If your finger is on the pulse when it comes to professional golf, you can’t help but have noticed the return to the fairways (and some other less explored parts of the course) of a certain Tiger Woods.
Yes that’s right; the former seemingly unbudgeable world number one teed it up for the first time in almost a year and a half, having suffered from various injuries and the surgeries that came with them.
A field-leading 24 birdies was reason enough for Tiger fans to be frothing at the mouth at the prospect of their main man featuring at the business end of leaderboards over the coming season and while nobody is sure where and when Tiger will play in the future, we can all tee it up where he’s played in the past.
Introducing the Tiger Trail
When you look back on Tiger’s famous 2000 season, there couldn’t have been a better stage for the 2nd leg of the “Tiger Slam”. St Andrews is golf’s most historic course, and the year 2000 will go down as the most historic in modern golf.
Already with legend status in the bag, Tiger arrived at Royal Liverpool, known affectionately as Hoylake, with a special game plan for this special course. Hitting only one driver all week, Tiger used long irons from the tees to take the countless bunkers out of play en route to his 3rd Open Championship win. Will you employ the same tactic?
The Grove welcomed the world’s best for the 2006 WGC American Express Championship and those who turned out to the Hertfordshire gem were treated to a vintage Tiger rout. Eventually winning by 8, Tiger was one of just two players to hit the par 5 18th (usually the 9th) in 2 all week. He eagled the hole 3 times and now there’s a plaque commemorating the occasion…drop a ball down and have a crack just for a bit of fun!
The Ryder Cup hasn’t always been Tiger’s forte but he certainly brought his A game to Celtic Manor’s Twenty Ten Course during the Sunday singles. Francesco Molinari was on the end of a 4&3 drubbing as Tiger stormed through the 1st 13 holes in 8 under par.
The 1st staging of the Ryder Cup in Continental Europe also marked Tiger’s 1st appearance in The Ryder Cup. Although with Seve at the helm, things were never going to go to plan for Team USA and Tiger.
After starting the week hitting golf balls from Europe into Asia along the Bosphorus Bridge to promote the event, Tiger took to the Montgomerie Maxx Course and finished 3rd in one of his last appearances in Europe.
Pebble Beach has long been one of the most famous courses in golf and at the 2000 US Open, Tiger put in one of golf’s most famous displays. Arguably the finest performance in golfing history, Tiger whipped the field by a mind-boggling 15 shots to mark the beginning of the “Tiger Slam”.
Sawgrass hasn’t always been Tiger’s happiest hunting ground, but he’s still won a pair of Players Championships here and in 2000, we were treated to one of his most famous shots. “Better than most” was the tagline as his snaking, 60 foot putt fell into the hole on the iconic par 3 17th.
For most PGA Tour players a single win makes a career on tour a successful one. Winning 8 times is very unusual. Tiger has won 8 times at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill along though. Not too shabby.
While Tiger was winning as a pro before the 1997 Masters rolled around, it was at Augusta where he really announced himself to the wider world, lapping the field and winning by an astonishing 12 shots. Tiger had arrived.
