Editor’s Note: Our Local Knowledge podcast is celebrating Golf Digest’s 75th anniversary through a special three-part series, “Revolutions: A re-examined history of modern golf, Golf Digest, and Tiger Woods.” Part 1 |Part 2 | Part 3
In Part 1 of our three-part 75th anniversary podcast series, we looked at the changes in professional golf since the founding of Golf Digest in 1950. Viewed from afar, the pace of that change is staggering, from the big money brought into the game courtesy of Arnold Palmer and his super-agent (and IMG founder) Mark McCormack, to the racial progress that took us from a total ban on black players in the ’50s to the emergence of the game’s greatest superstar, a black man, in the late ’90s.
More on Golf Digest’s 75th Anniversary Golf Digest Logo How We Got Here: Progress in this game has taken weird turns, and Golf Digest has covered them all
But if that level of change seems significant, it would pale to the supersonic transformation wrought by Tiger Woods. He was iconic and paradigm-shifting even before he played a single hole on the PGA Tour, and as a player, he lived up to and then exceeded every bit of hype. This is the man who truly made golf global and mainstream, brought unheard-of money into the sport, and permanently altered its image. He ushered in the so-called “Tiger Boom” in every conceivable part of golf, from professional to recreational, and it’s also true that everything that came after his prime, up to and including the current crisis within pro golf, was made possible because of the attention and money he brought.
In Part 2 of this series, we focus not just on the impact of Tiger, but on the height of his achievement—the Tiger Slam of 2000 and 2001. As the game’s greatest player finalized a swing change that would take him from merely sensational to transcendent, and began playing a revolutionary new style of golf ball months ahead of most of his competitors (who wouldn’t adopt the Titleist Pro V1 until October of 2000), golfing audiences bore witness to what can safely be considered the peak of human achievement in the sport. Starting with a romp at Pebble, continuing to St. Andrews and the Bob May duel at Valhalla, and culminating at Augusta the following spring, this episode revisits the Tiger Slam—somewhere beyond remarkable in and of itself, and earth-shattering in its significance to the sport all the way to the present day.
Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Revolutions: A podcast re-examination of golf, Golf Digest, and Tiger Local Knowledge Podcast Revolutions Part 1: Arnold Palmer, IMG, and the early disruptors
Local Knowledge Podcast Revolutions Part 2: The Tiger Slam, aka the best golf ever played
Local Knowledge Podcast Revolutions Part 3: Life After Tiger Woods, the Great Schism
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com