A person could go crazy trying to recall all of Tiger Woods’ great shots since turning pro, nearly 30 years of them. Maybe that’s what happened to me.
So, in honor of his 50th birthday, I instead went to milestones, exceptional moments that you will surely remember.
“Hello World”
When Woods walked to the microphone at the Greater Milwaukee Open in 1996, no one, other than a few west coast sportswriters, had any idea what to expect. He was still an amateur. But that was about to change with his announcement in which he said, “Hello, world.”
More importantly, as Hughes Norton, Woods’ first agent, revealed in an interview on The Golf Show 2.0, just before his announcement, Woods had inked two contracts, one with Titleist and one with Nike, that would guarantee him $60 million over the next five years.
It was more than any golfer had ever received for any endorsement. He was set for life before hitting a shot. It set the stage for escalating prices in every aspect of golf, from tee times to television contracts to endorsements.
Vegas, Baby
In just his fifth PGA Tour event as a professional, Tiger won the Las Vegas Invitational. It wasn’t that unusual for golfers to win early. When Ben Crenshaw turned pro, for example, he won his first PGA Tour event. But Crenshaw never hit a drive 300-plus yards, which Woods could do seemingly at will.
Mouse House
While many focused on the first PGA Tour event Woods won, he didn’t stop there. Taking only one week off in the fall of 1996, he continued to play all the way to the very last tournament of the season, The Walt Disney World tournament, which he also won.
In seven starts, Woods won two tournaments, enough to earn his way to the Tour Championship, which is pretty hard to do.
Mercedes Championships 1997
There’s a song that goes: “It never rains in southern California. It pours.” And in January of 1997, at La Costa Resort, where the tournament of champions was held for many years, that’s exactly what happened.
It was torrential rain. So much so that some of the fairways became lakes. The course wasn’t playable, but it was swimable. After three rounds, Woods and Tom Lehman were tied at the top. How to finish without using a snorkel? A one-hole playoff on a par-3. That’s how.
Shockingly, Lehman dumped his shot into the water. Woods then hit his to about a foot from the hole. And the saga grew.
“It's a perfect start,” Woods said to media after winning the first tournament of the year.
The Masters
If you weren’t a believer in the Tiger Woods phenomenon before the 1997 edition of The Masters, you were after the tournament concluded.
Woods changed golf as we knew it when he turned Augusta National into an executive course. He drove it where few had been before. He turned every par-5 into a par-4. And he could make putts. In fact, he set a new scoring mark of 18-under par that wasn’t tied until Jordan Spieth reached it in 2015.
However, it was Woods’ 18-under that caused the green jackets to huddle. They came up with a plan for the next year which was called “Tiger-Proofing.” They made a grand effort, but it just slowed him down. It didn’t stop him. Woods went on to win four more titles for five in all: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, and 2019.
2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach
Jack Nicklaus said during the week of the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach that Tiger Woods' success showed that, for the first time, it was possible for golfers to earn enough money on the course to make a living. Before that, they had to cobble together sponsorship deals, private pro-ams, and other business arrangements to supplement their on-course earnings.
Woods went on to shatter past U.S. Open scores, winning by 15 shots. Fifteen.
Before the tournament was over, Roger Maltbie, who was then a walking reporter for NBC-TV, said, "It's not a fair fight."
Tiger Slam
No one has ever won the Grand Slam as designated by Arnold Palmer and Bob Drum on the way to the 1960 British Open. Palmer asked Drum what it would be if he, Palmer, who had already won the Masters and U.S. Open that year, went on to win the British Open and the PGA in a season.
Drum replied that it would be the equivalent of Bobby Jones' Grand Slam. Palmer said that’s what he would do. He would win the Grand Slam. Unfortunately, Palmer finished second at the British Open, and his dream was halted.
Woods got the closest of all who have tried to achieve Palmer's dream. In 2000, he won the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship, followed the next spring by the 2001 Masters. It has become known as the Tiger Slam.
While no one has won the Grand Slam in a calendar year, only six players have won all four major tournaments in their careers, which shows how hard it is to win them all in a year.
82 PGA Tour wins
Tiger Woods has won 82 PGA Tour events during his career, tied for the most all-time with Sam Snead. Woods was also second 31 times.
Out of 378 tournaments he played, he made the cut in 339 of them. He won at least five tournaments 10 times during the seasons he was able to play, winning eight in 1999 and nine in 2000. That does not count his 12 international titles. He was, in his prime, a winning machine.