Chapter 20

U.S. Amateur Championship

Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club

North Plains, Oregon

August 22–25, 1996

NBC Sports decides to add a day to its television coverage of the U.S. Amateur Championship at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club just to showcase Tiger’s historic quest to three-peat at the U.S. Amateur.

The ratings-boosting adjustment adds $300 to the cost of Earl and Tiger’s nonrefundable plane tickets to Oregon for the tournament.

“I’m never flying coach again,” Tiger announces to his father.

From his uncomfortable plane seat, he thinks back on last month and the second round of the British Open, when he improved on his opening 75 to score an impressive 66.

Something really clicked that day, like I had found a whole new style of playing. I finally understood the meaning of playing within myself. Ever since, the game has seemed a lot easier.

The hilly, forested terrain of the Portland, Oregon, area is familiar to Tiger from his win at the 1993 USGA Junior Amateur, at Waverley Country Club in Portland, and the 1994 Pacific Northwest Amateur, at Royal Oaks Country Club in nearby Vancouver, Washington.

Jack Nicklaus won two U.S. Amateur tournaments, in 1959 and 1961.

Bobby Jones owns a record five titles, won between 1924 and 1930.

Tiger is the 1991, 1992, and 1993 U.S. Junior Amateur champion and the 1994 and 1995 U.S. Amateur champion. What better cap to his amateur career than if he can manage a third consecutive Amateur win and a sixth USGA title?

The pressure is intense. In addition to tournament officials, Tiger faces a trio of judges who hold the key to his success as a professional athlete. IMG’s Hughes Norton is in the gallery, along with the Titleist president, Wally Uihlein, and Nike cofounder Phil Knight, who’s not quite incognito in the black-and-white-striped shirt worn by tournament volunteers.

Like Tiger, Knight has ties to Stanford. He conceived of Nike in a graduate course at the Stanford business school and wrote it up in a paper titled “Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?”

“Nike is going to pay Tiger big,” says Ely Callaway, founder of Callaway Golf Company, who’s also in the gallery.

Knight has invested three years into tracking Tiger’s career, meeting with Earl and Tiger every time they’re in the Portland area, where Nike is headquartered. “I hope we sign him,” Knight says, adding with a laugh, “If not, I hope he goes to medical school.”

With the precision of a surgeon, Tiger recalibrates his team. He replaces sports psychologist Jay Brunza, who’s consistently caddied for him in major competitions—match-play record: 36–3—with Bryon Bell, his best friend from Cypress. Bell is stronger on club selection. “I trust Tiger’s judgment about what he needs to win,” Brunza says in agreement.

Tiger wins his first round against a player from Colorado State. Then Tiger, Brunza, and Bell catch an evening showing of America’s number one movie, Tin Cup, starring Kevin Costner as a washed-up golf pro—and featuring Phil Mickelson in a cameo as a PGA Tour golfer. Near the theater is Portland’s Waverley Country Club, where in 1993 Tiger won his third U.S. Junior Amateur. The three members of Team Tiger walk to the 18th, where Tiger splashed out a forty-foot bunker shot, setting up a birdie for the win.

The spontaneous pilgrimage, Brunza says, is “a positive reverie, a reminiscence that will always be there.” The air-conditioning feels good after another day out on the course in temperatures over ninety degrees.

Despite the persistent heat, progress through the quarterfinals and semifinals is smooth. In the thirty-six-hole final, Tiger faces Steve Scott, a University of Florida rising sophomore. Just after seven in the morning on August 25, fifteen thousand spectators converge on the course.

Scott watches as crowds build along both sides of the first fairway.

“All these people,” Tida says proudly from the gallery. “They are all here to see my Tiger.” This is the first Amateur she’s attended in person. It could be the most important match he’s ever played.

Caddie Bryon Bell hands him the driver. The clubhead cover, shaped like a plush tiger head and embroidered with the Thai words Rak jak Mea (Love from Mom), is a gift from Tida.

“The sound of Tiger’s ball coming off the club,” Scott says, is “just as crisp a sound as you could ever hear.”

Tiger is listening to only one person. Himself. I’ve been here before. I have thirty-six holes. I have to make a move early.

Scott shoots 68 in the morning round. The Florida Gator is 5 up. The stress Tiger’s feeling shows in his posture. Butch Harmon spots the worrisome shift, so he and Jay Brunza work with Tiger during the lunch break.

In the afternoon round, Scott holes out from an impossible lie on the 10th hole. His celebratory fist pump lights Tiger’s competitive fire. By the time they reach the 16th, Tiger is only 2 down, but he’s just missed a four-footer on 15.

“That’s when I thought I’d win the match,” Scott says. “He was looking frustrated. I thought that would rattle him a little bit, but it didn’t.”

Yet neither player is prepared for what happens on the 16th. Scott is putting for par and Tiger for birdie. Their balls are on the same line.

“As you do on any Saturday afternoon,” Scott says, “I ask my playing partner to move the ball mark over, so he does.” Tiger picks up his ball marker, as requested.

Scott pars the hole. Tiger is about to resume play without replacing his marker. The sportsmanlike Scott speaks up, saving Tiger from a rules violation.

Tiger comes back to force a playoff, making the birdie putt on 16 and another on 17.

“Lightning will not strike twice,” Earl says of Scott’s chances.

The largest television audience in U.S. Amateur history is watching with rapt attention.

Tiger finally closes Scott out on the second playoff hole.

He has solidified his place in history as the first player to win three consecutive U.S. Amateurs.

“It is the most fascinating golf event I’ve ever seen,” Harmon says.

When asked if he’s decided what’s next for him, Tiger says, “I don’t know about that. But I do know this. I’m going to celebrate like hell tonight.”

But the festivities are quiet. Tiger and Bryon Bell spend the evening playing cards in the Woodses’ rental house.

At the nearby Hillsboro Airport, a corporate jet is waiting.