Golf stories that really happened

1. 1

   Sarazen, Masters 1935: the albatross

   A 4-wood from about 235 yards on the 15th, into the hole for a 2. It erased a three-shot deficit in one swing, forced a play-off and won it. The lesson: a par 5 is where a round turns, both ways. Decide on the tee what you are doing with it.

2. 2

   Hogan, Merion 1950: the 1-iron

   Sixteen months after a head-on collision with a bus, legs bandaged, on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open, he hit a 1-iron to the green to force a play-off, and won it the next day. The lesson: the swing you can repeat on one leg is the one worth owning.

3. 3

   Ballesteros, Lytham 1979: the car park

   Final round, 16th hole, the drive finished among parked cars. Drop, wedge to the green, birdie, first Open at 22. The lesson: a bad drive is not a bad hole until you make it one. Look at what you have, not where you are.

4. 4

   Woods, Augusta 2005: the chip on 16

   From behind the green, the ball ran up the slope, turned, crept to the lip, showed its logo and dropped. The lesson: he played the slope, not the hole. On a sloping green the line goes through where the ball will stop, not where the cup is.

5. 5

   Watson, Augusta 2012: the hook from the trees

   In a play-off, from the pine straw with no view of the green, a wedge hooked forty yards onto the putting surface. The lesson: the shot you have practised for fun is the one that saves you. Hit silly shots on the range.

1. 1

   Van de Velde, Carnoustie 1999

   Three ahead on the 18th tee, he hit driver, then went for the green, found the Barry Burn, took off his shoes to consider playing it, made 7 and lost the play-off to Paul Lawrie. The lesson: with a lead you play to avoid the double. A bogey would have won.

2. 2

   Mickelson, Winged Foot 2006

   Needing a par on the last to win the U.S. Open, he hit driver, bounced off a hospitality tent and a tree, made double. 'I am such an idiot', he said. The lesson: the club you have hit badly all day does not become reliable on the 72nd tee.

3. 3

   McIlroy, Augusta and Congressional 2011

   Four ahead going into Sunday at the Masters, he shot 80. Eight weeks later he won the U.S. Open by eight with a tournament record. The lesson: one bad day is a day; what you do in the next eight weeks is who you are.

On Apollo 14, in February 1971, Alan Shepard produced a 6-iron head he had fitted to a sampling tool, dropped two balls in the lunar dust and swung one-handed, because the suit allowed nothing else. The lesson is the one every golfer learns in a hundred-mile wind: swing with what the day gives you. More stories, and the facts behind them, on golf facts and the history of golf.