By the time the 2025 Masters rolls around it will be 20 years since Tiger Woods played one of the most iconic shots around Augusta National.
At the 16th hole, Woods, at the time an eight-time Major winner but without a victory in his last 10, somehow calculated both the slope and break to make an unfathomable birdie two from the back of the green.
It led to one of the game's most memorable pieces of commentary – 'Oh my goodness...oh wow! In your life have you seen anything like that?' – as Verne Lundquist, who called his final Masters in 2024, added the perfect accompaniment to the perfect shot.
Woods led Chris DiMarco by two and, despite back-to-back bogeys, he would slip into a fourth Green Jacket later that evening.
But, at the start of the week, Woods would make a stuttering start and hit two shots that are never recalled and more resembled a high-handicapper than the greatest player on the planet.
Billy Foster first caddied at Augusta in 1991, alongside none other than Seve Ballesteros, and he's missed three Masters since. By 2005 he was on Darren Clarke's bag and the two of them were paired with Woods.
The then World No.2, who had now been surpassed by Vijay Singh on the rankings, began his week with a very precise shot, striking the pin with his approach, only to make an opening bogey.
"The pin was front left and he hit it on the fly and it spun into the front left trap. Steve Williams said that he had hit the pin on the same hole in the last round of the 2004 Masters so he had done it twice on the trot," explains Foster.
But it was on the next hole where Woods hit one of the strangest shots that he will ever have hit on the Georgia property.
'I could have laid in his divot'
"He teed off and he hit that far behind the ball I reckon I could have laid in his divot and put a crucifix behind my head. He must have hit 18 inches behind the shot, he nearly fresh aired it, it came off the heel, nearly hit his left foot and it bobbled into the crowd, literally 50-70 yards off the tee and it finished by the 8th green.
"Then he hit a 3-iron to where his tee shot should be, right at the bunker, down in the trees in a ditch. He dropped it out for three, hit a 2-iron on the green and it ran round to the right pin where the Sunday pin is. But the pin was on the left side, 100 foot away, and he then holed it for par."
Another memorable moment came a few holes later when Woods made another par save, this time from closer range, but, 20 years on, Foster can still recall something that Williams had said.
"He made a couple of bogeys and he had like a 20-footer for par and he holed it. I said to Steve Williams that you just knew he was going to hole it and I'll never forget Steve turning to me and saying that he'd worked for Tiger for six years and, whether it was a putt on the 18th to either win or get in a play-off, how many putts had he missed? And the answer was none. That says it all about Tiger."
'Playing it like me'
Woods would come to the 13th at an uncharacteristic two-over – DiMarco would lead on day one with an opening 67 – before finding the back of the par-5 green. Looking to cosy it down for a settling birdie, Woods then made the kind of mistake that most club golfers might be prone to.
"The pin was at the front and he putted it and I was walking to get the pin and it went past my feet and it went off the front of the green down into Rae's Creek. So he putted it off the green in the water. Now, because he is switched on, a lot of guys would have probably just gone and dropped a ball by the creek but he just dropped another ball on the back of the green and two-putted it and made a six.
"And the rest is history. He went on and chipped in on 16 and he won the Masters but I just remember those two shots and it was like, oh my god, he was playing it like me."
Woods signed for a 74, followed it with a 66. His delayed third round would contain seven straight birdies, which remains a tied record at Augusta, and a birdie at the first extra hole would finally see off DiMarco.
The 19th Uncut
Billy Foster is part of the 19th Uncut podcast alongside fellow caddies Ricci Roberts and Terry Mundy. You can subscribe to the podcast for free
