Some birthdays hit harder, like Tuesday for Tiger Woods, who now qualifies for PGA Tour Champions and AARP cards.
While, health aside, there is no perfect gift for the 15-time major winner on his 50th birthday, Woods’ half-century celebration does provide the perfect chance to count the on-course gifts he’s given golf.
These are 50 moments that are iconic and not-so-iconic, from the perspective of those who watched Woods’ brilliance from inside the ropes. The order is mostly subjective, from a scribe who has been there since Woods was a 20-year-old professional. But there is no questioning what ranks No. 1. And so we begin …
No. 50. Wins the 1996 Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic for his second PGA Tour victory in just seven starts as a pro to earn his first trip to the Tour Championship.
No. 49. Wins his third consecutive U.S. Junior in 1993, which he counts among his greatest accomplishments because of the limited window to play the championship.
No. 48. In his first start after the horrific 2021 car crash, he opens with a 71 to make the cut at the Masters and finishes 47th.
No. 47. April 1996, as Davis Love III recalls from the BellSouth Classic: “I played a practice round with him at Callaway Gardens when he withdrew. On about the third or fourth hole he said, ‘I want to beat you down the stretch.’ I go, ‘I’m on your check list or something?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you are.’”
No. 46. In just his fifth start as a pro, in October 1996, Woods beats Love in a playoff to win the Las Vegas Invitational for his first PGA Tour title.
No. 45. Final round of the 1998 BellSouth Classic, as recalled by Stewart Cink: “I was in the last group with him in Atlanta when he won. On the par-5 10th hole, we both hit pretty close to the same spot off the tee. We probably had 265 [yards] to the hole. I just hit a 3-wood out to the right of the green. From the same spot, Tiger hits 2-iron and he hit it straight up in the air – it was like a 7-iron for me – to the middle of the green and released a foot.
“It was then that I thought, OK, he just hit his 2-iron as fast as I hit my 3-wood, it flew as high as my 7-iron, and it stopped like a pitching wedge. It’s a skill set I didn’t have.”
No. 44. Woods’ short-game wizardry and flair for the dramatic was showcased at the 2001 World Cup when he pitched in for eagle on the last hole to force a playoff.
No. 43. 2000 World Cup, as told by teammate Mark O’Meara: “After 54 holes we were leading the team event and Tiger was obviously leading the individual by quite a bit. On the front, Tiger shoots 1 or 2 under and I make a couple big numbers and shot 41. We were walking to the 10th, and Tiger went in the clubhouse and [caddie Steve Williams] starts telling my caddie that we weren’t leading the team event and he had to get Mark going.
“I told Stevie, ‘I’ve got this under control, watch.’ Tiger walks on the tee and I tell him, ‘We aren’t leading the team, the Spaniards have gone by us, I shot 41 on the front. You know what, Tiger, you need to start playing better.’ He was like, ‘OK.’”
Woods birdied Nos. 10, 11, 12 and 13 to retake the team lead. “On the 15th hole I looked at [Williams] and said, ‘See, I told you I know how to handle this situation,’” O’Meara laughed.
No. 42. Finishes tied for 19th at the 1997 U.S. Open to move to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time.
No. 41. In his only team victory at the Ryder Cup, Woods defeats Andrew Coltart in Sunday singles in ’99 to help the U.S. to a dramatic comeback at Brookline.
No. 40. In a dominant performance, he wins the 2006 WGC-American Express Championship by eight shots for his sixth consecutive victory.
No. 39. Just two weeks after withdrawing from the 2012 WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral with an injury, he wins the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots for his first victory in over two years.
No. 38. Rallies from 6 down to beat Trip Kuehne in the 36-hole final of the 1994 U.S. Amateur. The highlight came on TPC Sawgrass’ par-3 17th, where Woods hit a wedge to 14 feet and rolled in the birdie putt, displaying what would become his signature fist pump. It was the first of three straight U.S. Amateur titles.
No. 37. Makes just four bogeys in 72 holes at the 2006 Buick Open to beat Jim Furyk by three shots and become the youngest player ever to reach 50 PGA Tour victories.
No. 36. The U.S. team easily won the 2009 Presidents Cup and Woods’ approach to the 18th green, complete with a signature club twirl, was a fitting exclamation point.
No. 35. 2005 Presidents Cup, as told by teammate Jim Furyk: “I was playing with [Woods] at RTJ (Robert Trent Jones) and the eighth hole is a par 3 down the hill with a lake kind of back and left. The pin was back and left. I hit like a 5-iron to the middle of the green, and the green is really firm, and it bounced and went like 30 feet after it hit and through the green. I was disappointed, I hit a good shot and didn’t even end up on the green. He took a 6-iron, held it up against the wind, right over a bunker and stopped it like [3 feet] away.
“I immediately looked at the two [International team members] we were playing to see their reaction. I had a big grin on my face because I know there was no shot they could get within 20 feet of this pin, and he just hit it to 3 feet. I knew what they were thinking, I can’t hit that shot.”
No. 34. Wins for just the second time, professionally, at TPC Sawgrass in a head-to-head Sunday duel with Sergio Garcia at the 2013 Players Championship.
No. 33. Trailing Vijay Singh by three shots after 54 holes at the 2006 Deutsche Bank Championship, Woods rolls to a closing 63 for his fifth consecutive victory.
No. 32. Wins his third consecutive U.S. Amateur title in a dramatic final against Steve Scott that included a 40-footer for birdie to tie the match on the 35th hole.
No. 31. Five days after announcing, “Hello, world,” and kicking off a global advertising campaign, he finishes tied for 60th at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open in his professional debut, which included a hole-in-one in the final round.
No. 30. Beats Phil Mickelson by one shot at the 2005 Ford Championship at Doral in a rare and thrilling Sunday duel between the game’s two biggest stars.
No. 29. Trailing Matt Gogel by seven shots on the back nine Sunday at the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Woods plays his final seven holes in 5 under to win by two shots.
No. 28. Cruises to a four-stroke victory at the 2000 Arnold Palmer Invitational for the first of eight professional victories at Bay Hill thanks to a second-round 64 that included two eagles.
No. 27. After leaving his first chip in the long rough, he holes out at the 14th hole for an unlikely par during the final round of the 1999 Memorial to hold off Vijay Singh and win his first of five titles at Jack’s Place. Said Nicklaus during the broadcast, “He just absolutely just made that ball, willed it into the hole.”
No. 26. Third round of the 2007 Memorial, as told by Tom Lehman: “That 17th hole got redone like every other year and so it was a new hole, a new green, the pin was front left. We both hit our tee shots, and we were right next to each other. I thought the only way to stop this ball [on the green] was to hit something as hard as I can, so I hit a 5-iron as hard and as high as I could. Just flushed it and it lands by the hole and rolls out 25 feet. I’m thrilled.
“He hits this shot way up in the air and it’s coming down like it has a parachute and lands by the cup and stops like 2 feet away. I figured he must have hit like a 7-iron and just smoked it to have that much spin. I ask him and he says, ‘It was a little three-finger 5-iron.’ He didn’t even hit it hard. Who can hit a shot like that, so easy and so smooth and create that much spin? Only one guy could hit that shot, and he did it so often.”
No. 25. With his golf ball below his feet in a fairway bunker at the final hole in Round 2 of the 2002 PGA Championship, Woods carves a 3-iron around a group of trees to set up a closing birdie. Years later, he calls it the greatest golf shot he ever hit.
No. 24. Final round of the 2018 PGA Championship, as told by Gary Woodland: “That front nine on Bellerive on Sunday, I think he shot 2 or 3 under and I don’t think he hit a fairway. He made birdie on [No.] 9, he hit it way left. We thought it was out of play. But he’s in the crowd and hits a hook 9-iron to like 15 feet. I had like 8 feet [for birdie] on the same line and he makes it and I backed off twice because the crowd was still roaring. The ground was shaking. I looked at my caddie and I’m like, ‘How’s this guy doing this?’”
No. 23. As a playing captain, he leads the U.S. Presidents Cup team to victory with a perfect 3-0-0 record that included a Sunday singles victory over Abraham Ancer.
No. 22. Following an ill-advised comment by Stephen Ames (“Anything can happen, especially where he’s hitting the ball,” Ames said before his match against Woods.), Tiger rolls to a 9-and-8 victory at the 2006 WGC-Match Play and responds to a question about Ames’ comment with a simple, “9 and 8.”
No. 21. Rallies from four shots back to start the final round at the 2012 Memorial with a dramatic chip-in at the 16th hole for his fifth victory at Muirfield Village.
No. 20. The final round at the 2000 WGC-NEC Invitational finished at 8:30 p.m. because of a weather delay and led to the “shot in the dark,” an 8-iron to the final green that landed 2 feet from the hole that wrapped the 11-shot victory.
No. 19. Despite ongoing “Tiger-proofing” at Augusta National, Woods wins his second consecutive Masters in 2002, and his third overall, by three strokes over Retief Goosen.
No. 18. Wins for the second time at St. Andrews at the 2005 Open Championship, where Woods lapped the field by five strokes for his 10th major title to complete his second trip around the career Grand Slam.
No. 17. A rare major duel with Phil Mickelson ends with a three-stroke victory in 2002 at Bethpage Black for his second U.S. Open title.
No. 16. Finishes with a walk-off birdie at the 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational for his first victory since knee surgery following the ’08 U.S. Open.
No. 15. Holds off Grant Waite at the 2000 Canadian Open with one of his most iconic shots, a 6-iron from a fairway bunker, over the water and right at the flag on the 72nd hole.
No. 14. Five years removed from his last PGA Tour victory, Woods beats Billy Horschel by two shots to win the 2018 Tour Championship and creates a surreal celebration walking down the 18th hole Sunday at East Lake.
No. 13. Posts a career-low in a major with a second-round 63, after lipping out for birdie at the last for what he called a “62 ½,” on his way to victory at the 2007 PGA Championship.
No. 12. Holds off Hideki Matsuyama in a Monday finish to win the 2019 Zozo Championship for a PGA Tour record-tying 82nd title.
“I’ve been out here since ’09 and up until [2019] his last major was ’08, so I’d only heard stories. He’d struggled a bit after that,” Woodland recalled. “To see him at Zozo – we had the delay and we played the last 36 [holes] together, we had been friends for a while and talk a lot, but he flipped a switch that last nine holes.
“He went into the zone. Just to have a front-row seat to that was amazing. The shots he hit were good, but the focus was like the ball was listening to his eyes.”
No. 11. One of his best clutch putts and one of NBC announcer Gary Koch’s best calls (“Better than most!”), Woods holes a triple-breaking 60-footer for birdie at the 17th hole during the third round of the 2001 Players Championship, which he eventually won for the first time.
No. 10. Makes his second ace as a professional at the par-3 16th hole during 1997 Phoenix Open and ignites one of the game’s most raucous celebrations.
No. 9. Defeats Bob May in a dramatic playoff at the 2000 PGA Championship that included a legendary 15-footer for birdie on the first extra hole. (VIDEO)
No. 8. His second major victory was much more dramatic than his Masters brilliance in ’97, as he out-duels Sergio Garcia for a one-shot win in the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah.
No. 8. Hitting driver only once all week, authors a clinical performance at the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool for an emotional victory following the death of his father, Earl, two months earlier.
HOYLAKE, UNITED KINGDOM - JULY 23: Tiger Woods of USA walks off the 18th green in tears with his caddy Steve Williams following his victory at the end of the final round of The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on July 23, 2006 in Hoylake, England. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
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No. 7. Chips in for birdie from an impossible spot behind the 16th green at the 2005 Masters with a perfectly dramatic pause before his golf ball drops into the hole. He goes on to beat Chris DiMarco in sudden death.
No. 6. Completes the career Grand Slam, for the first time, at the 2000 Open Championship at St. Andrews in an eight-shot triumph.
No. 5. Completes the “Tiger Slam” with his victory at the 2001 Masters, having won all four majors consecutively, dating to the 2000 U.S. Open.
No. 4. Wins his 15th major championship and his first Grand Slam event in 11 years at the 2019 Masters.
No. 3. Wins the 2008 U.S. Open with two stress fractures and a torn ACL in a Monday playoff against Rocco Mediate. His putt to tie Mediate on the 72nd hole is arguably his most iconic shot ever.
No. 2. Laps the field at the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 shots at Pebble Beach for the most lopsided victory in major championship history.
“That’s the one to me that I’m like, oh my gosh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Cink recalled. “He made the course look so much different than anyone else. It looked easier and it didn’t look like the course could stop him, and the course was stopping everybody else.”
No. 1. Wins the 1997 Masters by 12 strokes for his first major title after playing his first nine holes of the tournament in 4-over 40.
“I hit it on [No.] 15, off the hill and was way down there, the other guys in the group are going for [the green] with 6-irons or something and I’m waiting to hit my 9-iron in and the crossing guard goes, ‘Tiger Woods hit a wedge in here today.’ I went, ‘Really?’” Love smiled. “So the next day I’m pissed off so I smoked it down the right again over the hill and I’m almost to the crosswalk and I say, ‘I bet Tiger didn’t hit a 9-iron in here today.’ The same crossing guard goes, ‘No, he hit a wedge.’”