Tiger Woods’ first Masters

Time Line

The press coverage leading up to the US Masters Golf Championship in Augusta, Georgia, dealt more with Tiger Woods and his reappearance in a golf tournament than on the tournament itself.

Heaven knows how many reporters attended his news conference and he is said to have 50 bodyguards to protect him from former girlfriends.
Whatever about his marital infidelities and his various dalliances, Woods is possibly the greatest, and undoubtedly one of the most successful, golfers of all time. In his relatively short career he has played in 253 PGA Tournaments, winning 71 of them.
His worldwide winnings exceed $110 million. He reached number one on the world rankings in his first full year as a professional and, apart from a few months in late 2004 and early 2005 when he was number two to Vijay Singh, has remained there ever since.
Eldrick Woods was born in California in 1975 and long before he became a professional golfer he achieved phenomenal success on the golf course right from the time he shot a score of 48 for nine holes at the age of 2.
He had his first hole in one aged six and won his first international junior world title at eight. By the age of 11 his handicap was down to two and he was playing off scratch at 13. His entire career is a series of firsts and it was obvious that he was destined for a career in professional golf. At his first appearance at The Masters as a professional he left the rest of the field in his wake and established himself as the supreme golfer.
He played his first Masters as a 19-year-old amateur in 1995, when he tied for 41st place on a score of 293. He was the only amateur to qualify for the final two rounds. He was not as lucky in 1996 as his opening rounds of 75 and 75 left him outside the cut-off mark. By 1997 he had turned professional and faced Augusta for the first time as a pro.
He became the youngest player ever to lead the Masters after two rounds then after three rounds and of course, after four. He scored 26 threes in the 54 holes, which was a record, as was his nine-shot lead going into the final round. He added a further nine shots to that lead on the Sunday, giving him the lowest final total at 270 and the largest winning margin at 18 under. In the process, he became the first Masters winner of African or Asian origin and at 21 years three months and 14 days the youngest winner of any of the majors.
He went on to win three further Masters, three US Opens, three British Opens and four US PGAs. With 14 major wins, he is second only to Jack Nicklaus, who leads the way with 18 majors. He holds the records for the lowest under-par winning total for each of the four majors – 18 under for the Masters and the PGA, 19 under for the British Open and 12 under for the US Open.
The great run of major victories started for Tiger Woods when he won his first, the Masters at Augusta, on April 13 1997 –13 years ago this week.