Augusta, GA …
For but a handful of his contemporaries all those with their name on their golf bag were still at school when Tiger Woods rewrote golfing history at the 1997 Masters.
Rory McIlroy was just seven sitting up late that second Sunday night in April twenty years ago.
He was not yet a member of Holywood Golf Club and still a good 18 months away from capturing the World Junior title at Doral in Miami.
Graeme McDowell was staying the night in a B & B ‘somewhere in the middle of Ireland’ on route to an amateur event at Lahinch.
American Zach Johnson, who would win the Masters and an Open Championship, was in college ‘still trying to break 75’.
On the opposite side of the globe the Australian trio of Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Jason Day were still in their pyjamas when the alarm went off at 4am Monday morning and the start of the final round Masters coverage given the time difference.
Ernie Els had won the 1994 US Open and was in the field for the 1997 Masters, and just weeks away from capturing a second US Open title at Congressional.
Where ever and whoever they were watching Woods redefine the ancient game was one of those sporting ‘I remember what I was doing that day’ occasions.
RORY MCILROY – Four Time Major Winner.
Rory McIlroy aged just six years and already swinging like a pro.
“I remember the week vividly as I was only seven years old and I was sitting up till late with my dad in our lounge room watching TV coverage of the Masters,” said McIlroy.
“So, I can remember that week very clearly and I remember everything about Tiger’s last round.
“Tiger’s dominance that Sunday was something that sort of left everyone memorised as no-one that Century had ever won a Major by 12 strokes.”
GRAEME MCDOWELL – 2010 US Open Winner.
“I was still in high school and I was on my way to play in a pretty big high school event, and probably one of my first big amateur events and about nine months before, I had won an event in Ireland and I had started becoming very competitive and starting to become a good player, and we were on our way to an All-Ireland school’s event in Lahinch.
“I was sitting up late in a B & B somewhere in Ireland and thinking how cool it was to witness this beginning of a legend.
“I was not plugged-in at that stage as to what Tiger had done in the lead-up to his Masters win but then I had only got the super competitive golfing bug about nine months previously when I started to have aspirations myself of high-level golf.
“Watching how he won that Masters and then seeing what he then went on to accomplish, he is a one-in-a-lifetime player. He’s not a once-in-a-decade player but clearly once-in-a-lifetime competitor.
“What Tiger then achieved in the early 2000s was ground breaking stuff. You can go back to Jack and Arnold and the boys but players nowadays are better all-round golfers, and better conditioned whereas the golf courses are so much better because of Tiger.
“And no, I did not go out buying a tiger head cove after watching what he did in that ’97 Masters.”
LUKE DONALD – Former World No. 1
“Tiger had been recruited by Stanford but then I missed out, so I was accepted by North Western.
“Of course, none of us had any inkling back then what Tiger would go onto achieve and we all know how very hard it is to win, but for Tiger to go on and 14 Majors and some other hundred tournaments around the globe is phenomenal.
“He’s the best player we’ve seen out here in my era by a mile .”
ZACH JOHNSON – 2005 Masters and 2015 Open Champion
“If there was any shock then it was the amount of shots he won by.
“I was still in college back then and still trying to break 75. He was my age, some two months younger, so I was very aware what he was achieving at amateur level and he was the ‘model’.
“But then after winning by 12 shots I think we all were even more surprised how he would go on to single-handedly change the face of golf.
“But then given when you display a combination of talent, strength and the physical attributes he had in playing the shots he did around the greens, then you have the intangibles that no one can really understand, and particularly between the ears, then that is a dangerous combination.
“It’s easy to say that now 20 years after the fact but Tiger’s the best in the last 25, 30 years.
ADAM SCOTT – 2013 Masters Champion
Adam Scott defeats Aaron Baddeley to win the 1997 Australian Boys title at Alice Springs.
“I was in my final year of high school and while I can’t remember if I eventually went to school that Monday morning, as it was Sunday afternoon in the US, who will ever forget what unfolded that afternoon at Augusta,” said Scott.
“Tiger had already influenced me, for sure, and every other young kid playing golf to the point everyone was wearing something with a ‘swoosh’ and trying to find to find a Tiger head cover.”
JASON DAY – 2015 GA Champion
“I was nine years old and I was getting into golf, I mean I played golf and I was actually in Rockhampton at the time and my mum and dad had this TV where you had to get up and turn the knob to change the channel and you had to move this bunny ears antenna to get the right picture and it was like really early in the morning.
“Back then I had second-hand clubs from Cash Converters and that was all we could afford.
“So, I didn’t have enough money for a Tiger head cover and besides back then they didn’t have the head covers they have nowadays in the sports and golf stores.”
NICK PRICE – Double Major Winner.
“We had not seen that happen at Augusta, I think probably since (Jack) Nicklaus back in the 60s. He totally overpowered the golf course. You know, he was hitting clubs to those par 5s and par 4s – 11, 13, 15 – we had never even seen those sort of distances before. And then you put that on top of his phenomenal short game.
“He just putted so beautifully. I mean, it was a clinic for all of us. We had heard he had it in him, but he had not shown us on the tour because it was only his second full year. I mean, we were amazed. We knew that this was a whole new ballgame now.”
STEVE STRICKER – Ryder Cup Star & Good friend to Woods.
Steve Stricker has been one of Tiger Woods closest colleagues since their first meeting early in 1997.
“I had played with him earlier in that year at Pebble Beach, and I was coming off of a year, 1996, winning a couple times. I played with him at Pebble and I said, ‘I don’t have that game.’ He’s playing it 310 or 315 and hitting 3-wood past my driver, kind of thing, and just had this intimidating look about him and this belief in himself.
“So, I saw it earlier in the year. But then to see him put it all together at Augusta was pretty cool.
“When you look back at it, it’s pretty cool to see what has happened to him. Not so cool what’s happened since. Obviously, he showed the world what he was capable of at that time, and then it was just a glimpse of what was to come.”
MIKE WEIR – 2003 Masters Winner
“I was on the Canadian Tour still working on my game. I remember watching it on TV like most fans and I was just a fan.
“I was just blown away that the game looked so different than what I was playing and who I was playing against. It looked like a completely different game that he was playing.”
JIM FURYK – US Open Winner & 2108 USA Ryder Cup Captain.
“I think just the combination of power and short game was probably unseen in the game, maybe ever. Staggering. I think the talent and the power is impressive, but obviously how good he was mentally and how strong he was from that side of the game was just as impressive.”
MATT KUCHAR – USA Ryder Cup star
Matt Kuchar celebrates after holing a bunker shot to win the 2014 RBC Heritage Classic. (Photo – www.pgatour.com)
“I was in my freshman year at Georgia Tech. I think we were all in awe of what this young Tiger Woods could do. He was already impressive and to watch him dominate the field at Augusta National, I think it had everybody pretty captivated.
“It was awfully exciting. It was such an amazing honour to get paired with him (the next year as U.S. Amateur champion). It’s so exciting to have a guy kind of similar in age that I could relate to, could talk to.”
CHARL SCHWARTZEL – 2011 Masters Winner.
“I remember watching at like 2 o’clock in the morning in South Africa. I think everyone became a massive Tiger fan after that. It was just like a freak. My mind wasn’t even conditioned to think like that. Wow, that’s just humanly not possible.”
STEWART CINK – 2009 Open Winner.
“My second son was born Tuesday of that Masters. … Went home, was there for birth, came back on Wednesday night about 1 a.m. and shot about 12 over for two days. I just remember watching it and thinking, ‘My goodness.’
“I never got to see that kind of stuff in majors because I didn’t get to see Nicklaus that much. I was thinking this is amazing. He’s not even my contemporary, he’s three years younger than me. I was just excited that golf had Tiger Woods in it and I get to ride along.
“To think that he was the bar that we all got to try to rise to just made us all better. … I don’t think anybody could conceive (what he’d go on to do). But maybe so then you were like ‘If he can do this, what can he do going forward?’”
BERNHARD LANGER – Double Masters Champion 1985 & 1993
Germany’s Bernhard Langer in the record books as the first official World No. 1.
“I couldn’t believe some of the clubs he was hitting. He was demolishing some of the par-4 and par-5s. It was sort of unheard of at the time. That got the Masers to do something about that – plant trees and make it longer. … At that time, it looked like he was going to break Jack’s record and be the greatest player ever. Then he took a different turn.”
ERNIE ELS – Four-time Major Champion – 1994 & 1997 US Open along with 2002 & 2012 Open
“I knew he was for real then, knowing him from when he was a junior. But when he shot 40 in the front nine, word spread. The way he turned it around, shoot 30 on the back.
“I remember seeing him on the range after his round and I could see the excitement and the joy. He knew he’d won the first hurdle. When he shot that 70, I could see the joy in his and Butch’s eye and I think he knew then that it was over.
“He was almost like a Dustin Johnson in another territory. But nobody could say this guy’s going to be dominating golf and winning 14 majors in basi*cally 14 years. That’s crazy.”
IAN POUTLER – European Ryder Cup Hero.
“It was very much eyes open to the new wonder kid who didn’t have a good front nine on Thursday but then went absolutely berserk for his last 63 holes. What Tiger did that week just opened everyone’s eye’s. I watched coverage of the Masters that week and thought that this kid is very special.”
“I didn’t know what to think at the time where his win would lead other than shake your head thinking the manner of his victory was exceptional. Of course, no one would have thought then he would go on and win another 13 Majors and take on Jack’s record.
“Little did we know back then but Tiger’s win changed everything. It changed golf for everybody and not just the pros. It changed golf courses. It brought changes to the golf ball, to equipment, to the way we work on our game. It changed all aspects of the game of golf. And it changed Augusta National.”
