Tiger Woods prepared for greatest shot on side of a road, as told by Ryan Fox

DP World Tour star Ryan Fox has revealed a bizarre but incredible story about what Tiger Woods did the night before the final round of the 2000 Bell Canadian Open.

Matt Chivers's picture
Tue, 15 Nov 2022
Tiger Woods prepared for greatest shot on side of a road, as told by Ryan Fox

You have all seen the famous shot that Tiger Woods hit over water from a fairway bunker 22 years ago, but some of you may not know the story of the night before.

We have Ryan Fox to thank for this as, while speaking to The Slam podcast by the National Club Golfer, the 35-year-old told a tale that explains how Woods went on to win the Bell Canadian Open in 2000.

Fox, hailing from New Zealand, shares his nationality with Woods' old partner and caddie Steve Williams. Williams carried for Woods from 1999 to 2011.

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He has also caddied for Fox before and the three-time DP World Tour winner, competing at the DP World Tour Championship this week, retold a story that Williams revealed to him about the night before Woods' 24th win on the PGA Tour at Glen Abbey, Ontario.

Fox said: 

"The (story) that got me - there’s that iconic shot that Tiger had on Glen Abbey, was it the 18th fairway bunker, to beat another Kiwi, Grant Waite (the third-round co-leader).

He continued:

"Some stupid distance with a 6-iron out of a fairway bunker over water. Makes a birdie, wins by a shot. Steve said to me, 'What no one realizes is that - Tiger shot 64 that day to win'.
"They were driving down some highway in Canada the Saturday night. Someone is driving them. All of a sudden they’re on the highway and Tiger just goes, 'Stop'.
"Driver pulled over, Tiger gets out of the car, walks to the trunk of the car and grabs out a club. Starts swinging it on the side of the road'.
"Steve’s sitting in the car - 'I don’t know, it’s Tiger, what he’s doing' - and he jumps back in the car after about five minutes. He goes, 'Steve I’ve got it. We’re good tomorrow’.
"Steve didn’t know what the problem was or whatever. Tiger found it on the side of I-95 in Canada or whatever it was. There’s just lots of cool stuff like that shows how good Tiger really was."

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You can watch Woods' famous shot here. This was one of nine wins in 20 starts in the 2000 Tour season. By winning in Canada, Woods became just the second player to win the US Open, Open Championship and Canadian Open in the same season.

This was another story to exemplify the greatness of the man who is set to return to the Tour at the start of December. He is in the field for the Hero World Challenge, a tournament he hosts in the Bahamas. 

This begins a busy schedule for Woods next month as he is booked to play in the seventh edition of The Match and he is likely to play in the PNC Championship with his son Charlie too.

Next page: Hilarious graphic shows just how dominant Tiger Woods was