A golfer copied Michael Jackson's iconic 45-degree dance step to take the ball from a pond.

Footage shows the man leaning like the American pop star's mind-boggling moves with the help of his family so he could safely pick up the ball from the edge of the water in Bangkok, Thailand on August 20.

Michael Jackson stunned fans with the incredible dance move in his 1987 song Smooth Criminal. The illusion, which many have tried to copy, was performed thanks to specially designed shoes and the artist's core strength.

Manjul Tripathi and colleagues from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, say in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine: 'Most trained dancers with strong core strength will reach a maximum of 25 to 30 degrees of forward bending while performing this action. MJ pulled off a gravity-defying 45 degree move that seems unearthly to any witness.'