so long that few remember he won a City Section championship as a co-head football coach with Darryl Stroh in 1987.
In the 1990s, he turned exclusively to coaching boys’ and girls’ volleyball, winning a combined 15 City titles and making 28 finals appearances. The top-seeded Highlanders will try to deliver a seventh Open Division championship on Saturday when they face West Valley League rival Chatsworth in a 4 p.m. final at Birmingham.
The league rivals split their two West Valley matches, with each going five games. Chatsworth knocked off 17-time champion Palisades in the semifinals. MIT-bound Grant Chang is Chatsworth’s 6-foot-6 powerful outside hitter.
All-City volleyball player RJ Francisco of Granada Hills shows off his hitting skills against Chatsworth.
(Craig Weston)
Granada Hills has RJ Francisco, who had 19 kills in a win over Chatsworth.
The Southern Section Division 1 final is Friday night, with Mira Costa taking on Loyola in a 7:30 p.m. match at Cerritos College.
Regional and state playoffs begin next week.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sports
Cedric Alexander becomes new TNA X Division champion, crushing Leon Slater’s history-making attempt
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All eyes were on the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) X Division Championship on Thursday night as Leon Slater looked to retain the title over Cedric Alexander and solidify himself as the longest-reigning X Division champion in the company’s history.
Slater knew a legacy was on the line as he looked to break a record set by Austin Aries. But he needed to pin Alexander twice in one match to retain the title. It was a steep mountain to climb as Alexander had been just as dangerous since he entered the company.
The match started off hot with Slater and Alexander trading blows to begin the match. But a quick-thinking Slater rolled up Alexander quickly for the first fall.
Cedric Alexander in the ring during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 23, 2025. (Bradlee Rutledge/WWE)
Alexander was able to go on offense from there. He hit a nasty German suplex on the outside of the ring. He continued to work on Slater’s tweaked neck. He later hit a Lumbar Check to tie the match at 1-1.
Slater went deep into his bag. He hit an avalanche Styles Clash, which could have kept anyone else down. However, Alexander kicked out. Alexander was able to counter Slater’s high-flying abilities just for a moment and knocked him back out of the ring.
Alexander sent Slater into the steel steps, leaving him busted open. Alexander declared that he would be the “greatest” X Division champion. One brainbuster later, Alexander tried to pin Slater, but couldn’t get him down.
Alexander hit a Lumbar Check again, but Slater kicked out. Slater mustered up the last ounce of energy. A tilt-a-whirl slam set Alexander up for a swanton 450. Slater missed and Alexander hit another Lumbar Check, and then again.
Leon Slater enters the arena during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 6, 2026. (Craig Melvin/WWE)
Alexander pinned Slater for the win, completely shocking the fans in Sacramento, California. It will be the first reign for Alexander and his first title of any kind in TNA.
Alexander is a reminder, at least for TNA, that “The System always wins.”
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Fabian Aichner appears
Fabian Aichner, formerly known as Giovanni Vinci, makes his way to the ring during WWE SmackDown at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 20, 2024. (WWE/Getty Images)
Moments before TNA went off the air, the lights went out in the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. Emerging from the darkness was Fabian Aichner.
Aichner stared down Alexander and appeared to name himself the next challenger for the X Division Championship. Aichner, known as Giovanni Vinci for much of his run in WWE, hadn’t really been seen or heard from in months since his departure from WWE.
Aichner wrestled under his real name for a stint in WWE before he came back as Vinci in June 22. He was with WWE until 2025. He was a two-time NXT tag team champion and an Evolve champion before it became a WWE brand.
Eric Young earns future shot at TNA World Championship
Eric Young outlasted nine other men in an over-the-top battle royal and earned a shot at Mike Santana’s TNA World Championship to start the show.
The match came down to him and Elijah after the latter was able to toss members of The System out of the ring while also avoiding Frankie Kazarian trying to get back into the match following his own elimination.
Young and Elijah came to blows on the apron, knowing that as soon as their feet touch the ground, they would be eliminated. Young grabbed onto Elijah’s hair to try to hang onto the moment. Elijah broke away with Young’s back turned to him. Elijah, however, didn’t account for his wide stance.
The TNA original kicked Elijah in the groin and pushed him down to the ground. Young won the match and received a shot to win the TNA World Championship in the future.
He also made clear that Santana was next on his list of people to wipe out as he did to Joe Hendry, EC3 and Ricky Sosa in weeks past.
“Mike Santana, you’re gone next,” he declared.
Mike Santana learns his next opponent
Mike Santana stands in the ring during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 30, 2025. (Kevin Sabitus/WWE)
Mike Santana came out to address the crowd and praised Young for his efforts to help build TNA from the ground up.
“You better be coming with something different because while you may be someone who helped build this place, when it comes to the new era of TNA on AMC, I’m the guy. I’m the man. I’m the one who holds down the fort week after week as your TNA world champion.”
While Young might have earned a title shot, Daria Rae came out and revealed to the crowd that Steve Maclin was cleared to return to action following an injury at the hands of Santana.
Maclin will get a shot at Santana’s TNA World Championship next week on “Impact.”
Santino Marella also came out during the segment after he was “suspended.” He revealed that Indi Harwell re-signed with TNA.
Lei Ying Lee, Xia Brookside rivalry heats up
Xia Brookside attends the “Freelance” screening at Regal Waterford Lakes in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 24, 2023. (Jose Devillegas/Getty Images)
Lei Ying Lee brought the TNA Knockouts Championship back home last week with a win over Arianna Grace. She addressed the crowd before being interrupted by her former best friend, Xia Brookside.
In all black, Brookside claimed she was already in Lei’s head.
“You’re such a fraud. I’ve destroyed you mentally, I’ve destroyed you emotionally, I’ve destroyed you physically, and that title will be around my waist.”
Both competitors tossed expletives at each other before the segment was over. But Brookside made clear that she had her eyes on the title.
AJ Francis prevails over KC Navarro
A.J. Francis told Fox News Digital before the SacTown Street Fight on “Impact” that he was going to bring the pain to Navarro.
While wearing “Show Stealer” across his back, Francis did just that. Francis took some punishment from Navarro – a few shots from a baseball bat and a drop kick with a trash can.
Francis was able to turn the tide for a few moments, using the baseball bat to his advantage. But Navarro dug deep. He aligned six chairs in the ring, hoping to splash Francis through it. Instead, Francis countered and attempted an avalanche Down Payment. Somehow, Navarro countered with a cutter as both men crashed through the sea of chairs.
It looked like it could’ve been it. Navarro went for the pin, but only got a two count.
Francis turned on the heat from there. He got ahold of Navarro and hit a Down Payment through tables lined up on the outside of the ring.
He rolled Navarro back into the ring and picked up the pinfall victory.
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“Impact” match results
- Eric Young wins the 10-man battle royal to earn a shot at the TNA World Championship.
- A.J. Francis def. KC Navarro in a SacTown Street Fight.
- Rosemary and Allie def. Veronica Crawford and Mila Moore
- Cedric Alexander def. Leon Slater to win the X Division Championship.
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