Palmer had reached the 15th (now the 16th) holding a one-shot advantage, but his position atop the leaderboard appeared to be under considerable threat when he struck his tee shot into thick rough at the base of a blackberry bush.

Reaching the green appeared impossible, but Palmer provided a timely exhibition of his great power and skill and somehow found the putting surface with a thunderously struck six-iron.

"I never hit a ball so hard in my life," Palmer would later say and his resultant par proved crucial as he held off Dai Rees to win by a single shot.