ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 14, 1997 TAG: 9704150020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: AUGUSTA, GA.
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: CHARLIE VINCENT
Tiger Woods was the only one who knew it was his time.
Young and strong and sure - and don't forget this, intelligent - he has been on the horizon for a while now, first a rumor, then a shadow, then a presence seen but not quite felt.
We knew he was coming. We just didn't know he'd arrive quite so soon.
He is the dinner guest who rings the doorbell while you are still in your apron, the meter maid who reaches your car a minute before you do, the tax man coming April 14.
Maybe golf wasn't quite ready, maybe America wasn't, maybe we hadn't had quite enough time to prepare ourselves for a man who can do things with a golf ball that no man could do before.
Maybe we weren't quite ready for a man who can leave his drive on the fringe of a 360-yard hole, hit irons from behind a stockade of trees to within three feet of the hole. A man who plays this game as much with his head as with his body and is so intolerant of his own imperfections on the course.
Maybe we weren't ready for all of this from a man who is just 21. And African American.
And Anglo.
And Thai.
And Chinese.
And American Indian.
On Sunday - ready or not - he knocked down all the barriers. He conquered the most legendary course in these United States. He conquered the country's most prestigious tournament. And in the process, made fans and friends of the tens of thousands who stood beneath Augusta's stately pines and cheered his every move.
Just 15 tournaments into his professional career, Woods won the 61st Masters by a record 12 strokes, leaving in his wake Tom Kite, Tommy Tolles and Tom Watson and immediately stamping as valid Jack Nicklaus' prediction that his career would be like none that has preceded it.
His 270 is the lowest score ever recorded in the Masters.
No one has ever shot four consecutive rounds in the 60s here. But Sunday, Woods joined Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Fred Couples and Ben Crenshaw as the only golfers who have missed by a single stroke, completing his tournament 70-66-65-69.
To some, Woods' multi-ethnic bloodlines might dilute the impact of what he has accomplished for African-Americans. But Lee Elder is not among those.
Before Elder became the first African-American to play this tournament, in 1975, blacks were admitted only to carry someone else's bags. Or to wait tables. Or to wash dishes.
On Sunday, Elder was in the gallery after driving from his home in Pompano Beach, Fla., to Ft. Lauderdale, flying to Atlanta, and driving a rental car toward Augusta at 85 mph.
``About halfway, a policeman pulled me over,'' Elder said. ``I told him, `I've got to get to Augusta to see Tiger Woods.' He didn't buy it.''
The trip, and the ticket, were worthwhile.
``This is a happy and glorious day for all blacks, for all of us,'' Elder said. ``I always felt I would return here for an occasion like this, not necessarily for this particular young man, but I knew somewhere down the line this day would come.''
Nicklaus saw this day - and this young man - coming a couple of years ago. He predicted Woods would win the Masters more often than he and Palmer combined - 10 times. He did not make the remark without thought; he told Palmer what he planned to say, before making the comment to a group of writers.
Still it was difficult to take it seriously.
It was difficult until this weekend, when Woods became the youngest - and most convincing - winner in the history of this tournament.
When Nicklaus was 21, he entered his first professional tournament, the U.S. Open, and finished fourth. It was as good a beginning as anyone ever had in this game, until Sunday.
It was the beginning of an era. It ended sometime ago, fading slowly to black with age and time and the erosion of skills.
Sunday was the beginning of a new era, destined to belong to a young man who brings a surgical precision to the way he plays this game, not just in his shots, but in his preparation. Everything he does is exacting and logical, never done without thought and reason.
There have been long hitters before, but John Daly has shown us where a 350-yard drive will get you if that is the only strength in your game and in your personality.
Woods is the whole package.
A year ago, this course broke Greg Norman on its final day, leaving him - possibly forever - a lesser golfer than he had been.
On Sunday, Woods left a greatly enhanced golfer. More certain, more confident, more self-assured.
Amen Corner?
Where hearts are broken and games destroyed?
He played the three holes in 7 under par for the tournament.
When Tiger was the low amateur here after two rounds in 1995, his father, Earl, sounded an alarm that should have been heeded:
``It's not remarkable,'' he said of his son's even-par total after 36 holes. ``You haven't seen the real Tiger yet. ... If he could throw his irons in there consistently, he could be 5 or 6 under every day, with no problem. He can run the table on you.''
That part of his game - more than his great length - is what has brought him to our living rooms and to our consciousness ahead of what we might have believed was his schedule.
Two years ago, coming up the final fairway here, he was just a young man with a lot of promise, who had fallen 19 strokes behind the leader. The day - and the tournament - belonged to Crenshaw, who four days earlier had carried the coffin of his mentor and friend, Harvey Penick, and was just a couple of hours from winning his second Masters and dissolving into tears in the arms of his caddy.
Woods' tee shot on 18 that day was in the rough and his second hit in the middle of the green before retreating down a severe slope, leaving him barely in sight of the cup.
As he approached the green, a single pair of hands applauded.
His mother, Kultida, saluted his approach.
Slowly others joined in, a few and then dozens and then hundreds.
Today the world applauds.
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Tiger Woods' Masters win on Sunday is,by CNBin the words of Lee Elder, ``a happy and glorious day for all
blacks.'' color.