By the Sunday, the Englishman was slipping the Green Jacket onto the American’s youthful shoulders. “I was trying to be funny and I said ‘one word of advice, a red shirt clashes terribly with a green jacket’,” Faldo said.
“I whispered that in his ear but obviously the red shirt went on to become nearly as famous as the green jacket.”
Yet the tournament began inauspiciously for Woods as both he and Faldo struggled during the front nine of their opening rounds.
“I remember we looked at each other and raised eyebrows on the fifth green because the golf course was completely different,” said Faldo. “Boy, you went from green practice facilities and green greens and suddenly they were biscuit coloured.
“They were brutally hard and fast. And we didn’t see much of each other because we were both in the trees, probably left and right.
“We both shot 40 on the front nine so that was a pretty sombre sort of thing.”
On his way to the 10th tee, Woods, who had been joint favourite going into his first professional major, assessed what was going wrong. He vowed to shorten his backswing and his ball-striking suddenly became more reliable.
Woods birdied the 10th and chipped in for another at the short 12th. Another followed at the 13th and he reduced the par-five 15th to a short approach and successful eagle putt from three feet.
Faldo was the closest witness as Woods recorded that two-under-par round of 70. “He came back in 30 and that was the start,” said the six times major champion.
“And then we didn’t see him for dust for about the next 12 years.”
Woods followed up with rounds of 66, 65 and 69 to finish 18 under par. He took the lead on the 13th hole of his second round and was never caught. He ended up 12 strokes ahead of Tom Kite in second place.
It was the manner of the victory that was incredible. He averaged 323 yards off the tee and the longest club he hit into any of the par-four holes was a seven iron. It heralded the era of ‘Tiger-proofing’ at the world’s greatest courses, Augusta included. Not that this hampered the young phenomenon.
