British Open: The shot of Tiger Woods that sets an unforgettable return year

The Tiger Woods golf shot that gets all the love is the famous dart. He has always been in his arsenal, but shooting has reached a new level of fame in the social media era. The old dart videos were an easy way to accumulate retweets and a good way to give the impression that you were informed. Woods had a penchant for stinging during his re-emergence at competitive golf this year. With social media tracking each of his movements and tracer technology to better illustrate the flair of it, the Tiger stinger has never experienced a more luxurious lifestyle.

That's fine. This is deserved. When you are hit with the dart on TV or in person, it arouses . But do not let this distract you from all the brilliance that makes Tiger the greatest shooter of all time. His best shots were often the moon bullets fell on the flag of an impossible place.

After a week of stalking on a hard Carnoustie like concrete, the shot that will eventually define his British Open was actually the one that went miles into the sky. That's the shot of the fairway pot bunker at the 10th hole. An extravagant game combined with an incomprehensible performance to create a work of art that has made the cliché of the "back of the tiger" never feels more alive.

I came to deepen this cliche and fully appreciate it in all its brilliance. I want to love and rock him and keep him alive forever.

The gumption

Tiger is in the lead right now. He works on the biggest story back in the history of the game and one of the greatest sports stories of all time. Pot Bunkers are the scariest feature of Carnoustie, the most challenging course of the Open Rota. You enter a, that is a penalty at once. Take your medicine and carefully remove it from the channel.

Do not try to be a hero and think that you can take a full club, a full swing, and get up and on the lip and at the intended destination. Especially do not do it when you lead the damn major championship on the back nine. We have seen dozens of players, including this week, trying to come out with much more cautious games just to see the ball snap their riveted face and get back on their feet.

Tiger's ball was on an uphill slope, so the latter just opened the ribbon in his golfing spirit that thought he could do it. But still, the hole was 150 meters away. The bullet needed to clear this steep bunker face, then higher rough fescue tufts on the top of this face.

He led again. He could have taken a higher-lofted club, threw him in the middle of the fairway, and tried to get on and off from there. But he felt it and did everything as if it was the year 2000.

The Cup

The violence of the swing was something of an earlier era. It's a staple of the tiger. By the numbers we have now, it can not always swing the hardest or the fastest, but it still gives the impression that no one is close. Some people prefer a fluid movement. From others a powerful hack. Tiger ushered in this swing violence in the modern era. It's like we're looking at Vince Carter, 40, on an unsuspecting young man, but he also had a fused back.

The Tiger

Tiger brought a touch of modernity to almost every high-level player. has come in the last decade trying to imitate. My friends from No Laying Up call it Sauce Round (maybe you've heard about it). When you are so good, and even when you are bad, there is an extra sauce you can add in addition to just hitting golf shots. Nobody does it better than Tiger, an innovator on this front.

To walk in the putts as they roll to spin the club in your hand while you admire the ball flight to … this crazy retreat on this one. This decline is a trademark of Tiger. It could be faster than the real swing. He has been doing it for years and it is a signal that something delectable could come soon.

The look

Every big Tiger approach shot is also accompanied by that look in the sky.

"These words are also trademarks of Tiger, with whom we have had a lot of fun over the years. For me, the best is when there is only silence. His eyes leap from the ball to return to the ball. This is often another sign that there is an explosion of sounds looming around the green

The Sound

There is a murmur of mob on every shot Tiger approach that & # 39; 39, no other player gets, even at major championships. For some reason that I do not know, this whisper jumped on Tiger's first hole Sunday and he stayed with me the rest of the day. The collective sound is a mix of people who hang out to get on their tippy toes or who roar their necks around another fan, a softer buzz of anticipating people, and some circus clowns shouting clichés. idiotic encouragement. It is mixed in the pot for a distinct sound in the air that is attached to most Tiger shots. This hum before the crescendo at the green gives some of the coolest seconds of golf.

The result

NBC had this thing called Link Tracers this week. It was supposed to be an inverted-angle plotter image that tracks the bounces and rolling balls that prevail on a links course, where floor play is so important. And praise be that we've had it here, not for this field stuff. But to show the trajectory of this thing going to the moon and back. It was difficult to adjust to the screen

When the tee shot Tiger found this bunker, we would have to fight to save the par. Instead of playing safely in the fairway, this shot eliminated the hustle and bustle. There are no pictures on a dashboard, but this by two-putt came with a lot more that was worth enjoying.

Up to now, he had successfully defeated to make backups while everyone in the rankings was behind him. This jam would stop quickly, while he was playing the next two holes at 3-above. The full context of the day certainly deserves to be examined. But Tiger, who held a nine point lead over a major, had the impression that we had been screened in a different place and time. And this cliche encapsulated this nostalgia.