As the old PGA Tour slogan goes, “These guys are good.” Some, however, are better than good. In fact, they may as well be playing a different sport. Arnie, Jack, Hagen, Hogan and, of course, Tiger Woods, to name a few. Each has an illustrious CV, but their legends can’t be contained on a Wikipedia spreadsheet. Their fabled shots and tall tales live on at golf courses across the world, passed down by the generations of pros that have witnessed first hand just how impossible those feats really were.
Just ask former DP World Tour pro Mike Lorenzo-Vera. This week, the French golfer, who retired last month at the age of 40, joined the Sliced Podcast. Soon the subject turned to Tiger Woods, and Lorenzo-Vera recalled the time he tried to replicate one of Woods’ most infamous (and improbable) bunker shots. Operative word: tried.
Mike Lorenzo-Vera tried to recreate one of Tiger Woods' most famous shots, and it left him dumbfounded! pic.twitter.com/XphyA2QW3d
— Sliced Podcast (@slicedpod) May 2, 2025
The shot Lorenzo-Vera is referencing occurred in 2019 at the now-defunct WGC–Mexico Championship, where Woods, a few weeks before his final Masters triumph, pulled off this physics-defying bunker escape that left Mexico City speechless.
“The year after I went there and threw six balls [in the bunker] on Tuesday… I couldn’t even get to within 40 metres of the green,” Lorenzo-Vera explains. “The guy almost holed the shot with two clubs less… Altitude, temperature, it’s impossible to turn the ball and the guy turns the ball with a 9-iron from 140 metres 50 yards! And it’s pin-high! ‘Why don’t we have majors in France?!’ Because nobody can do that!”
Amazing stuff from Lorenzo-Vera. One of the coolest things about individual sports is watching competitors marvel at each other’s abilities as if they were fans standing outside the ropes and hacking it around for a 96 on weekends. You can feel the awe and admiration in Lorenzo-Vera’s voice as he recalls his sole attempt to walk in the paw prints of the Big Cat, and that testifies to Woods’ preternatural ability and God-like status more than any major tally ever could.
