Page 40 - 2019 Western Amateur Championship Program

WGA_Program_2019_V3__ 6/13/2019 2:30 PM Page 38
25 YEARS AGO AT POINT O’ WOODS
Tiger masters the Western Amateur

it will go in.’ Just a fluke thing that
happened at the right time.”
Tidland birdied the short, par-five
second, but Woods calmly knocked in a
20-foot, downhill, breaking eagle putt
to win the match and advance to the
semifinals.

Tidland played the last eight holes in a
match in seven under par… and lost.
Woods followed his quarterfinal win
with more routine victories in the
semifinals and finals to claim his first
and only Western Amateur title. “This
win means a lot to me,” said Woods.
“All the big tournaments I’ve won until
Tiger Woods during the 1994 Western Amateur.
now have been junior tournaments.
On Saturday, August 6, 1994 — 25 The playoff started on the par-4 first This is a great tournament on a great
years ago next week — several hundred hole at The Point. Tidland dropped his golf course. It really is the Masters of
golf fans following a pair of talented approach shot onto the center of the amateur golf.”
young golfers at Point O’ Woods Golf green, about 20 feet from the cup.
Less than three years later, Woods
& Country Club witnessed the coming Woods, after pulling his drive, had a
stunned the golf world with his record-
of Tiger Woods. good lie from the left rough. Then
breaking victory in professional golf’s
disaster nearly struck, silver-lined with
Playing in a quarterfinal match in the Masters at Augusta National.
a bit of luck.
Western Amateur, Woods sank a 40-foot
Those fortunate enough to have
par-saving putt to halve the first hole of Woods airmailed his approach out of
witnessed Woods’ match against
sudden death, then drained a 20-foot, the rough and hit a woman standing on
Tidland at Point O’ Woods weren’t
downhill eagle putt on the next hole the back of the green. The ball dropped
surprised.
to defeat a charging Chris Tidland. about four or five feet behind the green.
Had the ball not struck a spectator, it — Excerpted and adapted from the
Woods, soon to enter his freshmen year
would have been another 30 feet past Western Golf Association’s
at Stanford, won his next two matches
the green. Centennial Book, “A Century of Golf,”
to claim the 1994 Western Amateur title
by Tim Cronin.
— his first victory in a major amateur Still, Woods faced a nearly impossible
championship. Later that same month, shot, with the pin tucked near the back
Woods won the first of three straight edge of the green, which sloped severely
U.S. Amateur titles. away from him. His pitch rolled 40 feet
past the cup.
Most remarkable about Woods’ win at
the Western Amateur was that Woods’ Tidland appeared to have the match
final two putts came after Tidland, an won, as he had an easy two-putt up
Oklahoma State standout, had turned the hill for par.
in six straight birdies — including a
Woods remained undaunted. He
60-foot chip-in on the 18th — to send
stepped up to his ball and drained the
the match into sudden death.
40-foot putt to save par and send the
With six holes to play, Tiger was 4 up, match to a second playoff hole. “I had
and he played the last six holes in this funny feeling… I saw the line of my
two-under-par. But Tidland’s sextuplet putt,” he told reporters after the match.
birdie string pulled the match all square “I stood over it and said, ‘Just hit it, and
after 18. Tiger Woods with the Western Amateur trophy.

38 Western Amateur Championship History Point O’ Woods Golf & Country Club