1. The Tiger Slam. Give Tiger a mulligan on two swings at the 2000 Masters, and maybe he wins the straight-up Grand Slam that year. Instead, Vijay Singh won at Augusta and Woods ran the table for the next four major championships — the 2000 U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship, and the 2001 Masters. That wasn't a surprise to Woods, who had talked with swing coach Butch Harmon before the 2000 season about a possible sweep because of the Tiger-favorable courses: Pebble Beach, St. Andrews and Valhalla.
He was scary-good as he won by a record 15 shots at Pebble Beach with a record score of 12 under par, and by eight shots at St. Andrews with a record score of 19 under. The 2001 Masters victory, the culmination of what was dubbed the Tiger Slam, meant Woods had all four major trophies on his mantle at once. (You can toss in the '01 Players Championship if you like.) As he stood on Augusta's 18th green, the Slam won, Woods pulled his cap down over his face to cover his tears, then shook hands with Phil Mickelson after he putted out. "As a kid, I never dreamed about winning four straight majors. Kids don't dream that big," Woods said later. SI writer Frank Deford later opined: "His 2000 was the greatest year ever in golf. He changed golf, the way we feel about golf and the entire golf industry." It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment — so far.
2. The shot heard 'round the world. With apologies to Gene Sarazen and Larry Mize, the most famous shot in Masters history is now the reverse chip-in at the par-3 16th by Tiger Woods in the final round when he won in 2005. You're in a minority of earthlings if you don't know CBS announcer Verne Lundquist's excited call — " In your life have you seen anything like that?" — which CBS replays annually. Thanks to TV, Tigermania and the Internet, Tiger's chip that rolled up the hill, then rolled back down and ever-so-slowly toppled into the cup is surely the most viewed golf shot ever. It didn't matter that Woods bogeyed the next two holes to fall back into a playoff with Chris DiMarco, which he won. That glorious chip is The Shot of Augusta's modern era.
3. Swede success. It was a watershed year for Annika Sorenstam in 2003. Not just because she played great golf, as usual, and won six times, including a pair of major titles, or because she was named Player of the Year for a sixth time. It all changed for her in May when she accepted an invitation to play in the PGA Tour event at Colonial in Fort Worth. In the wake of several critical comments from male players, Sorenstam became a Seabiscuit-like international underdog. She also loosened up in pre-tournament press conferences, giving folks a first look into a pleasant personality that she'd previously kept under wraps.
Sure, Sorenstam was the first woman to shoot 59 in competition (in 2001) and the best woman golfer of her era, but she earned more respect for her gritty showing at Colonial than for anything else she'd done up to that point. Notable trivia: Kenny Perry won the event; Sorenstam was paired with Dean Wilson and Aaron Barber; she shot 71-74, tied for 96th; she finished ahead of Mark Brooks and Geoff Ogilvy, among others. "When people talk about Colonial," she said later that year, "the hair on my arms stands on end."
A lot of fans felt the same way.
4. Watson's last stand. All four major championships in 2009 were remarkable, but they shared a common theme — they weren't supposed to end the way they did. Kenny Perry's bobble at Augusta, Phil Mickelson's three-putt at Bethpage Black and Tiger Woods' lost 54-hole PGA lead scuttled what would have been incredibly dramatic stories.
Then there was the British Open at Turnberry, where an aging legend returned like something out of a dream. Five-time Open champion Tom Watson, long a revered figure in Scotland, played the golf of his life on the old links at Turnberry and appeared poised to win a major championship at 59, 13 years older than any major champion in history. It still looked good when Watson swung a sweet 8-iron at the final hole ... until the ball rolled over the green and part-way down an embankment.
Watson didn't get up and down for the par he needed to win, leaving a 10-foot putt woefully short. He suddenly looked his age in the four-hole playoff and lost badly to Stewart Cink. The Scots wanted this one for Old Tom, and the trophy presentation felt like a funeral as fans silently filed out, many of them teary-eyed.
Watson's amazing week was the golf story of the year.
5. I am such an idiot. At Winged Foot in 2006, Phil Mickelson had three major titles on his resume and the chance to finally land the big one that got away. Phil had suffered U.S. Open near-misses at Pinehurst, Bethpage Black and Shinnecock Hills, and all he needed was a par at the 18th to win this Open, or a bogey to force a playoff. You know the rest. It was Jean Van de Velde all over again, only with trees instead of grandstands and a water hazard.
Mickelson blocked a tee shot left off a hospitality tent, took two to get out of the trees, blasted out of a bunker and made a double-bogey 6 to blow the Open in New York, where he is a huge crowd favorite. His subsequent self-effacing quote, "I am such an idiot," said it all and made Mickelson the new poster boy of major championships squandered. At least in golf, that's only a temporary position. (For details, see Colin Montgomerie, Scott Hoch, Greg Norman or Kenny Perry, to name a few.)
New Zealand TV to air Woods interviewUS favored to progress from Group C
