Even at 21, it was all easy for Tiger Woods at Masters

Tiger Woods

By Bob Robinson

(Editor’s note: Robinson, now 88, wrote sports for Oregon newspapers for 42 years, the last 37 at The Oregonian. “Robbie” was the paper’s beat writer for the Trail Blazers when they won the NBA championship in 1977. The Central High and U of O grad was a renowned golf writer at The Oregonian who covered the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship eight times apiece, including the 1997 Masters in which Tiger Woods made history).

   The Masters Tournament is always a special attraction, but when it unfolds this week at Georgia's famed Augusta National Golf Club, there will be a significant sidelight.

   It will mark the 25th anniversary of the event in which Tiger Woods, then 21, let it be known that a new era of professional golf was in the making.

  As the 1997 Masters approached, there was immense anticipation. Woods had left Stanford to turn pro and had been successful enough in winning three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles — the last one at Oregon's Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club — were a strong hint of greatness in his future. But he would be playing in his first major championship as a pro, and many of game's elite players scoffed at the hype that was building around him.

Bob Robinson

   Some of those pros were dumb-founded when Woods, shortly after his arrival in Augusta, said, "I think it is realistic to call me the favorite." He admitted that his thoughts were influenced by a 59 he had shot in Florida a week earlier in a practice round with friend Mark O'Meara.

   If Woods' confidence wasn't surprising enough, his comment came after his doting father, the late Earl Woods, had pronounced that "I've always figured, if Tiger had his 'A' game, no one was going to beat him."

   Gary Player was among those questioning the hype.

   “Some might say that he's the best golfer in the world (already), but I don't," the diminutive South African said. "I don't know how you determine that."

   The tournament's first round began with a strong and cold wind raising havoc with many of the players, including Tiger, who posted a 4-over-par 40 on the front nine. There was snickering from some media members who wondered if the boy wonder would even make the 36-hole cut.

   Woods was irritated as he trudged to the 10th tee but, as the wind died down, he made a miraculous comeback with four birdies and an eagle on the back nine for a 30. At 2-under 70, he had climbed all the way into fourth place, three shots behind the leading 67 of John Huston.

   His hot streak continued as he shot 66 in the second round and took a three-stroke lead at 136 at the midway point. That was followed by a meticulous 65 that carried him to a hard-to-believe nine-shot edge heading into the final round.

  Colin Montgomerie was paired with him in that third round and, before it began, said: "There is more to this than hitting the ball a long way. The pressure is mounting on him more and more."

  After Saturday’s round in which his 74 left him far behind, Montgomerie said: "There is no chance, no human possibility, that Tiger Woods is going to lose this golf tournament."

   He was correct, of course. Woods turned the final round into a coronation more than a competition. He toyed with the field on his way to a closing 69, never leading by fewer than eight strokes. When he rolled in a tricky four-foot par putt at the final hole, he posted a 12-shot victory and a 72-hole score of 18-under 270, both Masters records. He also became the youngest Masters champion.

   Woods’ status as the king of a new golf era was on display and the praise came in droves.

   "I still can compete with everyone else in the field but not with him," six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus said.

   Said Nick Price: “He can do things to a golf course that the rest of us just dream about.”

   Tom Watson: “He was a boy among men, and the boy showed the men how to play the game.”

   Fuzzy Zoeller: “I figured Tiger was 16-under par when he started the tournament because all the par-5s are like par-4s to him.”

   And the tournament runner-up, Tom Kite: "The best I could do (in the final round) was go out and try to win the silver medal."

  The closing round was spiced by the attendance of Lee Elder, the first black golfer to be invited to play in the Masters in 1975.

  "This will do wonders for young blacks who want to play the game," Elder said.

   Afterward, as Woods was speaking to a room full of media members, he was asked to describe the strategy he had used to score his historic win. He talked about his long drives and his efforts whenever possible, to hit his iron shots to spots on the greens where he avoided downhill putts. He mentioned how proud he was of not three-putting once in the 72 holes.

   Then Tiger Woods paused, smiled and said, "It wasn't all that complicated."

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