Blue Canyon is one of Woods’s favourite courses and has a hole named after him.
The Blue Canyon Golf Course in Phuket may be one of Tiger Woods’ all-time favourite courses in the world but few know that it was here, way back in 1991, that the then-16-year-old amateur showed glimpses of his potential.
The course, in this southern island of Thailand, was considered one of the most difficult in the world due to its canyon structures. Tiger went on to break the course record set by any amateur; to this day no other amateur has come close to his score of 71.
Yoshikazu Kato, the designer of this famous course, still remembers that event. “Well there was this black boy who had a lot of attitude; maybe he was proud of his exploits in the junior circuit. But I need to tell you that he did have that spark to go a long way,” said Kato. But at the same time the 75-year-old admits that despite that spark, he was not confident that Woods would become a phenomenon one day.
Seven years later, Woods stepped into the course again, this time to play in the Johnnie Walker Classic. Despite being down after the first three rounds, Tiger shot a brilliant 65 on the last day to ensure a play-off for the title with Ernie Els, who was having a good tournament.
But Tiger showed his mettle to beat the South African to the delight of the Thais. “It was amazing to see the way Tiger fought back. He was eight strokes behind and on this difficult course to hit a 65 on the last day was really amazing,” recalls Kato.
In fact, it was during this tournament that Tiger admitted that the course was one of the best he had ever played. Tiger also became the first golfer to make a ‘one-on’ shot at the 13th hole that has been built on an existing canyon that plunges into deep water.
“No one had ever done a ‘one-on’ on this hole and when Tiger did it we decided to name it the Tiger Hole. And you will be surprised to know that only one player has been able to repeat that feat since then, which really shows how difficult the hole is,” Kato points out.
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