Is it the most famous shot ever struck? If I just say the words ‘Nike swoosh’, you’ll know immediately what I’m talking about.
It’s Tiger Woods, on the 16th hole of the Masters in 2005, and a ball that hangs deliciously on the edge of the hole.
Yes, of course, it’s that iconic chip. An emailer sent me a question two decades in the making, but they ask: “Did Tiger take a reasonable time as he stopped walking to watch the ball to see if it would drop?”
We won’t be taking any Green Jackets away with this answer, but what are the rules when you are hanging about on the edge of the hole? Just like Tiger’s ball finally hitting the bottom of the cup, let’s end the suspense…
Tiger Woods 2005 Masters chip: Everyone knows it’s 10 seconds… right?
Why am I dredging up an old incident? Well, I’m a people pleaser at heart and I like to answer questions.
It’s also because the rule concerning a ball overhanging a hole is sometimes misunderstood and it’s nice to clear it up. Consider this a public service.
It’s covered in Rule 13.3. The bit you all know is the 10 second part. Yes, you are allowed 10 ticks to “wait and see whether the ball will fall into the hole”.
But that starts after you get to the cup, and 13.3a says you are allowed a “reasonable time to reach the hole”.
What is reasonable? A clarification reveals what that means, saying it “depends on the circumstances of the stroke and includes time for a player’s natural or spontaneous reaction to the ball not going into the hole”.
The clarification gives an extraordinary example of this in practice – outlining a player who may have played a shot from well away from the green.
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It explains it might take several minutes for the player to reach the hole while everyone else plays their shots and all walk to the green. That’s still in the reasonable time frame.
So if we then consider Tiger’s Masters chip, we can see the time is never an issue. As the ball moves towards the hole, Woods is walking after it.
It gets to the edge and briefly hangs. It’s only a second, during which point Tiger, alongside then caddie Steve Williams, crouches in disbelief. It’s a very understandable and natural reaction to the ball seemingly staying up.
Before they can even finish that response and get striding again, the ball poses Swoosh side up for the camera and drops.
So the moral might be not to be always too eager to start the timer if your ball hangs on the edge of the hole. You might have more time than you think.
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Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.
What do you think of this Tiger Woods 2005 Masters Chip rule? Let me know by leaving a comment below, email me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or get in touch on X.
