Dominance: The best of Tiger Woods
By Bill Felber
5. 1997 Masters
Dominance: 3.20
To anyone old enough to have watched Woods’ first Major victory, the memory is indelibly etched. Few either before or since have performed so dominantly in a Major championship.
In fact, based on standard deviation, that 1997 title still ranks as statistically the third most impressive in Masters history, behind only Jack Nicklaus’ 1965 victory and Ray Floyd’s 1976 runaway.
Woods began shakily with a Thursday front nine 40. Then he steadied, four birdies and an eagle at 15 giving him a back nine 30 to stand fourth, three strokes behind John Huston.
The rest of the event was more coronation than competition. A Friday 66 gave Woods a three-stroke advantage on Colin Montgomerie. His Saturday 65 opened up a nine-stroke gap on Costantino Rocca, and by the 11th hole Sunday his lead hit double digits.
He birdied 13 and 14 to extend his advantage – over tom Watson and Tom Kite – to a dozen shots, and played it safe the rest of the way. Kite won the honor of finishing second to Woods, his 70 leaving him 12 strokes behind the champion.
Woods’ score of 18-under 270 worked out to 3.20 standard deviations better than the field average of 290.93.
Given the magnitude of Woods’ triumph, it would be easy to get the impression that Augusta played easy that year. Not true. Only 16 players beat par, and they did so by only a collective 54 strokes. By himself, Woods provided one-third of those 54 strokes.