Chapter 49

The 66th Masters

Augusta National Golf Club

Augusta, Georgia

April 11–14, 2002

Past winners of the Masters gather at Augusta National Golf Club for an annual tradition. On Tuesday night of Masters Week, the Champions’ Dinner—officially called the Masters Club Dinner—brings the club’s Green Jacket winners together to dine on a menu chosen by the current title holder.

As defending champion, Tiger selects sushi and sashimi appetizers, a main course of porterhouse steak and chicken, and for dessert, chocolate cake with ganache filling and vanilla ice cream. The green-inked menu card for April 9, 2002, reads: SERVED IN HONOR OF MR. TIGER WOODS. It’s more elevated than the cheeseburgers and fries with milkshakes and strawberry shortcake he chose in 1998, as the twenty-one-year-old 1997 champion.

The following evening, on April 10, Tiger and Elin make their first official public appearance together, at the Golf Writers Association of America awards dinner, where Tiger receives his fourth consecutive PGA Tour Player of the Year award. The couple looks relaxed and affectionate while at a table with LPGA Rolex Player of the Year Annika S?renstam, who also shares IMG agent Mark Steinberg with Tiger.

Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson has something new to debut, too. Johnson has made major changes to the golf course, extending the distance on nine of its eighteen holes in a technique sportswriters call “Tiger-proofing.” The 1st now has an additional forty-five yards; the 18th is sixty yards longer. Not only have tees been moved back: fifty-year-old trees have also been uprooted and replanted and bunkers reconfigured to maximize course hazards.

“On 18 you’ve got to drive it up a gnat’s ass,” Greg Norman complains.

Jack Nicklaus (1965, 1966) and Nick Faldo (1989, 1990) are the only two players to have won back-to-back Masters titles. Tiger’s looking to join their ranks, defend his 2001 title, and earn his third Green Jacket in six years.

Through steady rainfall, Elin joins Tida, Tiger’s mother, in the gallery to watch as Tiger shoots 70-69-66. Going into the final, he’s tied at 11 under with South African golfer Retief Goosen, the 2001 U.S. Open champion and fourth on the Official World Golf Ranking. Second-ranked Phil Mickelson is four back, tied with Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia.

In his ongoing quest for his first major victory, Mickelson has been studying New Age spirituality with Deepak Chopra and reading Stephen Hawking’s books on quantum physics. The newfound calm drains away when Mickelson, waiting to play the 8th, hears the crowd roar for Tiger’s chip for birdie on the 6th. In his call for CBS Sports, Verne Lundquist captures Mickelson’s devastation. “Hello! If he doesn’t get you one way, he’ll get you another!”

“I don’t care what any of these guys say about not looking at him or not noticing what he’s doing,” says Earl Woods. “Tiger intimidates through osmosis. You feel it. It freaks people out.”

Six of the world’s top seven players chase the lead, but none of them can make a run. Tiger manages to squash them all with a 12-under 276, successfully defending his title and securing his seventh major in six years.

“I was kind of surprised, no doubt about it,” Tiger says of repeating his 2001 victory. “But that doesn’t deter me from my concentration.”

“Do I get the green pants for finishing second?” jokes Goosen, who ends his Masters Sunday three strokes behind Tiger.

Tiger accepts a check for $1,008,000 from Hootie Johnson, along with his third Green Jacket. He’s less besotted with the coveted garment these days than he was in 1997, when he cuddled it all night as if it were a teddy bear.

“I mean,” Tiger says now, “it’s not like you’re going to walk around with this thing on, are you?”

The Green Jacket is nowhere in sight by Sunday evening, when Tiger leaves the clubhouse with a cold Budweiser tucked into his right hand, his left arm wrapped around his girlfriend. It’s clear that he’d rather be snuggled up with Elin than with an inanimate article of clothing.

The couple is next off to Las Vegas, to the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, for Tiger Jam V. The Tiger Woods Foundation’s annual celebrity-packed music, golf, and entertainment benefit has raised almost $4 million for charities supporting inner-city children since its inception in 1998.

Tiger Jam V will include a three-hole “better-ball” celebrity skins golf match, a youth leadership clinic, and an evening concert headlined by Train and veteran rocker Don Henley, who tells the Las Vegas Sun that he admires people like Tiger, who use their success “to turn around and do something good for the community at large… so I’m happy to help out, particularly when it comes to children.”

When Céline Dion headlined Tiger Jam II, she gushed, “He’s not only the No. 1 golfer, he’s the No. 1 human being.”

In addition to Tiger’s best celebrity pals, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, this year’s attendees include MTV host Carson Daly, comic Dennis Miller, producer Quincy Jones, and TV stars Dylan McDermott and Kevin James.

Tiger’s still riding the high from his third Masters win. He wins big at the craps table at Mandalay Bay in front of a huge crowd of spectators, celebrating alongside Stanford pal Jerry Chang, and later plays blackjack with Elin perched on his lap.

But even after a late night at the tables, Tiger’s up early Saturday morning, hitting the practice range at Rio Secco Golf Club in preparation for today’s match, which he’ll play against Barkley, McDermott, James, and former pro volleyballer Gabrielle Reece. “I came out at 7 a.m. to hit balls,” Reece says, “and there was only one person already here.” With Tiger, “it’s impossible for him to shift down a gear. For him, it wasn’t a ha-ha thing out there at all.”

After the match (which Kevin James wins, to Tiger’s annoyance) and before the concert comes the leadership and community activism conference in support of the Tiger Woods Foundation’s Start Something program. Inspirational speakers include a Las Vegas SWAT team member, a chef, Miss Teen USA, Cirque du Soleil performers, and Earl Woods himself.

Struggling to his feet, Earl speaks to the crowd of kids but pointedly addresses his own son. “As for his golf, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he says. “But his impact on this world can be so much greater. It’s a hell of a responsibility, to make that impact. So there’s your task, son,” he intones as Tiger nods.

Earl is still a persuasive speaker, despite his increasingly poor health—and his stubborn refusal to do anything to improve it. The recently turned seventy-year-old is a prostate cancer survivor who’s also had three open-heart surgeries yet continues to smoke Merits, drink liquor, eat fatty foods, and avoid exercise. “His energy drains away so easily that he tends to doze off. He’s short of breath. His refusal to change old habits hits his family like a suicide note,” Sports Illustrated stated two years ago. Nothing’s changed since then.

“He said, ‘This is the way I want to live my life,’” Tida recounts. She and Tiger have both thrown their hands up in resignation. “But I want to see my son’s future. I want to see my grandkids. Dad wants to check out first? Fine with me. But I want to stay longer.”