More than one million shots were hit during the 2016 European Tour season – and 10 were deemed to be the most spectacular in a poll of fans. These were the shots that made it onto the Tour’s end-of-season Shot of the Year shortlist, with fans voting throughout December for their favourite. Rory McIlroy’s five-wood at the K Club received nearly one-third of all the votes, and took the award.
On the 72nd hole of the Irish Open, tournament host McIlroy faced 252 yards (230 metres), over water, to a back pin. He was leading by just a single shot and knew one good swing would see him win his national open for the first time. The shot that followed started over the water, landed on the green and came to rest less than one metre from the hole.
"I actually thought I hit my drive too far left," said the 27-year-old. "I thought it had ran out. But it was playing a lot longer than it had been playing the previous couple of days. I had a good yardage. I had 222 to the front, 256 to the pin. And I had a similar shot in the pro-am, actually. JP tried to get me to hit a four-iron, and it was a similar wind, as well, but I felt like I was trying to hit it too hard. So I actually dropped another ball in the pro-am and hit five-wood, a very similar shot to what I hit today. Actually got a little bit of practice there. I didn't know I would need it at the end of the week but there you go."
McIlroy’s shot narrowly beat out Scott Hend for Shot of the Year. Hend’s albatross at the Shenzhen International received 22.3 per cent of the fan votes while Brett Rumford’s perfectly judged bunker shot at the ISPS HANDA Perth International rounded out the top three.
