I was there: Tiger's win at the 2000 Bell Canadian Open

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Any golfer from Canada will give you the same answer if you ask "what is the best shot you've seen by a TOUR Player?"

"Tiger's 6 iron from the bunker to win the 2000 Canadian Open."

'I was there'

MAGINNES: '96 Las Vegas Inv't
HAUSER: '97 Masters
AUCLAIR: '03 Bay Hill Inv't
DOLCH: '05 Ford Champ.
ROSS: '06 British Open
WACKER: '06 PGA Champ.
AWTREY: '08 Arnold Palmer Inv't
McALLISTER: '08 U.S. Open
CRAMPTON: '00 Canadian Open
Tiger Woods Victory Room

That was a very special moment for me in my teen years just starting to fall in love with golf. It was the first time I got to see Tiger Woods live, and watching him pull off one of his most famous shots to win the event was the perfect ending to a great tournament. I will never forget the focus or intensity in Tiger's eyes; I have to this day never seen an athlete display such confidence in himself, which is why Tiger is (and always will be) one of the best ever to play the game.

I think Tiger would be the first to admit that this was one of those great battles against a relatively unknown and under-matched opponent. I would put this memorable final-round up there with his more famous duels, such as against Bob May at the 2000 PGA Championship or Rocco Mediate at the 2008 US Open. All day, it was simply expected that Tiger was going to run away with this event in the final round, as he has done so many times before.

However, Grant Waite matched Tiger stride for stride all day long down to the final hole, when Tiger pulled off the miraculous bunker shot to a back-right pin with water coming into play short, right and long. What made this shot more impressive (though it is sometimes forgotten now years later) is that Waite was already sitting on the par-5 finishing in hole with an eagle putt. Waite, who was down by one at the time, had all but guaranteed a birdie on the final hole, putting the pressure on Tiger to match him and win the event outright.

As Tiger lined up his second shot, my thought (and that of everyone else around me across the 18th fairway) was that he would simply be laying up and trying to make his 4 the hard way. No other player in our generation has the talent or toughness to pull of that kind of shot with the tournament on the line; it simply isn't a fair fight trying to beat this guy on Sunday. If that ball landed in the water, Tiger would have been looking at an up-and-down just to tie Waite, but that's not the way Tiger plays the game.

Since Tiger plays to win, he was able to execute that shot, win the event, and become the first player since Lee Trevino in 1971 to capture the Triple Crown (U.S. Open, British Open and Canadian Open in the same season). For me, this will always be Tiger's best shot, and it will continue to be one of my favorite moments in golf.