Tiger Woods’ quest to add to his Major haul may have been stymied by the postponement of this year’s Masters but, in the spirit of golf’s traditional first Major of the year, Mike Wilson revisits the legend’s five previous victories at Augusta National
1997 – HELLO WORLD!
Competing in only his third Masters – he had finished tied-41st on debut in 1995, winning the low amateur accolade before missing the cut the next year for the one and only time in 21 appearances to date – Tiger Woods won his first Green Jacket with a record-breaking performance. Golf’s new phenom took Augusta National apart with a dazzling display combining power, grace and poise, finishing 18-under-par with a record margin of victory, 12 strokes clear of a star-studded field.
He also became, at just 21 years and 104 days old, the youngest player ever to win the Masters and also the first non-white champion at Augusta National in what was the 61st staging of the season-opening Major.
But a Woods victory had looked highly unlikely after the first nine holes of his opening round, reaching the turn in 40 shots, four-over-par. But a blistering back nine – comprising four birdies and an eagle – 30 took him to a respectable 70, three shots off the pace.
In the Friday and Saturday rounds, Woods carded the lowest scores of each day, 65 and 66, to open up a commanding and ultimately unassailable nine-shot lead. His final round of 69 saw him home in a canter, claiming his first-ever Major title and announcing himself on the world sporting stage with a loud bang.
Such was the tumult that the Woods win – and the comprehensive, cavaliering manner in which it was achieved – that it saw television ratings soar, setting records for golf. The final round was watched by an estimated 44 million viewers in the United States alone.
Winning Score: –18 Runner-Up: Tom Kite (–6)
©Stephen Munday/Getty Images
2001 – TIGER SLAM
Having finished eighth in his 1998 title defence and a disappointing tied 18th in 1999, followed by a top-five finish in the first Masters of the new millennium, Woods had gone on to win his first US Open and a maiden Open Championship, not to mention a successful defence of his 1999 PGA Championship later that year.
Hence, Woods went into the 2001 Masters, his seventh appearance, as red-hot favourite and the then 26-year-old did not disappoint. Handily sitting in 15th place after the opening round, five shots back, Woods scorched his way to joint-second with a sizzling 66, six-under-par on the Friday, following that up with a steady 68 on Saturday to lead by a single shot over arch-rival Phil Mickelson.
A second successive 68 of the weekend was sufficient to see Woods win not only his second Green Jacket by
two shots from compatriot David Duval, but, having won the three final Majors of 2000, he now held all four Major titles simultaneously, coining the phrase, the ‘Tiger Slam’.
This was Tiger’s sixth Major in a professional career spanning just four years, and it earned him the first-ever seven-figure winner’s cheque and kept him firmly on top of the world ranking.
Winning Score: –16 Runner-Up: David Duval (–14)
2002 – INVINCIBLE DEFENCE
©Scott Halleran/Getty Images
April 2002 saw the 66th staging of the Masters, traditionally the first Major of the season and staged, as ever, at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, USA – with a now seemingly invincible Woods lording it down Magnolia Drive as the odds-on favourite.
With Augusta National lengthened by almost 300 yards, Woods opened his defence in blistering style, three successive birdies on the front nine on Thursday, before uncharacteristically faltering to sign for a modest, two-under-par 70, tied in seventh, three back from leader Davis Love III.
A solid Friday round of 69 kept the defending champion very much in contention for the weekend, tied fourth, and, in true Tiger style, he powered ahead on Saturday, typically ‘moving day’, with a fine six-under 66 to share the lead with South African Retief Goosen with whom he was paired for the final round.
And after opening up a lead with birdies at both opening holes, Woods uncharacteristically lost his momentum. But with Goosen wilting under the twin pressures of the final round of the Masters and of playing amidst the media and fan-frenzy that goes with the Tiger territory, a one-under-par 71 was enough to give Woods his third Green Jacket and become only the third man – following Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo – to successfully defend a Masters title.
Woods would go on to win the US Open at Bethpage, taking his number of Majors to eight, cementing his place at the top of the world rankings and going a long way to confirming the 27-year-old as PGA Tour Player of the Year for the fourth time in five years.
Winning Score: –12 Runner-Up: Retief Goosen (–9)
©Harry How/Getty Images
2005 – SWOOSH IMMORTALISED
Having failed to contend in either the 2003 or 2004 Masters, Woods came to the 69th Masters unusually without a Major title for almost three years. Back in his favourite stamping ground, having turned 30 years old, the reigning World No 1 made a clumsy start, opening up with a two-over-par 74.
But, in typical Tiger fashion, he retrieved the situation with a sparking 66 on Friday, lifting him to third place, followed by a superb third round seven-under 65, which carried forward to Sunday morning as darkness fell on the Saturday. Woods took a three-stroke lead over fellow American Chris DiMarco going into Sunday’s final round.
However, a lack-lustre 71 to his closest rival and playing partner DiMarco’s 68 levelled things up and led to a play-off, which Woods won in typical style on the first extra hole, the 18th, nervelessly sinking a 15-foot putt for birdie after his rival had holed-out for par.
But it will be for his dramatic chip on the 16th hole in regulation play of the final round that Woods’ 2005 Masters win will be best remembered. Having left his tee shot 25 feet out to the left on the 170-yard hole named ‘Rosebud’, with the thick collar of the second cut hampering his stroke, Woods aimed a good 15 feet left of the pin … hoping it would feed down and finish close to the hole.
As it transpired, Woods went, in typical style, one better; his ball tricked downhill towards the hole, sitting on the lip – Nike swoosh in full view – for a full five seconds before dropping for an unlikely – and scarcely deserved – birdie-two, arguably one of the greatest shots in Masters history.
Winning Score: –12 Runner-Up: Chris DiMarco (–12)
©Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
2019 – LAZARUS RISES
12 months ago, at Augusta National Golf Club on the occasion of the 83rd Masters, the electricity was crackling in the air, and not only because lightning strikes were threatening to bring about a halt in play, but because the most charismatic golfer – and arguably sportsman – who has ever lived was setting the proverbial heather on fire.
It was the Lazarus-like Woods, making the impossible possible by winning his 15th Major title a dozen years since his previous one.
With his playing partner in the final group on the final day, the hot-favourite and – at least until that day – golf’s Mr Dependable, the man-of-the-moment, the seemingly unflappable Francesco Molinari, faltering around an Amen Corner, Woods took full advantage, a steady rather than spectacular final round 70 ultimately edging out a triumvirate of fellow Americans – Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele – by a single shot.
“Just unreal, to be honest with you, you know, just the whole tournament has meant so much to me over the years,” Woods told the jam-packed, frenzied media following that awkward, saccharine-coated donning of the Green Jacket in Butler’s Cabin.
“Coming here in ’95 for the first time, and being able to play as an amateur, winning in ’97, and then come full circle, 22 years later, to be able to do it again, and just the way it all transpired today.”
This was the great golfing fantasy turned real, the authentic stuff of legitimate sporting stardom, the real deal, several notches up on Tom Watson’s near miss at the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry. It was the one that did not get away, where golfing fact and golfing fiction combined to cause a sonic boom that reverberated around not just on Planet Golf, but all around the world.
“Yeah, just to come back here and play as well as I did and did all the things, all the little things well this week, and to do it here. This has meant so much to me, my family, this tournament, and to have everyone here, it’s something I’ll never, ever forget,” he reflected.
Winning Score: -13 Runners-Up: Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele (-12)
