It's 23 years since a 21-year-old Tiger Woods blitzed the Masters field to win at Augusta by a record 12-shot margin.
April 13, 1997 will forever be etched in golfing history as the day Tiger Woods changed golf forever by dominating not only the fierce and famed Augusta National but destroying the top-class field in the process.
The great Jack Nicklaus, who knows a thing or two about golfing greatness, proclaimed: "Let's face it, it's his time now.”
And how right the Golden Bear was proved to be as a record-breaking Woods, dressed in the Sunday red that was to strike fear into the hearts of his rivals for years to come, marched his way to the green jacket.
Twelve shots was as close as any other player could get to Woods, who was amazingly playing in his first major as a professional, and that margin of victory remains a record win at the Masters.
This was coming from a 21-year-old becoming the youngest person to win the title at Augusta – we could guess then that he was something special, but nobody could have confidently predicted what was to come.
There was also no idea of what was to come on Thursday when Tiger shot 40 for the first nine holes of the event, even if he did recover coming home to post a 70 and sit three shots off the pace.
A second round 66 on Friday fired Woods into a three-shot lead of his own and he turned it on again on Saturday, with his big move on ‘moving day’ being a 65 to power him into an almighty nine-stroke lead.
Anything is possible on Masters Sunday they say, but this young gun was not about to succumb to nerves or the pressure of sleeping on such a hefty overnight advantage.
No thoughts of blowing it from here for Woods, who donned the now legendary Sunday red to sink five birdies and post only two bogeys in widening his eventual winning margin to 12.
Jason Day was 9 years old.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 5, 2017
Brandt Snedeker was 16 years old.
Today's generation of golfers discuss Tiger's win at the '97 Masters. pic.twitter.com/mazU7zTp5J
Woods had turned what is usually an angst-ridden, nerve-jangling day for the Masters leader into a procession, a cakewalk, a mere Sunday stroll in the Georgia spring.
A record television audience tuned in to see the young Woods conquer the golfing world, something he’d go on to do even further as he became an icon of the sport – a transcendent figure that brought golf into the homes and lives of millions who would not have otherwise contemplated watching this 'old man’s sport'.
The man in red had gone home in green, and on that given Sunday he’d started the juggernaut rolling that would change the sport forever.
Nicklaus was right, this was Tiger Woods’ time.
