Anyone who’s followed golf over the last couple of decades will know full well that Tiger Woods’ ‘stinger’ shot is one of the most iconic shots in history.
Woods’ brilliance allowed him to blow fields away in his prime and one of the key reasons he managed to be successful was because of his shot creation.
Part of Tiger’s shot creation was his ability to his now iconic stinger shot under any winds on course.
Woods made a habit of hitting the stinger over his career, a shot which kept low and went like a bullet down the middle with little to no deviation in terms of ball flight.
And for those who witnessed it first hand while playing with Tiger, it very much was a shot that took the breath away, as explained by PGA Tour Champions star, Billy Andrade.
How Billy Andrade reacted when he first saw Tiger Woods’ stinger shot
With an upcoming documentary set to be released by the PGA Tour on Woods’ iconic year back in 2000, a teaser clip has been put out which details Woods’ stinger.
And in there, Billy Andrade reveals how he’d simply never seen anything like it.
“We get up on the 13th tee, it’s a lay up hole for most. He steps up and hits the stinger. And I’m like ‘oh my god’,” Andrade explains.
“It would be like someone getting on their knees, getting a shotgun, and aiming right down the middle of the fairway. It never wavered. It went dead straight 260 yards down the middle of the fairway. I’d never seen a shot like that before.”
Explaining how he managed to hit the shot, Woods explained how it simply came from adapting the shot from how he played a low one with other clubs.
“Just hitting something low to get into play. It was the same thing I’d do with a nine iron or a pitching wedge so I thought why can’t I just do it with a two-iron?,” Woods explained.
Tiger Woods’ most iconic stinger shots
Tiger Woods has hit so many brilliant shots over the years and the stinger is just one among his repertoire that catches the eye.
However, while Woods has pulled out the stinger plenty of times, it’s best use often comes in The Open Championship.
Over the years, Woods has won The Open three times and on each occasion, he played plenty of low stingers to get around the tricky links courses in the UK.
Woods won twice at St Andrews – in 2000 and 2005 – and then again at Royal Liverpool in 2006. All three required the creativity and imagination Woods became known for in his career.
The stinger, then, will go down as one of the most iconic golf shots in history.
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