October 24 has produced one of the PGA Tour’s most improbable winning shots, another Tiger Woods trophy at Disney and a 2021 double celebration for two of Asia’s biggest stars.
1999
Tiger Woods wins again at Disney
Woods closed with a 73 at Disney’s Magnolia course and finished the National Car Rental Golf Classic at 17-under 271, one stroke ahead of Ernie Els. It was his 13th PGA Tour victory—and his second win at Disney in four years. [PGA Tour]
It was Woods’s sixth PGA Tour victory of the season. One week later, he won the Tour Championship for No. 14. [PGA Tour career record]
2010
Jonathan Byrd ends a playoff with one swing
On the fourth extra hole of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Byrd struck a 6-iron from 204 yards into the cup at TPC Summerlin’s par-3 17th. The sudden-death hole-in-one beat Martin Laird and Cameron Percy and remains one of the PGA Tour’s rarest finishes: a walk-off ace. [PGA Tour]
Both opponents still had to play. Laird and Percy each found the water, turning disbelief into Byrd’s fourth PGA Tour title. The winning ball, club, cap and flag later entered the World Golf Hall of Fame collection.
2021
Hideki Matsuyama wins the ZOZO Championship in Japan
Six months after becoming the first Japanese man to win the Masters, Matsuyama closed with a 65 at Narashino Country Club. Two eagles carried him to 15-under 265 and a five-shot victory over Brendan Steele and Cameron Tringale—his seventh PGA Tour title and his first Tour win in his home country. [PGA Tour]
Matsuyama sealed it in style, hitting a 3-wood onto the final green and making the eagle putt in front of the Japanese gallery.
2021
Jin Young Ko delivers Korea’s 200th LPGA Tour win
Ko began the final round of the BMW Ladies Championship four strokes behind Hee Jeong Lim, then shot an 8-under 64 in Busan. A birdie on the first playoff hole gave Ko her second consecutive LPGA Tour victory and made her the player responsible for the 200th Tour win by a Korean-born golfer. [LPGA]
Ko and Lim had matched the tournament’s 72-hole record at 22-under 266. Ko’s closing charge turned a four-shot deficit into a landmark home-country victory.
FROM THE ARCHIVE TO YOUR NEXT ROUND / FOX BANDIT VIEW
Enjoy the ace. Practice the shots around it.
Byrd’s finish is an extraordinary reason to revisit October 24. It is also a poor practice target: a hole-in-one is too rare to measure a week’s improvement. Ko’s comeback and Matsuyama’s closing round give us more useful questions about making chances and finishing them.
Tiger’s Disney win offers another angle. The PGA Tour’s account records a perfect 13-for-13 week scrambling around the greens. The closing 73 makes more sense alongside that recovery work: a winning week can contain a difficult round. A single score does not describe the quality of every part of the game.
For a practical test, play nine short-game holes around a practice green with one ball. Vary the lie, chip or pitch on, then putt out. Count up-and-downs and total strokes, keeping the distances comparable when you repeat it. That measures recovery without waiting for a miracle. Use the result to choose the next drill, rather than trying to recreate the shot that made television.
Choose a short-game drill ↗Correction · October 24, 2026: Woods’s Disney victory was his sixth PGA Tour win of 1999. An earlier version said fourth.