The day Tiger arrived and trampled all over Monty
The almost certain absence of Tiger Woods from this year’s Masters will carry with it added poignancy on the 20th anniversary of perhaps the most extraordinary major championship of all. For a man to turn up at the age of 21 and win his first major as a professional by 12 strokes, after playing the front nine of his first round in 40 shots (four over par), will cause jaws to drop for as long as golf is played. The fact that he was black, and playing at the venue where racism was once a way of life, gave the moment a significance in time that went well beyond sport, let alone the Royal and Ancient game. happily, all those months Tiger spent recovering from his back problems last year weren’t all about rehab. Next week, a book will be published that will stand as the definitive account of that remarkable week in April 1997. Its title is Unprecedented and tells Woods’ story in his own words, with the help of an excellent ghostwriter in Lorne Rubenstein. It details his practice rounds with Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal, and all he learned from the Spanish magicians. he speaks of how his dad earl, whoo had almost died of heart failure a few weeks before, defied all medical advice to be there, and gave him a putting tip that would prove decisive. Woods would drive the ball 25 yards longer on average than anyone else that week, and never er had one three-putt. Perhaps the best bit is whenh hhe takes Colin Montgomerie to task and explains the unwitting part the Scot played in Tiger’s victory. Monty trailed Woods by three shots at halfway and was cockiness itself in his press conference, convinced that the value of experience would show over the final two days. In the book, Woods buries Monty every bit as conclusively as he did in the tournament. ‘If I needed any extra motivation for my third round, Colin provided it with his press conference,’ says Tiger. ‘I was itching to play and take on the course, Monty and the rest. But Monty especially.’ Poor Monty got duly trampled, shooting 74 to 65. his dazed look and thoughts on the experience marked the beginning of the Tiger aura. When someone asked if he thought it possible Tiger could lose a nine-shot lead, bearing in mind Greg Norman had lost a sixstroke advantage to Sir Nick Faldo the year before, Monty replied: ‘There is no chance human humanly possible that Tiger is going to lose. This is veryver different. Faldo is notn lying second for a starts and Tiger Woods is not Greg Norman.’ The book ends with two chapters detailing the professional and the personal. First there is a damning indictment of how, Tiger believes, the authorities have betrayed the game with their failure to control the distance the ball travels and the effect this has had on Augusta. ‘You can’t play some of the shots Seve and Ollie taught me any more,’ he says. he follows it with an apology to former wife elin for the infidelities that would change everything. ‘We tried to repair the damage but we couldn’t and my regret will last a lifetime,’ he says. For the game, the regret will be that his body couldn’t keep pace with his ferocious will. It means he won’t go down as the greatest player of all but there were times when he played the game better than it has ever been played. This is a compelling account of one of them, and of where it all began.