"in your LIFE have you seen anything like that?" is highly unusual in the order of phrasing, the emphasis on LIFE, and the timing, stepping and extension of the first three words (all single syllables), that he only had one chance to compose and then speak, in about 10 seconds. Additionally, by asking a question, he engages the collective audience which raises the sense of amazement even further than if he had stated introspectively "in my life I've never seen that".

At 3:20:50 of [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PreYFbNZpVU) is another all-time legendary shot at the Masters. But the announcers say nothing for nearly a full minute and finally concede "words do not do justice to the greatness of that shot." By contrast, Verne found the perfect words instantaneously and delivered them masterfully (no pun intended).

Subjective I suppose, just doesn't seem like anything to me. He's excited sure, but just reacting like any excited sports fan, he doesn't say something amazing 'off the cuff' or any extraordinary quick wit or something like that, he just reacts, and fumbles it in his excitement at that. (It wasn't 'have you seen' as you quoted, but 'did you seen [sic]' as I did - a blend of the former & 'did you ever see' I suppose.)

You are entitled to your opinion, but there's a reason Verne Lundquist is an iconic hall-of-fame broadcaster assigned to the biggest events, and you're not. In the moment, he could have stuck to describing the athletics "a perfectly-executed chip shot" or the situation "Tiger Woods takes the lead" but he immediately recognized this shot was truly once in a lifetime, highly-emotional, bigger than any individual event, and spoke to that instead.

As far as the words he improvised, I would challenge you to find examples of other sentences in news or literature or culture that start with the exact phrase "In your life" (followed by "have you seen", not "did", your prior comment is incorrect). The guy basically created a new sentence structure in the language right on the spot, on the biggest stage.

And I'm far from the the only one who considers this a great call. Here are a few lists which place this specific call as the top-ranked golf announcing moment and among the top 10 sports calls, ever: https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/1433660-the-most-... https://nypost.com/2020/01/08/ranking-the-greatest-sports-br... https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/the-32-best-calls-in-spor... https://golf.com/news/ranking-the-greatest-broadcast-calls-o...