The best golfer of the last three decades and one of the most virtuous of all time has been the protagonist of unforgettable moments: the vast majority glorious and a few disastrous, especially in the extra-sporting field because of his extramarital affairs.
Eldrick ‘Tiger’ Woods, who turned 43 on December 30, has been everything in golf, and now that with his good results and his victory in September after five years of drought, he has been ‘reborn’ and shown that he can return to the top of the sport, it is worth remembering one of the highlights of his successful career.
It was, of course, his first victory in a major, the 1997 Masters. Tiger had played that tournament as an amateur in 1995 and had finished 41st. After his time in college and his spectacular collection of amateur titles (he was the first to win the U.S. Amateur three times in a row), Woods turned professional in August 1996. Playing under his new status, he played in eight PGA Tour tournaments that year, won two and was top-10 in three others, and was named American Tour Rookie of the Year. In December 1996, Sports Illustrated magazine named him “Sportsman of the Year”.
Already since his first tournament in 1997, which he signed off with a victory, Tiger made it clear what his trajectory was going to be that season. And after a second place the following month and another top 10 in March, came the great moment that would be the crowning of a reign that had already been glimpsed. It was April 13, 22 years ago.
Most of Woods’ greatest opponents – then 21 years old – were in their 30s and 40s. The young Californian son of an African-American father and Thai mother was lean and athletic, and had developed a devastating swing that allowed him to hit drives of more than 270 yards. He also had a reputation for mental toughness and was equally excellent with the irons and putter. In April 1997, all of these attributes conspired to deliver the most resounding victory in Masters history.
His margin of victory – 12 strokes ahead of the runner-up, fellow countryman Tom Kite – was the largest in the 20th century, second only to Old Tom Morris’ 13-stroke margin of victory in the 1862 British Open. His 18 under par (270: 70-66-65-69) broke the -17 record set 32 years earlier in the tournament by Jack Nicklaus. Tiger became the youngest golfer by two years to win the Masters and the first golfer of Asian or African descent to win a major. Never before had so many spectators attended Augusta National and never before had so many people watched the Masters on television.
In June 1997, Tiger became number one in the world ranking, knocking Greg Norman off the top spot.
In 1999, Woods won eight PGA Tour tournaments, earned a record six million dollars in prize money and began a winning streak that equaled that of Ben Hogan in 1948, the second longest in the history of the Tour. In June 2000 he won his first US Open, with a record 12 under par to finish 15 strokes ahead of his closest competitors: Miguel Angel Jimenez and Ernie Els. It was the best professional golf result in history, surpassing even that of his resounding 1997 Masters win and Old Tom Morris’ 1862. In July 2000, he won the British Open, and in August he triumphed in the US PGA Championship. At the age of 24, he was the youngest player to win all four majors and the second to win three majors in one year. On April 10, 2005, he wore his fourth green jacket at Augusta National, becoming the first player to win four Masters before the age of 30. That year he won again the British Open. In 2007 he repeated his victory in the major played in Europe and he also won the US PGA Championship. In 2008 he starred in the U.S. Open, his fourteenth and so far his last victory in a major.
Tiger’s winning pace slowed in 2004, when he spent time reworking his swing and rehabilitating his knee after undergoing surgery. It was also during this period that he married Elin Nordegren, a former Swedish model who would become the mother of his two children.
Tiger returned to top form in 2005, winning his tenth major. His performance fluctuated throughout the rest of the decade as he struggled with his knee injury and personal problems that attracted media attention: in late 2009, following events surrounding a car accident next to his Florida home, several women said they had sexual relations with the famous golfer. Nordegren divorced him in August 2010, just as Tiger was beginning his first winless season of his career.
May 17, 2014 was the last date on which Tiger was ranked number one in the world, after having accumulated, in different periods, a record 683 weeks at the top of the world ranking. He is currently very close to entering the top 10 of that ranking. Who knows if he will soon recreate those distant days of 1997 when his love story with the greats began!!!!
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5 curious things about tiger
– In 1999 he won 8 times on the PGA Tour. The first golfer to do so since Johnny Miller. Tiger Woods is the active player with the most victories on the American Tour: 80.
– When he was just 6 months old, he was imitating his father’s movements with the golf club, and by the age of 5, Tiger Woods was already appearing in Golf Digest.
– When Tiger turned professional, he signed a contract with Nike for $40 million. He also signed a contract with Titleist for $20 million. His advertising revenues have earned him hundreds of millions.
– Tiger Woods has won the Player of the Year award nine times on the US PGA Tour, in the 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2001, 2002, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons.
– In July 2000, at the age of 24, Tiger became the youngest golfer of all time to win all four majors: US PGA Championship, US Open, British Open and Masters.
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