Arnold Palmer Once Detailed How He Dug Deep to Avoid Losing $100 to Tiger Woods: ‘I Wasn’t Going to Back Down’

Tiger Woods turned professional in 1996 and won his first Masters Tournament the following year, thus winning his maiden Green Jacket in 1997. However, only a handful of people know about what happened a few days earlier at Augusta, where Woods attained his iconic win.

Woods won the 1997 Masters with an overall score of 18-under-par. He won by whopping 12 strokes. Six days before the start of the 1997 Masters, Tiger shot a round of 59. However, what happened a day before that event still lives in the mind of the professionals.

Arnold Palmer shares a beautiful incident relating to Tiger Woods

Back in 2016, Arnold Palmer wrote about an incident in the TIME  that took place a day before Tiger shot a round of 59. Arnie praised Tiger in his piece.

The king said, “Obviously, the twenty-one-year-old Tiger was at the top of his game at that time, but the old guy—I was 67 then— hung in there.” He added, “I couldn’t quite hold off a player of that caliber, in his prime—not even on my own golf course.”

The King, Woods as well as, Arnold’s business manager Alastair Johnston played a friendly round at the Bay Hill for $100. Tiger won on the 17th hole, but Arnie decided to challenge Woods for a one-hole-playoff, double or nothing, the 458 yards par 4 the 18th hole.

Read more: Tiger Woods’ Beautiful Tribute to Charlie Sifford After Receiving Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019: ‘I Always Called Him ’Grandpa’’

Tiger hit his drive miles ahead of Arnie and Arine had to hit a driver off the deck. But what Tiger told Alastair about Arnie is truly incredible. Alastair says, “I was standing next to Tiger, and he was really enjoying watching Arnold grinding it out.” “He said to me, ‘Arnold never gives up, does he?”

Moreover, Arnie hit his shot over the green into the back bunker, and made the up and down for par. However, Tiger missed the birdie putt. Now we know how Tiger got the confidence to win the 1997 Masters in an emphatic style.

Woods’ latest green jacket

Tiger won his 15-major championship in 2019. He won the event with an overall score of 13-under-par. As a result, won the event with a one-shot lead over the rest of the field. It was Tigers’ first major win in almost 11 years. Woods carded a final round 70 to hold off some of the big names in the field from winning the event.

What are your views about the incident?

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