Minority Golf & Sports Magazine will present a series of features detailing the historic accomplishments of golfers of color in the United States over the past one hundred years and beyond on the pages of minoritygolfmag.com.
Additionally, we will feature a special section on the past decade of Tiger Woods. This series beginning today features eighteen articles produced by the Philadelphia Daily News. The series will be presented over the next several months and will conclude with Tiger’s thirteenth major title, the 2007 PGA Championship
Redefiining the “perfect 10” – part two
By Mike Kern, Philadelphia Daily News
(Part one can be found in the December 2007 archives of minoritygolfmag.com)
Have 10 years really passed since Tiger Woods won his first major as a professional, by becoming the youngest ever to win the Masters and the first African-American to win any major? And did he really finish a record 12 strokes ahead of everybody else, with a record score of 18-under-par 270? After opening with a 40 on the front nine Thursday? Of course, he did shoot 30 on the back side, playing three-time and defending champ Nick Faldo. And followed that up with rounds of 66, 65 and 69, when three more 70s would have been enough.
It was a defining moment in the sport. For when, where and how it happened. And what it all meant. Both then and for the future. Here was a young man of color, doing stuff that didn’t seem possible, at a place where the only thing men of color had ever been permitted to do was carry clubs or clean tables.
If it was a signal, who could fathom?
Did we mention the glazed look on the mugs of most of the golfers he left in his wake? See exhibit 1, Colin Montgomerie, his third-round partner who shot 74 on Saturday to go from three down to numb.
When the carnage subsided, Tiger had broken or tied 26 Masters records. Unreal.
It came at a time when Jack Nicklaus, the greatest of them all, had won the last of his six Masters, and the last of his 18 professional majors, 11 years earlier. Before Woods, the previous 25 majors had been won by 22 different names, many of them non-American. Television ratings were treading water. Enter the ultimate X-factor.
Just ask Nike’s Phil Knight, who envisioned all those golden possibilities, even when many snickered.
Sure, Woods had won three straight U.S. Amateurs. And his fifth event as a pro (as well as his seventh). But in golf, forever isn’t measured by how many Buick Invitations you rack up. It’s about green jackets and claret jugs.
And for the last decade, it has been mostly about Tiger. Because nobody his age has ever done it better. Before he’s through, he might be the best there ever was, and ever will be.
This week he’s going for his fifth Masters, one shy of Jack’s record haul. And his 14th major.
Some fun.
“You could see it coming,” Arnold Palmer said recently. “When Jack and I played practice rounds with him, it was our opinion that he would just win and win. I still feel that way. What can stop him? But people laughed when we said that. I didn’t think there was anything funny about it. I was being pretty serious. And so was (Woods). And I don’t see him backing off. Who knows what he’s capable of doing? It may even go beyond what we thought.”
If Tiger had six or eight majors at this point, that would be off the charts. Instead, he’s just five shy of scaling Nicklaus’ all-time mountain. And it’s getting increasingly evident that he doesn’t intend to stop at 18 or 19. The quest started 11 years ago this week.
Part three to come in May, 2008.
Tiger Woods seem to struggle with several aspects of his game during the first two round of this year’s Masters. For only the first time in his career has Tiger gone five rounds of tournament golf without a sub-par round.
But finishing second was not in his plans, but that’s how it is. Tiger was quick to point out that there are three majors left in the year.
