It’s foolish to consider Tiger Woods out of the pack of potential PGA Tour event winners, even at this age and with all the health concerns. He already proved this at the 2019 Masters and the 2019 Zozo Championship. Playing with an injury at the 2015 Players Championship, the 15x major champion was able to pull off a shot that would have seemed impossible if PGA Tour pro Graham DeLaet didn’t see it with his own eyes.

“I beat him by two on the front, and I was up two more when we got to 18. There was a real chance that I could win that bet for my buddy,” DeLaet told The Sports Network.

“I couldn’t believe the shot he hit. It just flew out from the trees and started curving over the water and landed on the green. He two-putted for par as if it was nothing. My buddy was probably already counting the $4,000 he was going to win.”

At the 2015 Players Championship, Tiger Woods and Graham DeLaet were paired together for the third round. The Canadian golfer already had a good idea that he would be playing with Woods on Saturday. He made the cut with a 75 and 69 for the first two rounds to finish at par after the first two rounds. The 82x PGA Tour winner, on the other hand, fired rounds of 73 and 71 to finish at even par like DeLaet. So DeLaet knew that there was a 50% chance for them to play together for the next round, and that’s what happened.

By the end of the front nine, Graham DeLaet was four strokes ahead of Tiger Woods. He finished the ninth hole at a par score, thanks to the eagle he pulled off on hole 9. With two double bogeys, a bogey, and a birdie, Woods was +4 by the ninth hole. In the back nine, DeLaet went further ahead with three birdies and one bogey, while Woods hit a single birdie.

At this point, Graham DeLaet’s victory was looking easy. But what amazed him was the shot Tiger Woods hit on hole 18 of the third round at the 2015 Players Championship despite the back issues he was facing. The 2019 Masters champion hit his tee shot straight into the trees, which landed right in the dormant Bermuda grass. He would have had to cut the ball around the branches and make it go over the massive pond sitting on hole 18 at TPC Sawgrass. And Tiger Woods was able to do exactly that to surprise Graham DeLaet.

Despite the shot, DeLaet was ahead of Tiger Woods at the end of Round 3. This helped the Canadian golfer win a bet for his buddy. DeLaet was staying with his friend in Ponte Vedra, Florida. This friend of his had a habit of betting on big events. And since the Players Championship was a big event, his friend had placed a bet that the Canadian golfer would beat Tiger Woods in that particular round.

Since there was a huge gap between Woods’ 79 PGA Tour titles and 14 major championship wins by then, and DeLaet’s winless career, the odds were very high. His friend got a broker who was offering 40:1 odds. He placed $100 on DeLaet’s win and eventually got $4,000.

While Graham DeLaet won, Tiger Woods’ shot amazed him. It was not the first time, though. Woods has played many such events and shots while struggling with health issues.

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Tiger Woods’ heroics despite health issues

One of the most iconic incidents was at the 2008 US Open. Woods had a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury in his left knee. To add to the troubles, he had a double stress fracture in his left tibia. Woods was returning from an arthroscopic knee surgery, which he had just undergone two months before the major event. He famously grimaced and limped his way through all the holes. He hit a 12‑foot birdie on the 72nd hole to finish the regulation rounds tied with Rocco Mediate. Then he beat Mediate in a sudden-death playoff for his 14th major.

In 2013, Woods dealt with an elbow strain picked up at the Players Championship. This forced him to skip the AT&T National and manage pain heading into the Open at Muirfield. Despite the injury, the 15x major champion finished T6 alongside Hideki Matsuyama and Zach Johnson.

After years of chronic back pain and multiple procedures, Woods underwent spinal fusion surgery in April 2017. He admitted that he had reached a point where even lying down hurt. In fact, he thought that he was done with golf. But seventeen months after the surgery, he was there on the golf course and even won the 2018 Tour Championship to mark a strong comeback. Throughout the season, he played 18 events and recorded 7 top-10 finishes.

Moments like this explain why writing off Tiger Woods has rarely ended well. No matter the scorecard or the state of his body, he can always stun opponents and even fans with a shot that many golfers can’t play, even at the peak of their career.