At the last count Tiger Woods has 20 holes-in-one, his first at age six and his most recent one in 2018. He had one in each of his first three seasons on the PGA Tour but it is this one, and that 9-iron in front of the hordes of fans in Phoenix in 1997, that is his best known.
Of all his heroic shots, this is certainly the rowdiest from the past 30 years. Obviously the chip-in at Augusta’s 16th is out there on its own for the situation, setting, commentary and that logo but this produced a scene like no other.
1) This actually came on the Saturday and Woods wasn’t even in contention. He was paired with Omar Uresti and the ace helped him to a 67 – he would eventually tie for 18th.
2) The Phoenix Open is one of the few tournaments Woods has never won. He would play in the event again in 1999 (3rd) and again in 2001 (5th) but he wouldn’t be back until 2015 (W/D).
3) There were something like 15,000 there but ‘The Coliseum’ surrounds that make it what it is today had yet to be built. As is generally the way, what Woods started ballooned into something far bigger. Now the capacity is for 20,000 seats, an atmosphere like nothing else and boxes that change hands for tens of thousands of dollars. The hole measures 163 yards on the card.
4) There’s a good story about how his playing partner, Uresti, chose not to watch any of Woods’ shots. He then stuffed his tee shot in to three feet and said to himself, ‘Let’s see you hit it closer than that’.
Uresti was 10 paces ahead by the time disappeared and he would famously, with Woods, make a mess of their first high five.
“I looked back and saw a shower of cups and cans,” said Uresti. It rattled the clubhouse windows some 600-700 yards away. I shook my head and was thinking, ‘Only Tiger.’”
5) This is how Woods’ career looked at this point; he had won three times in the past three months (his first three win on Tour) and he had played six times by the time The Masters rolled around. The one he won by 12 shots and changed the game forever.
6) Robert Garrigus is a one-time winner on the PGA Tour and, at the time, he was a member of the Scottsdale Community College golf team. And was two people back among the fans on Saturday January 25.
“We were screaming ‘O‑mar, O‑mar,’ and then Tiger makes it,” Garrigus said. “I might have been the first guy to throw a beer, I don’t know. But it started raining, big time, it was unbelievable.
“You could see me in my sunglasses in the back, in the shot. It was so perfect. It was a perfect shot, high 9-iron, boom, right in the joint. If I didn’t want to be a professional golfer right there, I wasn’t going to be one. That was pretty cool. And I got to see it.”
7) These 12 golfers have made a hole-in-one at The Greatest Party On Grass. They range from journeymen, unknowns, fellow Major champs and Woods.
‘They’re going to go nuts when he hits this thing!’
They did.
1988: Hal Sutton
1990: David Edwards
1990: Brad Bryant
1991: Jay Delsing
1997: Tiger Woods
1997: Steve Stricker
2002: Mike Sposa
2011: Jarrod Lyle
2015: Francisco Molinari
2022: Sam Ryder
2022: Carlos Ortiz
2025: Emiliano Grillo
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Article Link: Tiger Woods hole-in-one Phoenix Open: What happened in 1997?