BY Mike Cullity
With his thunderclap debut as a professional in 1996, Tiger Woods presaged the greatness that would come to define his career. As a fledgling golf writer that autumn, I caught a memorable glimpse of the phenomenon up close.
Woods turned pro in late August after winning his third consecutive U.S. Amateur title. At age 20, he forsook his final two years at Stanford University for an estimated $60 million in endorsements from Nike and Titleist and the chance to earn his PGA Tour card competing on sponsor exemptions in a handful of fall tournaments.
After posting a pedestrian T60 finish in his maiden start, the Greater Milwaukee Open, Woods finished 11th in the weather-shortened Bell Canadian Open. He led the Quad City Classic through 54 holes before stumbling on Sunday, opening the door for 43-year-old Ed Fiori’s triumph. And he finished T3 at the B.C. Open when the final round in Endicott, New York, was washed out.
Woods’ earnings in four starts put him on the cusp of the top 125, but he made his tour card chase moot by outlasting Davis Love III in a playoff to win his first title, the 90-hole Las Vegas Invitational, on Oct. 6. The victory earned him a two-year tour exemption and an invitation to the 1997 Masters, where he would make history. And his $297,000 winner’s check vaulted Woods to 40th in earnings, raising the possibility that he might qualify for the Tour Championship reserved for the top 30.
Their styles were opposite – Tiger all power, Payne all finesse – as were their wardrobes, with Tiger’s Sunday red shirt offset with black trousers and Payne’s red knickers and cap paired with a white shirt and socks.
After finishing third at the LaCantera Texas Open the next week and moving to 34th on the money list, Woods returned to his recently adopted home of Orlando, Florida, for the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic, where I was credentialed to cover my first PGA Tour event.
I was inside the ropes on Sunday, Oct. 20, as Woods battled two-time major winner Payne Stewart in the final round on the Magnolia Course at Walt Disney World Resort. Their styles were opposite – Tiger all power, Payne all finesse – as were their wardrobes, with Tiger’s Sunday red shirt offset with black trousers and Payne’s red knickers and cap paired with a white shirt and socks.
Teeing off in the fourth-to-last twosome, they started the final round one stroke off the lead but by the turn were tied at the top, setting up a mano-a-mano showdown coming home.
While Woods routinely blasted tee shots 50 to 80 yards past Stewart, the veteran’s tempo and ball-striking were impeccable – he hit all 18 greens in regulation that Sunday but narrowly missed multiple birdie putts down the stretch. Woods, meanwhile, made four back-nine birdies, but a pair of bogeys kept things close.
After Woods three-putted the 17th hole and missed a 25-footer for birdie at the last, Stewart had a 12-footer for birdie to tie – and missed once again, grazing the left lip. With a closing 66 to Stewart’s 67, Woods was the leader in the clubhouse.
After walking the back nine with Woods and Stewart, I pivoted to watch Taylor Smith, a 29-year-old tour rookie who had been among four players tied for the lead entering the final round. Wielding a broomstick putter, Smith birdied Magnolia’s 18th hole, apparently to tie Woods at 21-under par.
But it was soon revealed that Smith would be disqualified for an equipment infraction – the two grips on his putter, separated by about an inch, each had a flat section on top, where a player positions his thumbs; USGA rules stipulated that such split grips must be “circular in cross-section.” The infraction had been reported by Lennie Clements, Smith’s playing partner, on the ninth green, but Smith played the back nine under protest while tournament officials sought USGA confirmation of the breach.
Upon Smith’s DQ, Woods won his second tour title in only his seventh pro start. With nearly $735,000 in earnings, he qualified for his first Tour Championship and went on to become arguably the best player ever, winning 15 majors among 82 PGA Tour titles. Stewart famously won the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst four months before perishing in a tragic plane accident. And Smith, who lost his tour card in ’97, struggled with addiction before dying at age 40 in 2007.
As Woods’ 50th birthday approaches, the memory of his rookie exploits is preserved in a photo that hangs among the golf memorabilia in my basement. It’s a framed snapshot of Tiger teeing off during that final round at Magnolia, a Disney World monorail passing in the distance and a young reporter, notebook in hand, crouching inside the ropes.
