Tiger Woods celebrates with his caddie Steve Williams after his chip-in birdie on 16th hole during the 2005 Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Sunday, April 10, 2005. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

If you were like me, growing up in the early 1980s, you just didn’t like golf. Golf was the sport my dad put on the television on Sunday which caused me to scatter outside quickly.

I just didn’t get it.

Commentators would drone on, or worse, whisper so they didn’t distract a golfer taking his shot. I remember being 9 years old and wondering, “Why are they whispering? It’s not like they can hear them through the television!”

But in 1986, as an 11-year-old, I did watch one golf event with my dad and admittedly got excited because he was so enthralled with what we were watching. Greg Norman, who I liked because he was nicknamed “The Shark,” which I thought was cool, was about to win his first Masters. But another player, who my dad told me was one of the greatest to ever play, named Jack Nicklaus, was playing really well and might overtake Norman.

I don’t remember many details except for Verne Lundquist yelling “Yes, sir!” when the guy in the checkered pants made his putt. We had clearly come a long way from the whispering during play.

Nicklaus went on to win that Masters, helped by a colossal falter down the stretch by Norman. That was the only golf tournament I can remember watching with my dad growing up and there is a big reason why.

Because it was the Masters. It was historic in an old-school way and I became fixated on those four days in April more and more the older I got.

I remember Fred Couples’ win in 1992 (thanks to his ball miraculously not going in the water on the par-3 12th) and Bernhard Langer donning the green jacket in 1993, using the longest putter I had ever seen. In 1997, Tiger Woods blew the roof off with his win and made it the Masters the worldwide, must-see event it has become.

There are too many to count, but I was surprised how many amazing Masters moments have occurred in just the past 10 years. It was hard to limit them to just five, but I tried.

 

No. 5: Fore! Into the Cabin (2011)

Rory McIlroy was the 64-hole leader of the Masters and still looked to be in position to don his first green jacket as he stepped to the tee box on the No. 10 hole at Augusta. What happened next was at first funny (because every golfer has done it), but became painful the longer McIlroy and the viewer endured it. McIlroy’s tee shot went way left and hit a tree and bounced near Butler Cabin, where the winner goes following the tournament for the final interview. He was able to take his next shot, but it did not end up any better and the misery continued until McIlroy finally sank a putt for triple bogey and his Masters was over.

 

No. 4: Nantz calls out Tiger (2013)

Everyone got a lesson on Rule 26-1-a at the start of the third round of the Masters. A player is required to drop “as nearly as possible” to the ball’s previous position. Apparently the day before, Tiger had taken an illegal drop on Hole No. 15 during his second round and CBS announcer Jim Nantz was rumored to have called the PGA to, in essence, tattle-tell on Woods. What made it weird was Nantz was now the one leading the interview and broadcast about something he apparently saw. Of course, we now know it was not Nantz, but a television viewer who called in and exposed Woods for the cheater he is! Sorry, but to this day, I do not think Woods did anything wrong with his drop. Oh … and Adam Scott eventually won his first Masters a day later with Woods’ former Caddie Steve Williams.

 

No. 3: “I toldBones I’m going for it.” (2010)

I am not sure what the exact conversation was to prompt Phil Mickelson to try the most improbable shot maybe in Masters history, but he did and it was glorious. In the final round of the 2010 Masters, Mickelson was in trouble on No. 13, in the woods on the pine straw with two trees in his way to hit through and Ray’s Creek looming menacingly ready to capture any shot that did not have the distance. If Mickelson could make it, he had a putt for eagle, but a miss could be disastrous. The smart play would be lay up in the fairway and try to pitch on the green and make a birdie putt, but Mickelson told his caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay that he was going for it. Mickelson pulled off a miraculous shot through the small gap between the trees that left him a short putt for eagle. He missed that putt, but went on to make birdie and eventually win his third green jacket.

 

No. 2: The Hook (2012)

This was truly an amazing shot by Bubba Watson and could easily hold the top spot. In a playoff with Louis Oosthuizen, Watson’s drive went into the woods. In order to even hit green, Watson was going to have to produce a shot that came out straight and made an immediate and hard right turn, just to have a chance. Watson pulled out a gap wedge and hit a shot that defies physics, leaving him not only on the green, but 15 feet away for birdie. Moments later Watson was donning his first green jacket.

 

No. 1: The Chip (2005)

In 2005, Tiger Woods’ tee shot left him off the green with a disastrous approach shot looming on the Par 3 No. 16. He was 50 yards away from the pin and not only was par unlikely, Woods could possibly lose the tournament with a double bogey or worse, depending on how close he got this chip. Woods stood over the ball and lifted it into the air, and I remember thinking “That is nowhere near the hole!” but as the ball nestled at the top of the green, it began rolling toward the cup and rolling and rolling until it stopped a millimeter from going in. Woods was watching all the way, about to explode in joy if it dropped — which it did, setting off the loudest roar I can remember hearing from Augusta.

 

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