CNN INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT
Tiger Woods: At 25, A Golfing Grand Master
Aired April 9, 2001 - 17:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: I'll never accomplish anything that I would surpass this. It's been quite a day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN MANN, INSIGHT (voice-over): And quite a career with quite a bit more to come. Tiger Woods has now won all of the four major golf tournaments in a row. By far the most gifted golfer of our time, perhaps of all time. At age 25, a grand master.
(on camera): Hello, and welcome.
Back in 1930, a young man named Bobby Jones won golf's original grand slam with victories in the British Amateur, British Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open championships. The major tournaments that now make up the grand slam have changed. The two amateur events have been replaced by the U.S. Professional Golf Championship and the Masters.
But still, no one has won the four in a single year. Jones himself retired at the age of 28 and never played competitive golf again except for the Masters, a tournament he created at Augusta National, a golf course he founded as well.
Sunday, at that very course, Tiger Woods won the Masters and set off a debate about whether he had become the first golfer since Bobby Jones to get a grand slam as well. There is no debate, though, that at age 25, Tiger Woods is one of the great athletes of our era, redefining his sport, changing its appeal, altering its economics.
On our program today, CNN's Tom Rinaldi and an interview with Tiger Woods. First, though, two reports on Woods' win at The Masters. CNN's Bob Fiscella has this look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB FISCELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was if watching Michelangelo at golf's Sistine Chapel. With one final brush stroke of brilliance, Tiger Woods' masterpiece was complete, an unprecedented fourth straight major.
WOODS: I don't think I ever dreamt of winning four straight majors. I dreamt of competing against the best players in the world and winning golf tournaments and winning majors. But I never put, you know, four in a row together in my head.
DAVID DUVAL, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: It's just an accomplishment for him that I don't know what you would compare it to because I'm not so sure there's something that you can compare it with certainly in modern golf.
ROCCO MEDIATE, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: You'll never see it again unless he does it. He may just keep winning them. But you know, just sitting there watching that like that, me and my wife were over there watching, just awe period.
FISCELLA: History did not come easy. While Tiger took apart the field in winning the first two majors, this time it was a three-man shootout with two of the game's best. He stared them down without blinking.
WOODS: I don't think I've ever accomplished anything that would surpass this. Going toe to toe with David and Phil, I mean that was, that was fun. It was a lot of fun. And I say it was fun to go out there and know that you're going to have to compete and play well.
PHIL MICKELSON, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: What's amazing is that he seems to be able to pull it out whenever he needs it, and I don't know what to say. I mean, he's played all different conditions very effectively from St. Andrews to Pebble Beach to Augusta National.
CHRIS DIMARCO, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: I have a feeling he's going to win the next three, and he's just going to prove everybody -- he's going to shut everybody up. So, you know, the guy is phenomenal. I mean nothing phases him, nothing.
FISCELLA (on camera): Perhaps Tiger's most impressive stat, he is now six for six when taking a lead into the final round of the major. Said Woods, "I've had some very special things happen to me. On Sunday, history happened."
From Augusta National covering the Masters, I'm Bob Fiscella.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Tiger Woods is a plain-spoken man, but listen to golf lovers talk about his game in a different kind of language pours out of them. CNN's Tom Rinaldi now with an aficionado's appreciation of Tiger Woods' achievement in Augusta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM RINALDI, CNN/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED (voice-over): So often in sport, it is not enough to succeed: Others must fail. Yet of certain victories, the rarest kind are so great that they seem like triumphs for all. We feel such wins as our own, and we call them our history.
Sunday, history carried a club, stuck its approach...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he's pulled it right at the hole -- look out.
RINALDI: ...and sank its putts: History was a man.
He got here as a one-man parade at Pebble Beach, to win the 100th U.S. Open. Then he kissed the claret jug at in St. Andrews to claim the 129th British Open. Then he pointed toward destiny at Valhalla to take the 82nd PGA Championship.
Sunday, when Woods birdied 18 to win the Masters, he did more than beat the field. He went beyond winning a golf tournament. In becoming the first man to hold all of the game's major championships at the same time, he transcended his sport with history's ultimate shorthand -- greatness.
If his eyes welled with tears for a moment, and he hid behind his dark hat, we filled in the shadow with our own expression, the collective smile.
Golf, of course, is just a game. Sunday, Woods' game transcended the course and ascended into memory right before our eyes. Then memory signed its scorecard and became history.
(on camera): It's just sports, just a game -- just golf: To describe what happened in the final round of the 65th Masters that way would be to describe any event in saying "it's just life." Whether it was Woods' sinking putts that we've never stood over or missing one that many of us have made, he did something no one else ever has. He created a new standard right before our eyes. Eighteen holes to history, and Sunday, history became a man.
At the Masters, I'm Tom Rinaldi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: People who have never taken an interest in golf are interested in Tiger Woods. People who know the game are astounded. Joining us now to talk about Woods and golf is Jim Frank, editor of Golf magazine.
Thanks so much for being with us. Let me ask you, first of all, records are broken every day. Records in sports are certainly broken as often. What is so special about the four majors? What could you compare it to that would give the rest of us who don't play golf a sense of the difficulty?
JIM FRANK, EDITOR, GOLF MAGAZINE: Well, Jonathan, I'm not sure you can really compare it to anything else in sport, not in any other games have four events each year. Tennis, to some extent, but as I was reading earlier today, in tennis you're able to control your opponent. In golf, it's you against the course, and you cannot stop the other guys. And in this case, starting with as many as 140 other guys. They get to do whatever they want.
You can't run out, hit them, stop them from taking a swing. You can't do any of that. So it's you alone. So start with that. It is a one-man against everyone else on his own. Perhaps it's like winning X number of World Series in a row if you were to pitch every game yourself.
I am not sure that there is anything else in sport that quite compares because every course changes. The fields are so large. It can change by the weather. It can change how you feel each day. You have no control over what the other guy is out there doing. You're totally on your own, and yet here is this young man, 25 years old, who has been able to rise above every problem every time for the last four events and win. And it is truly phenomenal.
MANN: Now, you put your finger on it there. He's won the last four events - four consecutive events, but not four in a single calendar year. And there, I take it, is the debate. Is this or is this not a grand slam, to your mind?
FRANK: Well, it is a grand slam only if it's with a small "g" and a small "s." I don't consider it a grand slam. On the other hand, all of those names are pretty much things that we sports writers made up a long time ago. They don't really mean anything other than a way to sort of put them in neat little places.
So it's not a real thing, a grand slam. There isn't a trophy for it. He isn't going to make anymore cash for it. It's just a name that we have. But if you go by trying to assign these things their place, I think a grand slam is all four in one year. A player has to start the year knowing he's going to go after these four.
And his whole year is scheduled that way. He times it. He chooses where he plays leading up to each one so that he works up to it so that those particular weeks he peaks. And he did that three times out of four last year. Then he had a nice long rest. He didn't play in any majors for eight months, not since last August. And he came out again.
So this is actually, I think, the start of this year's opportunity for the grand slam. And if anyone would ever have the chance to do it, I think that he certainly does this year. We could be saying in a few months, in August, he's won seven in a row. And then I don't know what we'll say.
MANN: And it's possible, too, because he's such an astounding player. Now, you know the game of golf. What is it that makes him so good?
FRANK: Oh, there are a lot of things. Physically he is a marvel. He is tall. He's thin, yet he has these broad shoulders, this long, graceful but strong swing. I mean, he swings with such power. No one else - I was watching him yesterday, and just it's remarkable. Nobody swings that hard, yet he stays so perfectly balanced. He doesn't fall over.
He hits them so straight swinging so hard. No one else can do that. So it starts with that. But I think his great strength is in his mind, and it's certainly always been said about this game that where you win it is that eight inches between the ears. And he has this focus. He has this singularity of purpose. He has this way of shutting everything out.
When you watched him yesterday - and he even said it afterwards - he was in a zone. He didn't even really know where he was at some point. He didn't realize until it was over what he had won. I mean, he knew where he was. He knew what he was doing. But suddenly, once it was done, once he could catch his breath, he realized, oh, my God, he'd won this, you know, the fourth one of these in a row, and it was all that he'd been able to close that out - close out the noise, close out the other players, close out everything except what he was doing with his clubs.
Just - it was remarkable to watch because of this focus that we've seen in the past. But in a person this young, it is remarkable.
MANN: Jim Frank, editor of Golf magazine, we're going to ask you to stay with us. We have to take a break. When we come back - Tom Rinaldi talks to Tiger Woods himself about his crowning feat.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MANN (voice-over): If words fail you, there are always numbers. Tiger Woods has now won 27 times on the pro tour in just 98 tournaments. Among those tournaments, he's won six majors of the 17 he's entered as a professional. The last four -- we can't say it enough, the last four in a row.
(on camera): Welcome back.
Really good golfers, even great ones, don't get numbers like that. There are spectacular golfers who never win a major. Former Masters champion Fred Couples says Woods is just so good you don't understand him because he is so good.
Let's hear how Woods himself sums things up in this interview with CNN's Tom Rinaldi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RINALDI: Tiger, thanks for joining us. Congratulations on the victory. Let me begin by asking you, after focusing so hard for four days or for the four past majors, was there a moment on the 18th after the final birdie where you just felt overwhelmed?
WOODS: I wouldn't say overwhelmed. It was a feeling of relief. It was a feeling of "it's finally over. I have no more shots to play."
Because when you're focusing, you're grinding your butt off out there and you're working so hard on each and every shot, where you have to put -- especially on this golf course -- I made the putt -- yes, I was excited.
I'm was excited, and I just thought to myself, "You know, I have no more shots to play. I'm done. The tournament's over." And on top of that, "I just won the Masters." So I started to get a little choked up a little bit and then put my hat over my -- over my face just because of the fact I didn't want to go over there and shake Phil's hand because Phil had a putt. And I didn't want to, you know, be sobbing and not shake his hand properly.
I wanted to shake his hand like a gentleman and say, "Well, done. You fought hard," and on we went.
RINALDI: As tight as the final round was, looking back on it now, is there one shot in your mind that was the key to the round?
WOODS: I wouldn't say one shot. It was - I made key putts. I made good putts on 7, 8, 9, 10. Even Stevie could have made the one on 11 putt. The shot that I really hit good I thought was so important because Phil bombed it on 13 around the corner. I had to answer with a shot down there just in case he stuffed it, I needed to answer it to try and make three.
And I was able to sweep this three with this high-sweeping three with a shot I've been practicing the last few months. And I finally pulled it out. I hadn't pulled it out all week. But I figured this was the time to pull it out, see if it actually works.
And I got down and I hit an 8 iron, and it gave me a birdie.
RINALDI: I know you have said over and over that it's up to us to put your accomplishments into perspective. But as such a student of the game, where do you place this victory in the history of this sport?
WOODS: It's a pretty good place.
(LAUGHTER)
I probably won't -- probably won't answer your question, but I do have to say it was a lot of fun trying and competing out here this week. I enjoyed competing against one of my good buddies, David, and Phil in my group. But to actually truly understand and appreciate what I had accomplished, I don't think I'm going to know for quite some time, to be honest with you.
Because in '97, when I won, I didn't realize what I had accomplished for at least another year or two afterwards.
RINALDI: In a broader sense, the victory obviously is yours and you earn it. But so many people seemed so eager to celebrate it. Why do you think that is? What does it give to them?
WOODS: I don't know. Because I let them do the celebrating. I'm worn out. I'll let them celebrate it. All I want to do is go home and go to sleep. That - you know, people don't realize, you know, what it takes out of you to win a major championship.
Like my good buddy Mark O'Meara's won a couple, and the first thing you want to do after you win is just get away from everybody and just go to sleep. I mean, you're so worn out. What it actually takes to win a major championship, it takes so much energy out of you, you so drained. And it's almost impossible to celebrate. You just want to relax.
You celebrate later on down the road, but not that night. It's just hard to celebrate.
RINALDI: What's the significance of winning the fourth consecutive major here, of all venues, at the tournament organized and founded by Bobby Jones?
WOODS: It's pretty ironic, isn't it? It is pretty ironic to have the tournament that I needed to win to complete, I guess, the so-called slam, the tournament that, obviously, he started. And he's the one who originally won the slam. It was -- it's just ironic that a lot of things have worked out of my life kind of that way.
RINALDI: I've heard the answers that you've said. Some of them have been witty. Some of them have been a little evasive. Now that you've won four in a row, is it the grand slam to you?
WOODS: Well, I won all four. I'm going to put -- I'm going to put my jacket, my U.S. Open trophy, my Claret Jug, my PGA Championship trophy right there on the same table. I am the only one who has -- who owns any one of those concurrently right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Another short break, but in a moment, we'll talk some more about Tiger Woods the man. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MANN (voice-over): A mania fueled by Tiger's tale. Thailand has claimed Tiger Woods as one of its own, and golf has become the new craze in the Asian nation. Tiger Woods' mother is from Thailand, and his feats on the course are followed closely across the region.
(on camera): Welcome back.
The image of golf has changed dramatically in Asia over the past decade. Thailand's 200-plus golf courses are no longer packed with just businessmen and Japanese tourists. You can see hotel bell captains and taxi drivers on the green. Thailand may not be alone in its fascination with Tiger Woods. The whole world is turning its attention to golf anew.
Joining us once again is Jim Frank of Golf magazine. What effect has Tiger Woods had on the kind of people who watch golf, the kind of people who play golf, the kind of people who buy golf?
FRANK: Well, I think those are almost three completely separate groups. Certainly the people who watch golf, it's more than ever. I'm sure when the ratings come out for yesterday's round, which will come out I guess sometime today, if they're not out already, that it will have gotten spectacular ratings.
Saturday was up, I know, over last year, and it was the second-highest Saturday rating for the Masters since 1997 when Woods also won. He certainly brings a lot of people who aren't interested or who aren't even playing golf. He has this magnetism, this power to get everyone interested in a game many of them don't even play. So that's been great certainly for the sport.
As for the people that play golf, I think it's taking a little bit longer. Tiger, because of his very many ethnic heritages, appeals to a lot of different people - people of color, Asian, whatever it is, from all over the world. I think that he will probably be seen soon as the world's first world-wide sportsman. I mean, everyone can claim some of him. I think that's part of his appeal certainly, one of the reasons that people are so fascinated by him.
But his intent, which is to try and get people who have been, if you will, disenfranchised from the game up until now, and they've been doing lots of things with various programs that he's been involved funding, trying to get people who ordinarily would not have had access to the game - kids from inner cities, for example - that's going to be harder. You can't just take these kids once, take them out to a golf course, give them a club, maybe teach them something how to do, have them out there for the day, send them back and expect that they're going to be able to "play golf" after that.
It's still going to be very hard. So it will take a while for the "Tiger effect," which I've been hearing about since the moment he came out on the scene, to really have an effect where the game grows. It certainly hasn't grown in terms of the number of people playing in this country in the five years that he has been out there.
As for equipment sales, same thing. It will take time until these people start to play, until they want to buy clubs and balls and shoes. Clothing he seems to have had a little effect, as I'm sure his very proud sponsors would be happy to tell you. You see a lot of that old swoosh thing there because, thanks to Tiger, and that's great.
But it will take a while. It's - he is still young. It's still a game that is unfortunately slow to be welcoming to people. It's hard to learn. It's time-consuming. It can be expensive. So it will be a while I think until it really filters down to everyone, which is where it should be.
MANN: How much money is he making from all of this? Does anyone know?
FRANK: A lot more than I am. It's so hard to tell. For his work the last four days, he won one million, eighty thousand dollars, I believe that was first prize this year. The largest first prize at the Masters ever. His earnings at the end of last year just for playing on the PGA tour were, what, $8 million, $9 million?
He won a bunch more around the world, and then in terms of contract sponsorships, endorsements, outings, oh, absolute millions. And then there are all sorts of other things. He's just involved in a lot of different projects - Buick, Amex. You name it. He has a lot of people. He's worth a lot of money, and I think almost every one of his sponsors will say he's more than earning it back for them.
MANN: And yet he is 25 years old, and we saw in that interview - we see it every time he speaks in public - this almost unnatural calm and composure and self-control. Twenty-five years old, a millionaire 25 or 50 or 100 times over. What's he like?
FRANK: I'm not sure we know what he is really like. I'm not sure that he is a person that you can say that what you see is what you get. I think he's got enormous self-composure. I think that partly he has talked numerous times about the influence of his mother, who is Thai and practices Eastern practices - philosophy, religion - which has seemed to certainly settle him in some ways. I think you can see a little bit of that in the way he comports himself on the course - very relaxed, very composed.
Keeps his cool. Explodes only two ways. When he does hit a bad shot, you get that quick expletive sometimes, which I think a lot of people like. It proves he is really human. He really cares. And then when he does hole a great shot, hit a great shot, there is that explosion of excitement that he has reached some sort of - some important goal that he set for himself.
So he is a very self-assured, of course, and - but obviously, a very cool cat, as we have heard, as long as he has been out there. He knows how to handle himself. He's certainly grown up a lot the last few years. When he first came out on tour in '96, he wasn't very well liked by the other players. I think partly he was getting bad advice.
He had grown up in front of our eyes somewhat a little bit. He's much more grown up. He handles himself now very well. He's not someone who speaks his mind. You don't get a lot of great sense of honesty when he speaks. He's obviously thought about what he will say. You actually just heard that in the last interview that just ran. You know, very careful about what he says, not wanting to take away the limelight from other great historical achievements, not wanting to say that, yes, what he did is the greatest.
Very smart that way. I think that many people in the media would say he might not be the best quote, but he certainly is the best athlete, and that's more important because he does give us incredible moments to write about.
MANN: Jim Frank, editor of Golf magazine, you'll be writing about him for a while. Thanks very much.
That's INSIGHT for this day. I'm Jonathan Mann. The news continues.
END
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