Players reflect on Tiger’s ’97 Masters
Rory Mcilroy was watching every shot from Northern Ireland.
Jason Day was waking up at 3 a.m. to catch every round in Australia.
Pat Perez was peeking in on the action from Arizona.
Millions of others around the world were sitting in awe, as well.
On TV sets before them was Tiger Woods pulverizing the revered, opulent Augusta National Golf Club’s grounds and demoralizing, as we would come to learn, his peers en route to a groundshattering romp in the 1997 Masters.
On the silver anniversary of the historic triumph, those who witnessed Woods’ momentous domination of the golf course and his sport continues to resonate.
Twenty-five years ago, Woods was an unrelenting Goliath who crushed all the outmatched Davids. Over 72 holes at Augusta National, where no black man was allowed to join the club until 1990 and all the caddies were black until 1982, Woods changed the landscape, style and future of the game nearly 50 years to the day after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball.
Woods forced a significant rewrite of the record books; led golfers worldwide into the weight room; changed the perception of the pasty, stale game; powered the Neilson ratings to new heights; forced Madison Avenue to turn a discerning eye toward golf; altered the fashion of a sport; and ignited a generation of hopefuls who wanted to be like Tiger.
All in 270 magnificent strokes.
“He’s Michael Jordan in long pants,” Paul Azinger said that day as Woods wrapped up rounds of 70-66-65-69 to finish at a record 18 under; the field average that year was 74.31. Woods, who was 21 when he slipped on the green jacket and remains the youngest to win the Masters, won by a preposterous 12 strokes, a record that still stands and marks the worst annihilation in a major championship since Old Tom Morris won the British Open by 13 when Abraham Lincoln was president of the Unites States.
“I beat all of us mortals,” said Tom Kite, who finished second.
And no less an authority than Jack Nicklaus put it this way after watching the first Black man win the green jacket in the 61st edition of the Masters.
“He’s more dominant over the guys he’s playing against than I ever was over the ones I played against,” Nicklaus said after he saw a 6-foot-2, 155-pounder with a 30-inch waist break his 17-under Masters record of 271 that stood for 32 years.
And to think, Woods began his first major as a pro alongside defending champion Nick Faldo looking more like a deer caught in the headlights than a tiger hunting prey. He bogeyed holes 1, 4, 8 and 9 on the outward nine in the first round, his 4-over 40 two shots worse than any first nine played by a Masters winner.
But the mixed-race kid with a middleclass background who grew up on a municipal course in the sprawl of Los Angeles resoundingly rebounded with a back-nine 30 to sign for a 70 and stand three shots out of the lead.
Woods’s assault continued on Friday. As CBS’ Jim Nantz announced when Woods eagled the 13th: “Let the record show, a little after 5:30 on this Friday, April the 11th, Tiger Woods takes the lead for the first time in the Masters.”
He never relinquished the advantage. Instead, he built on it.
The sea of change had arrived and his 66 was the finest round of the second day. His lead had grown to three over Colin Montgomerie, the top player in Europe and the No. 2 player in the world; Woods was ranked 13th.
“The pressure will be mounting on Mr. Woods,” Montgomerie said after his second round. “I have a lot more experience in major golf than he has. Hopefully, I can prove that through the weekend.”
Oops. Game over.
Woods tripled his lead from three to nine with a bogey-free 65 while Montgomerie finished with a 74. The last round was basically a coronation parade, which ended with a bear hug with his father, Earl, who was six weeks removed from heart-bypass surgery.
Also on hand was Lee Elder, who in 1975 became the first Black golfer to play in the Masters.
“When he won the Masters by 12, that’s when I knew he was getting ready to take over the frickin’ world,” said Perez, who defeated Woods by eight shots to win the 1993 Junior World Championships. “It was unreal to watch, and then I watched it for another 20, 25 years.”
Woods set off Augusta National’s alarm bells with his shocking power. He averaged 323 yards off the tee on the measured holes – 25 yards longer than the next player. The longest iron he hit into a par-4 the entire week was 7-iron. He twice hit wedge into the green on the 500-yard, par-5 15th – for his second shot.
He hit 9-iron into the green on the 555-yard, downhill par-5 second hole — for his second shot. He hit sand wedge into the green on uphill, 405-yard, par-4 18th – for his second shot.
Thus began the club’s alterations to the course — better known as Tigerproofing. In his first Masters, the course was 6,925 yards from the first tee through the 18th green. This year it will play 7,510 yards.
Woods also didn’t have a single threeputt over 72 holes.
“I had a poster of Tiger in my bedroom,” Mcilroy said. “I had a picture of Tiger winning the ’97 Masters and everything that went along with it — the 270 strokes, 40-30 the first day, all the records. I can even tell you who finished second that day. Tom Kite.”