While the golfing world knew all about Tiger Woods heading into the 1997 Masters, it is fair to say that the week at Augusta National went on to launch him into the stratosphere.
Tiger Woods could have hardly made a bigger statement with his first major win. The then 21-year-old finished 12 shots clear of anyone else. Unsurprisingly, that remains the largest margin of victory in Masters history.
It was a performance which confirmed beyond any doubt that golf had its new superstar; perhaps a player who could take the game to heights it had never seen before.
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And it turns out that one of the sport’s most iconic names had the opportunity to help Woods prepare for the week at Augusta National.
How close Arnold Palmer came to beating Tiger Woods just before the 1997 Masters
Heading into the 1997 event, only Jack Nicklaus had triumphed at the first major of the year more often than Arnold Palmer.
The King won The Masters every other year between 1958 and 1964.
And writing in the book A Life Well Played – released posthumously in 2016 – Palmer explained how close he came to defeating Woods at Bay Hill the week before his groundbreaking major victory.
“Many people know that he warmed up for that impressive performance by shooting a 59 at Isleworth Country Club in a practice round with his neighbor, Mark O’Meara. That occurred on a Friday, six days before the opening round of that year’s Masters. Isleworth, a par-72 layout in Windermere, Florida, is not far from Bay Hill Club. I designed the course, which opened in 1986, so I certainly knew how good a 13-under-par 59 was on the 7,179-yard layout,” he wrote.
“What few people know is that the day before Tiger shot his 59, he joined me for a round of golf at Bay Hill with my business manager from IMG, Alastair Johnston. I like to claim, with a wink, that I helped Tiger warm up for his first major championship win.
“Obviously, the twenty-one-year-old Tiger was at the top of his game at that time, but the old guy—I was 67 then— hung in there. We had a friendly little match for $100, and hard as I tried, I couldn’t quite hold off a player of that caliber, in his prime—not even on my own golf course. Tiger closed me out on the 17th hole.”
How Tiger Woods turned his first round around after a nightmare front nine at Augusta National
What – somehow – makes Woods’ performance all the more impressive was the fact that he began the week with a nightmare front nine on Thursday.
Woods reached the turn at four over par. However, he went on to produce a masterclass over the second nine to post a round of 70 and leave himself in fourth position.
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And he once explained how he managed to turn things around in such dramatic fashion.
“I was bewildered and furious,” he said. “I was hot inside. Just before I stepped on the tee, I let go of that anger and calmed myself.
“I was thinking of the feeling I had the week before at Isleworth, when I hit one perfect shot after another.
“The feeling washed over me. My heart rate slowed. I felt free.”
Woods ended up playing the final 63 holes in 22 under par. It was the performance that confirmed that he was ready to put the game on his shoulders and take it into a new era.
It was fitting, therefore, that he had an opportunity to play a round with one of golf’s greatest ambassadors to have the torch passed to him just before stealing the show at The Masters.
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