Tiger Woods’ famous “better than most!” putt at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass in 2001 is the leading candidate for the most iconic shot in Players Championship history. It’s also (gulp) the most overplayed. (A rarely recalled moment from that round is that Australia’s Robert Allenby sank a putt from a similar place earlier in the day.)
Harsh? Maybe. Fair? Absolutely. Even with Woods still healing from his single-car crash last month, we feel comfortable saying that for two reasons: 1) Because it’s true, and 2) Because any golf fan who watches Golf Channel for more than 10 minutes a day would agree.
But don’t just take our word for it. Dustin Johnson shares this opinion, too. On Tuesday, the reigning Masters winner was asked if any memories of watching the Players growing up stood out in his mind, and his answer was a sneaky dagger at Tiger’s incredible putt.
“Obviously one of the probably iconic shots was Davis Love out of the kind of left pine straw on 16,” Johnson said. “That’s what I remember for sure. But, yeah, I think there’s a few… obviously, well Tiger’s putt, but they play it like every five seconds so, you know.”
“They,” we’ll presume are golf broadcasts in general, which aren’t afraid to trot out Woods’ long birdie conversion accompanied by Gary Koch’s famous call once every ad break. (Again, harsh, but fair.)
“Just wait a minute, it will be on again,” Johnson said of the clip.
If the normally reserved, matter-of-fact, not-so-opinionated Johnson is tired of it, maybe there is a little bit of overkill.
