St Andrews revisited: Tiger Woods
This week's Open marks the 150th year since the tournament began as play returns to St Andrews, where some of the most unforgettable competitions in the history of the major have taken place. All this week, we revisit some of the greatest moments at the Old Course.
Tiger Woods
Woods enhanced his already mighty reputation in winning the Open for the first time in 2000, taking victory by eight strokes to set the record for lowest score to par in any major competition. Woods finished 19-under.
As the score line suggests, Woods' first victory at St Andrews was memorable for the ease with which he blew the rest of the field away. Leading by six strokes as the final day began, no-one came close to troubling the then 24-year-old, and certainly the golfer made few errors of his own. Over the entirety of the tournament Woods produced only three bogeys, thanks largely to his unerring accuracy; throughout the 72 holes, on not a single occasion did his ball end up in a bunker.
The victory also meant that Woods had completed the career Grand Slam, having won the US Open earlier that year, the PGA Championship in '99 and the Masters in 1997. Woods was the youngest player to reached that milestone, and is only the fifth man ever to have pulled off the feat.
But Woods' Open win set the golfer up to achieve another, a more personal milestone - the so-called "Tiger Slam", where Woods would hold all four major trophies at the same time. Having won the US Open earlier that summer, Woods would go on to win the PGA Championship in August, with the Masters following next April.
Woods took victory again five years later at the same venue, and if the score was less commanding then Woods' play was at least similarly imperious. The 2005 win was Woods' 10th major victory, and again the world No. 1 triumphed with relative ease, beating second-placed Colin Montgomerie by five strokes as Jack Nicklaus, Woods’ inspiration as a child and arguably the greatest golfer of all-time, quietly bowed out; this was Nicklaus' last Open, the Golden Bear failing to make the cut.
With his 2005 win, Woods had in fact emulated Nicklaus' feat of capturing two Opens at St Andrews, although Nicklaus still holds the record for most majors won - 18. Once seen as a shoo-in to overtake that record, Woods has stumbled of late for obvious reasons, and currently appears stalled on 14 majors won - though his best results in 2010 have come at the big tournaments. Might the world No. 1 be capable of clinching his first victory of the year, and his 15th major, here at St Andrews?
Tags: