“And then Mark left”: Tiger Woods relives his unseen ‘best round’ a week before creating history
In a career like Tiger Woods', remembering a "best round" is serious business. Virtually any fan can have his own, out of the many relevant ones that Woods has had. That's why it's always interesting to know what the player's own best round is.
Thanks to Golf Digest, we know. It turns out that Tiger Woods has a lifetime best round of 13-under 59, and he achieved it on a practice day. Woods was playing with a friend, Mark O'Meara, and such was his display that his partner left him alone and walked off the course.
On this day in 1997, a 21-year-old Tiger Woods shocked the world, winning his first Masters tournament by a record 12 strokes 🐐
One of the most surreal moments in sports history https://t.co/gegvy470ER
Specifically, it was on April 4, 1997, a week before that season's Masters (which Tiger Woods would end up winning sensationally).
Woods and O'Meara were playing a practice round at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Isleworth, Florida, where the latter was residing at the time. It was a seemingly ordinary round of golf, but neither could have foreseen the feat that was to come:
This is how Tiger Woods described it to Golf digest in 2014:“We teed off on the back nine. I parred 10. Birdied 11 and 12. Eagled 13. Birdied 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 1. I had a 3-iron into No. 3, the par 5, and I made par. Also had an iron into No. 7, the second par 5 on the front nine, and again made par. And I still shot 59. So I had the opportunity to shoot something really, really low.”
But it didn't stop there. The next day, the friends returned to the course to start another round on the 10th hole. And the unthinkable happened: Woods got a birdie on the tenth and an ace on the 11th hole.
"And Mark just left,” Woods described it just like that.
Tiger Woods' best round
At the time, Tiger Woods already had three PGA Tour victories on his record, even though he had been on the tour for less than a year. However, nothing explained (yet) what happened in that wonderful round.
This is how Mark O'Meara, a privileged witness of the event, lived the second of those days:
"He gets up to the (next) tee, he’s hitting like an 8-iron. I haven’t even gotten out of my cart, but he hits it and it’s going right at it. It one-hops and goes into the hole for a hole-in-one."
O'Meara added, according to Golf Digest:
"So I go over and take $100 or whatever it was, I can’t remember, and I put it on his cart seat. I didn’t even hit my shot. I said, 'That was a really nice shot. I quit. I’ll see you later on the driving range when you get done.'
"That was awesome. I hate that guy."
The score of 13 under 59 remains, as far as we know, the record for the Isleworth course. Being an unofficial round, it may not be an official record, but it is undoubtedly a genuine jewel for the course.