Tiger Woods says he intends to play on this 12 months’s Masters. Comply with updates.
Maybe crucial factor to recollect on the twenty fifth anniversary of Tiger Woods’s seismic victory on the 1997 Masters, the primary of his 15 main championships, is that just about nobody noticed it coming.
Sure, Woods, then 21, had received three PGA Tour occasions, and there was avid curiosity in his first main as an expert. However one 12 months earlier, as an novice, he had missed the Masters lower. In 1995, he tied for forty first. It was accepted knowledge that greedy the intricate nuances of Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership would take years. Woods, it was stated repeatedly by the tour’s elders, must wait.
“That’s how I felt,” Paul Azinger, a 14-year tour veteran in 1997 and the winner of the 1993 P.G.A. Championship, stated in an interview final month. “It’s tougher than it seems to be.”
Azinger felt otherwise after he was paired with Woods within the second spherical. For the primary time, he watched Woods hit a ball with a driver. Azinger, now 62, had by no means seen a golf shot dangle within the air for as long as it rocketed away from the tee.
“I can nonetheless see that white ball framed in opposition to the darkish timber within the distance, then the blue sky after which the inexperienced fairway — it was a bullet that appeared to by no means cease,” Azinger, now an NBC golf analyst, stated.
The 4 days of the 1997 Masters would grow to be a profound expertise for these of us lucky to be on the grounds at Augusta Nationwide, and for 44 million individuals who watched on tv. It set information and broke cultural floor, as Woods grew to become the primary nonwhite athlete to win golf’s most tradition-bound occasion. It completely reshaped nearly each facet of the sport, how it could be broadcast and who would possibly watch, and it was the primary globally distinguished chapter within the lifetime of a younger Black man with a catchy nickname who would quickly turn out to be one of the vital well-known and hottest individuals on this planet.
Though many keep in mind vividly the second that Woods received — the 4-foot putt and his full-body fist pump — not everybody remembers that his week started inauspiciously.
The First Spherical
Throughout his first 9 holes on Thursday, Woods very almost performed his means out of the event. He shot a four-over-par 40 with 4 bogeys and no birdies. I noticed it was potential for him to win, however it appeared unlikely. It was Augusta Nationwide. It takes time. Nearly each enduring, prime golfer from the final 60 years — Palmer, Nicklaus, Faldo, and many others. — didn’t win the event till his fourth strive. Most received of their fifth or sixth. And so they weren’t 21, both.
However when Woods then shot 30 on the again 9 — and was calm within the information convention afterward, as if he had anticipated it — that’s after I knew he can be contending on Sunday.
NICK FALDO (defending Masters champion, paired within the first spherical with Woods) We each made a large number on the entrance 9; simply knocking it in all places. I had received six majors so possibly individuals gave me a bit slack, however for Tiger, I’m positive lots of people have been most likely pondering, “Nicely, he’s nonetheless a bit in over his head, isn’t he?”
TOM KITE (completed second) The Tiger curiosity was very excessive so I’ve little question a number of guys within the subject heard about that opening 40.
TOMMY BENNETT (certainly one of many Black caddies picked by the membership from the close by Sand Hills neighborhood) Any person informed me Tiger shot 40, and I stated, “Doesn’t matter, man, he’s not apprehensive.” That child was raised to be fearless. Once I caddied for him in ’95 [at the Masters] he solely put three balls in his bag and informed me he wouldn’t want any extra. And he didn’t. I knew he’d come again.
FALDO Tiger birdied the tenth and chipped in for birdie on the twelfth gap. That shot was principally the start of the remainder of his profession.
JEFF SLUMAN (tied for seventh) The chip from behind the twelfth inexperienced was extremely tough. All people watching was saying, “He’s obtained to watch out to not pitch that again into Rae’s Creek and make double bogey.” And bang! He places it within the gap. Are you kidding?
FALDO The crowds round us began getting larger and greater and louder and louder. He appeared to feed off that. It was the start of Tiger mania, proper? I seemed round and realized that that is actually one thing to recollect.
Woods would birdie the par-5 thirteenth and eagle the par-5 fifteenth — for the event he can be 13 beneath on the par 5s — then added one other birdie on the seventeenth gap. He completed at two-under-par 70, certainly one of solely seven golfers within the subject of 86 to interrupt par that day. Woods celebrated by heading to the drive-through of the Arby’s on Washington Highway simply past the membership’s ornate entrance gate. He had two of his Stanford faculty buddies within the automobile. After they wolfed down roast beef sandwiches on the home rented with Woods’s dad and mom, Earl and Kultida, they performed basketball within the driveway and desk tennis within the basement.
The Second Spherical
KITE The situations had been so arduous the primary day — windy with very agency greens — you wager 70 was an excellent rating. Individuals observed.
AZINGER I immediately realized how many individuals have been following us and the way a lot stress he was already beneath.
LEE WESTWOOD (enjoying in his first Masters) It was apparent how sturdy he was mentally, and his age didn’t matter.
AZINGER We get to the thirteenth gap on the again 9 and he’s now 4 beneath par for the event, which isn’t too shabby. Then Tiger goes eagle-birdie-birdie on 13, 14 and 15.
JIM NANTZ (longtime CBS Masters host) Tiger made the putt for eagle on 13 and I checked out my watch pondering this is perhaps a historic second. I stated, “Let the file present that a bit after 5:30 on this Friday, April the eleventh, Tiger takes the lead for the very first time on the Masters.”
AZINGER Tiger was hitting a wedge or 9-iron to the greens on the again 9 par 5s whereas some guys have been hitting 3-woods there. Tiger seemed like he wasn’t greater than 155 kilos and his swing was so fierce I apprehensive for his again even then, however my goodness, each shot had such integrity. As professionals, we all know it after we see it.
JUSTIN LEONARD (1997 British Open champion) We have been attempting to beat this man, however I knew I couldn’t drive it as far, I didn’t hit my irons as properly, I didn’t have his quick sport and I didn’t putt as properly. You knew you have been going to have the ability to watch historical past, however you weren’t going to be making any historical past your self.
On the midpoint of the event, Colin Montgomerie, a generally crusty Scot who at 33 had competed in 22 majors and completed within the prime 10 5 instances, trailed Woods by three strokes. In a packed information convention after the second spherical, Montgomerie stated of Woods, “The stress is mounting, and I’ve much more expertise in main championships than he has.”
The Third Spherical
Earlier than Woods’s third spherical on Saturday started — he was within the ultimate grouping, the prime TV spot, with Montgomerie — Butch Harmon, Woods’s coach, put his arm round his pupil and stated, “Let’s go present Colin Montgomerie who you actually are.”
Woods responded, “Oh, don’t fear.”
LEONARD I’d have stated the identical factor as Colin. As skilled golfers it’s important to strive to attract on expertise when you’ve got it, and Colin had the expertise — with some success. However on the finish of the day it didn’t matter in any respect.
Woods, in a 2007 interview on the tenth anniversary of his 1997 victory, stated: “Colin’s remark did inspire me. Perhaps if he had already received a serious I may need let it go, however since he had not, I figured we have been fairly even going into that spherical.”
BERNHARD LANGER (1985 and 1993 Masters champion) I had performed in Thailand with Tiger when he was an novice and it was clear as day that this was going to be a special sort of rookie on tour. Within the third spherical Saturday he shot 65, proper? Seven birdies? It doesn’t sound like he was very nervous to me.
SLUMAN He wasn’t afraid of something. The larger the stage the higher for him. I made a remark after I was in fairly good place on the leaderboard that possibly all the blokes on tour ought to take up a set and provide to ship him to grad college or one thing.
MONTGOMERIE (after he shot 74 to Woods’s bogey-free 65) All I’ve to say is one transient remark as we speak. There’s no likelihood humanly potential that Tiger goes to lose this event. No means.
When a reporter recalled that Greg Norman in 1996 had misplaced a six-stroke, final-round result in Faldo, Montgomerie snorted: “Faldo’s not mendacity second, for a begin. And Greg Norman’s not Tiger Woods.”
As they’d because the event began, Woods and his faculty buddies went to Arby’s. Then they performed basketball and desk tennis.
The Remaining Spherical
Late the following morning, Woods donned what would turn out to be his trademark Sunday colours: a blood purple sweater and black pants. Earlier than he left for the course, Woods ascended the steps and entered the bed room of his father, Earl, who had just lately undergone surgical procedure for his ailing coronary heart.
“Son,” Earl stated when he noticed Tiger, “that is most likely going to be one of many hardest rounds you’ve ever needed to play in your life.”
The day carried a weight, and when Woods arrived on the course, a customer discovered him. It was Lee Elder, the primary Black golfer to play the Masters, in 1975. Elder obtained a rushing ticket on the drive to Augusta. An honorary starter on the 2021 Masters seven months earlier than he died, Elder informed reporters in 1997: “Nothing was going to cease me from getting right here. I made historical past right here, and I got here right here as we speak to see extra historical past made. After as we speak, nobody will flip their head when a Black man walks to the primary tee.”
Henry Ashley, the headwaiter at Augusta Nationwide and certainly one of about 20 Black membership workers who lined the plantation-style clubhouse balcony to catch a glimpse of Woods on the primary tee, informed The Greensboro Information and File: “Tiger’s the person, interval. He’s your man; he’s my man.”
After Woods thundered a tee shot towards the primary fairway, the congregation of membership workers remained on the balcony to look at him stroll onto the course. As Woods disappeared over a distant hill, the staff, one after the other, turned and walked by way of a single skinny door body to proceed their clubhouse duties.
LANGER I don’t know all about American historical past. However there have been a number of scenes like that in 1997. You realize, seeing Tiger win the Masters, I believe, in impact, stated, “You are able to do what I’m doing.” I’m satisfied it had an affect on future generations that weren’t white.
COSTANTINO ROCCA (accompanied Woods on Sunday) The temper was festive, like a celebration or a giant occasion. I’m undecided the group even knew there was a bit Italian man enjoying with him. The ambiance was highly effective.
KITE As a result of the ultimate spherical of the Masters has seen many historic collapses, no one was conceding Tiger the title — even when he would have needed to collapse like loopy to be caught. However there was nonetheless a wait-and-see perspective.
ROCCA I did lower his lead by a stroke after the primary seven holes when Tiger made a pair bogeys. Then he hit his tee shot on No. 8 into the timber and I assumed possibly there’s some likelihood. What if I make birdie and he makes double bogey? As a substitute, I made par and he made birdie.
KITE It was case closed.
SLUMAN From there, a coronation.
NANTZ I talked briefly to Lee [Elder]. There was emotion in his eyes. And fatigue.
ROCCA (tied for fifth) On the final 9 holes, the group was getting crazier and crazier, and at one level Tiger turned to me and requested if I used to be OK. He’s a pleasant man, and I used to be pleased with him.
NANTZ I saved fascinated about how a lot this second meant to so many individuals. It transcended the game, and seeing Lee Elder was a visible cue to me.
As Woods, his dishevelled pants flapping within the wind, sank a final putt to set 20 Masters information, together with youngest winner and largest margin of victory (12 strokes), Nantz stated, “There it’s, a win for the ages.”
After the Win
The victory was transformative, significantly for golf, although not in each means imagined. Designers tried to “Tiger-proof” their golf programs by making them longer and harder. Woods’s crossover attraction, lengthy predicted, swiftly materialized. Ten days later, in an indication of his cultural transcendence, Woods gave Oprah Winfrey his first post-Masters interview. He was despatched up by “Saturday Night time Stay.”
Impressed by Woods’s trailblazing achievement, Sean Combs, the rap mogul referred to as Puff Daddy, referred to as Hype Williams, an award-winning music and movie director and producer. Their dialog about what had transpired at Augusta Nationwide grew to become the vanity of the hip-hop video “Mo Cash Mo Issues,” which additionally featured the rapper Mase. It was launched three months after Woods received the Masters.
HYPE WILLIAMS Puff was very excited in regards to the concept of Tiger Woods and adamant about beginning a video with him as a Tiger Woods character. With Mase and Puff, we had the chance to allow them to embellish on Tiger Woods and the large second that the game was having in 1997. That’s what it represented. Coincidentally, I simply shot Tom Brady’s marketing campaign for his golf line. Tom additionally occurs to be a really critical golfer, and he was closely influenced by “Mo Cash Mo Issues.” He informed me he needed that vitality of the unique video for his marketing campaign, a ’90s vitality that Tiger got here to exemplify.
DUSTIN JOHNSON (then 12) Once I was rising up, in highschool you have been sort of a dork should you performed golf. However Tiger really made it a cool sport to play.
Joe Beditz, the president of the Nationwide Golf Basis, noticed the affect, together with a 22 p.c improve in leisure golf participation and a 50 p.c soar within the variety of nonwhite golfers from when Woods turned professional in 1996 to 2001.
JOE BEDITZ Tiger’s greatest affect, by far, was on golf’s public consciousness. He grew to become ubiquitous: TV adverts, journal covers, interviews and tv appearances. The ultra-elevated public consciousness was the headspring from which all of golf’s blessings flowed — extra followers, extra golfers, extra programs, extra tools gross sales.
In the identical five-year interval starting in 1996, PGA Tour prize cash mushroomed by 172 p.c, tv scores for the Masters jumped by 58 p.c and community cameras tried to seize each shot struck by Woods at any event.
NANTZ The thought was to by no means lose monitor of Tiger throughout your complete physique of a three-hour broadcast. It was a brand new period for golf as a result of a golfer was now possibly probably the most well-known athlete on this planet.
The pervasive perception within the wake of Woods’s 1997 Masters victory was that it could be a catalyst for diversifying skilled golf, which had a well-deserved popularity for exclusionary techniques and biases. The PGA Tour had a Caucasian-only clause till 1961. Elder was not welcomed to the Masters till 14 years later. Woods’s 1997 Masters breakthrough and exploding fame have been anticipated to carry sweeping change. However 25 years later, there are not more than a handful of Black golfers on the PGA Tour.
JARIAH BEARD (certainly one of dozens of Black caddies at Augusta Nationwide from 1955 to 1983) We had extra Black professionals within the Sixties than we do now. Within the Nineteen Eighties, one other Black golfer, Calvin Peete, received 12 PGA Tour occasions. He received the Gamers Championship and was close to the highest of the cash rankings record nearly yearly. Tiger got here alongside 10 years later, however what number of have adopted him?
EDWARD WANAMBWA (an editor for African American Golfer’s Digest and a former caddie for Elder) It was a bit naïve to assume there was going to be this sudden inflow of African American golfers. Why didn’t the floodgates open? As a result of elite golf just isn’t an affordable endeavor — the tools, the journey, the entry charges to tournaments, it’s costly. There are well-meaning initiatives to introduce the sport to junior golfers, however the mechanisms for attending to the tour weren’t there.
BEARD (81, nonetheless lives in Augusta) Tiger’s win actually helped younger white golfers greater than Black golfers. The younger white golfers made Tiger their hero and emulated his swing, his exercise habits, his aggressiveness. All of them grew to become higher due to Tiger.
GARY WOODLAND (2019 U.S. Open champion) I’ve watched Tiger win that first Masters on an previous VHS tape possibly 400 million instances.
JOEL DAHMEN (sixth 12 months on the PGA Tour) I’ve watched too many instances to rely. Not less than 40. Each time it comes on, I don’t care if Tiger is on the primary gap in that ultimate spherical, I’ve to look at the entire thing.
WANAMBWA That’s the factor, it was nonetheless nice to look at a brother — somebody who seems to be like us — slip on the inexperienced jacket at Augusta Nationwide. It was a win for all of the Black caddies and all of the Black golfers who by no means obtained to play there. That supersedes all the remaining.
Woods skipped Arby’s after Sunday’s ultimate spherical. As is custom, the Augusta Nationwide membership feted the Masters champion and his household at a dinner party because the solar was setting on the grounds. When Woods obtained again to his rental home, a celebration ensued for the tenants and invited friends with no scarcity of grownup drinks.
In some unspecified time in the future late within the night time, Woods slipped away from the gathering. Later, Earl Woods went on the lookout for the Masters champion. He peeked into his son’s bed room and located him asleep on the mattress, his arms hugging his inexperienced jacket.
Interviews have been edited and condensed.