On This Day – April 13th

Eldrick Tont Woods, better known as Tiger Woods, is an American professional golfer who is among the most successful golfers of all time.

On April 13th 1997, whilst aged just 21, he became the youngest ever winner of The Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia USA, one of the four major championships in professional golf. Woods also became the first non-white player to win at Augusta.

This was his his first major championship win, finishing twelve strokes ahead of runner-up Tom Kite.

He initially struggled on his first nine holes of the first round, turning in a 4-over-par 40. Making four birdies and an eagle gave him a 6-under-par 30 for the back nine for a 70, three shots behind first-round leader John Huston.

In the second and third rounds, Woods scored the best rounds of each day, a 65 and a 66, to open up a commanding nine-shot lead. A final-round 69 gave Woods a tournament record of 270, 18 under par, bettering the previous record of 271 set by Jack Nicklaus in 1965 and matched by Raymond Floyd in 1976.

The victory set television ratings records for golf; when the final round was broadcast on the Sunday it was seen by an estimated 44 million viewers in the United States alone.

As well as this record, Tiger also holds the record for the longest drive in the history of the PGA Tour, set at the Kapalua Resort in Hawaii in 2002. How many yards was that drive?

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