Sam Torrance was coming towards the end of his playing career when Tiger Woods began to take the game by storm.
The final two major championship appearances of Sam Torrance’s career came in the 2000 season in which Woods secured the first three legs of the Tiger Slam.
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Meanwhile, the Scot’s last Ryder Cup appearance came two years before Tiger Woods‘ debut in the event at Valderrama in 1997.
Of course, 1997 was also the year Woods won The Masters for the first time, with the American finishing 12 shots clear of anyone else that week at Augusta National.
Certainly, Torrance was quickly aware of just how special Woods was.
The regret Sam Torrance has after having the opportunity to play with Tiger Woods
Torrance played alongside the likes of Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, and Bernhard Langer on the Ryder Cup stage.
But as he told the Life on Tour podcast, it was the opportunity to play a practice round with Woods that left him frozen – and led to a decision he would rue to this day.
“I was on the putting green, and I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but this is true,” he said. “I was on the putting green having a few putts and Stevie Williams comes past coming up to the 10th tee with Tiger.
“And he said, ‘come on Sam, do you want to join us for the back nine?’ I never backed away from anyone, but I did say no. ‘I’m playing later, sorry, I can’t’. I still regret it, but I was terrified because he was God.”
The major champion who left Torrance starstruck at The Open Championship
Torrance is one of the players who played in two of the most significant eras in the game’s history.
The 2001 European Ryder Cup captain made his Open Championship debut in 1972. Both Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player lifted the Claret Jug in the 1970s.
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But, as it turns out, it was another great of the game who left Torrance starstruck as he prepared for The Open one year.
“The first time I saw Arnold Palmer was in The Open at Birkdale, whatever year it was, and he came walking on the putting green. And this man, I just looked at him because I grew up with the Big Three, Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, it was Nicklaus, Palmer, and Player. We loved them. But I loved Palmer, he was magnificent,” he said.
“And then when I saw him in real life I was just aghast, he was just magnificent. Just an adonis, dark skin, cashmere, he just looked magnificent. ‘How the hell am I ever going to beat that man?'”
Palmer may have won the fewest majors of the Big Three, but he clearly proved to be one of the most important golfers of all time.
He is, after all, known as The King.
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