AUGUSTA, Ga. – The shot was already brilliant before it hung tantalizingly on the lip of the cup.

Now it was about to become a part of Masters lore.

Tiger Woods didn’t just help himself win a fourth green jacket with his improbable chip-in on the 16th hole. He gave the Masters a moment as memorable as any that had come before it.

When gravity finally took over and the ball toppled slowly into the cup early yesterday evening, the shot Woods hit from an awkward lie just off the back of the green became more than just an instant classic for television highlight shows.

It joined iconic moments of the past that have defined the Masters as golf’s greatest stage.

Larry Mize chipping in to beat Greg Norman in a playoff in 1987. The eagle putt Jack Nicklaus made in 1986 on his way to a sixth green jacket, and the shot that stuck precariously on the bank of the 12th hole to allow Fred Couples to win in 1992.

Or, long before television, Gene Sarazen’s 4-wood for a double-eagle on the 15th hole that set up his win.

“I was just trying to throw the ball up there on the hill and let it feed down there and hopefully have a makable putt,” Woods said. “All of a sudden, it looked pretty good, and all of a sudden it looked like really good, and it looked like how could it not go in, and how did it not go in, and all of a sudden it went in.

“So, it was pretty sweet.”

It wasn’t just the magnitude of the moment, or the difficulty of the show, though the moment was huge and the shot was treacherous.

It was the image of the ball rolling slowly down the slope and stopping for two full seconds before finally dropping into the cup.

It didn’t matter if you saw Woods make the playoff putt for his fourth green jacket a short time later. Seeing The Shot was bigger, and the fans who did erupted in a raucous celebration when it dropped.

“Somehow an earthquake happened and it fell into the hole,” Woods said.

Woods was crouched over, as if he were deep in prayer, as the ball traveled its last few inches toward the hole.

When it fell, Woods raised himself up, yelled and began high-fiving caddie Steve Williams, while thousands packed around the green did the same with whoever happened to be next to them.

The shot came as Chris DiMarco was making a run at Woods, who had a precarious one-shot lead as they stood on the tee of the 170-yard par 3 hole that has been so pivotal in so many Masters.

DiMarco had honors and hit a good shot about 15 feet beneath the hole. Woods landed long with his 8-iron, and his ball caught up against the edge of the second cut over the back of the green.

If DiMarco made his putt and Woods couldn’t get up-and-down for par, the tournament that seemed to be his when he started the day with a string of four straight birdies might have been snatched from his grasp.

With one brilliant stroke, though, Woods walked off the green with a two-shot lead and enough of a cushion to still get into a playoff despite bogeys on the final two holes.

“I think under the circumstances it’s one of the best I’ve ever hit … only because of the turning point,” Woods said. “If Chris makes his putt, I make bogey and all of a sudden it’s a different ball game. All of a sudden I’m one back.”

Woods didn’t have many options from the precarious spot his ball ended up beyond the green. He couldn’t hit the ball directly at the hole because of the slope, so he looked way left to make the slope work for him.

Woods remembered Davis Love III making a similar shot in 1999, but his was more difficult because it was up against the deeper rough. Afraid he might hit it fat because of the lie, he told himself to hit it hard enough to get up the slope and take his chances from there.

Woods found a spot well left on the green where the fading sunlight was coming through the trees and took a few practice swipes with his wedge.

“A lot of it is luck but I hit it pretty good,” Woods said. “I hit it right on the spot.”

The ball hit, checked up and caught the slope at just the right place before taking a right angle turn toward the hole. It was still about 25 feet left of the hole when it began rolling slowly toward the pin.

The ball began losing speed as it neared the hole, slowing almost so much that the word “TIGER” could be read on the side. It made what seemed like two final turns, then stopped on the edge of the cup, teetering ever so slightly as if trying to defy gravity.

As thousands watching from green side and millions others on television held their collective breath, it dropped and the celebration began.

“He made a great chip. Great imagination,” DiMarco said. “I was over there expecting him to make it. You expect the unexpected.

“Unfortunately, it’s not unexpected when he’s doing it.”