On April 13, 1997, 21-year-old Tiger Woods won the prestigious Masters Tournament by a record 12 strokes in Augusta, Georgia. It was Woods’ first victory in one of four major golf championships – the US Open, British Open, PGA Championship and Masters – and the greatest performance by a professional golfer in more than a century. It also made him the youngest two-year-old golfer to win the Masters and the first person of Asian or African descent to win a major.
Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was born in a suburb of Los Angeles, California on December 30, 1975. The only child of an African-American father and a Thai mother, Woods was encouraged from an early age by his father to pursue a career in golf. At the age of two, he faced comedian Bob Hope on television. Mike Douglas Show. At five, he was featured on the television show It’s incredible. At eight, Woods won his first World Junior Championship and in 1991, at age 15, he became the youngest player to win the American Junior Amateur Championship. He also won the 1992 and 1993 junior amateur titles and in 1994 accepted a scholarship to attend Stanford University. That year, he came from six holes behind to win the first of his three straight US Amateur Championships. He was 18 and the youngest amateur champion in history.
In 1995, Woods played the Masters, his first major professional championship. The Augusta National Golf Club, which runs the Masters, didn’t let an African-American join its ranks until 1991. Woods was 41st in his first Masters appearance. In 1996, he won the college title. By this time, he was already gaining considerable media attention and attracting a host of new fans to the sport. After winning his third American Amateur Title, Woods left college and turned pro in August 1996. Playing as a pro in eight Professional Golfers Association (PGA) events in 1996, he won a title and was named Outstanding Rookie of the PGA Tour. In December 1996 he was celebrated by the magazine Illustrated sports as “sportsman of the year”.
In professional play, most of Woods’ opponents were in their late 30s or early 40s. At 6’2 “and 155 pounds, he was lean and athletic, and had developed a devastating swing that regularly allowed him to hit drives over 300 yards. He also had a reputation for mental toughness and was a superb putter and shredder. In April 1997, all these attributes came together for the most decisive victory in the 44-year history of the Masters.
His margin of victory – 12 strokes – was the greatest of the 20th century, and just behind Old Tom Morris’ 13-stroke margin at the British Open of 1862. His score of 18 under par 270 broke the Masters record of 32 year old Jack Nicklaus with 17 under par 271.
In June 1997, Woods was ranked number one in the world. In 1999, he won eight PGA tournaments, earned a record $ 6 million and started a winning streak that ultimately tied Ben Hogan’s 1948 streak, the second longest in PGA history. In June 2000, he won his first US Open title, shooting a record 12 under par 272 to complete 15 shots ahead of his closest competitors. It was the greatest professional golf performance in history, even surpassing his 1997 Masters triumph and his 1862 performance at Old Tom Morris. In July 2000 he won the British Open and in August the PGA Championship. At the age of 24, he was the youngest player to win all four major golf titles and just the second to win three major titles in a year. On April 10, 2005, he earned his fourth green sports coat at Augusta National, becoming the first person to win four Masters before the age of 30.
Wood’s pace of victory slowed down around 2004, when he spent time reworking his swing and rehabilitating his surgically repaired knee. It was also during this period that he married Elin Nordegren, a former Swedish model who would become the mother of his two children. Woods was back in great shape in 2005, winning his 10th major. His performance fluctuated throughout the decade as he struggled with a torn ACL and personal issues that captured media attention: in late 2009, following events surrounding a car crash in Outside Wood’s Florida home, several women have come forward claiming to have had affairs with the famous golfer. Nordegren divorced in August 2010, just as Woods entered his first winless season of his career.
After falling from the international rankings, Woods’ career began to rebound in 2013. He won the Masters Tournament in 2019, his first major championship victory in eleven years.
