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American Morning

Masterful: Tiger Woods Wins Fourth Straight Major Championship

Aired April 09, 2001 - 09:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Laura Okmin is checking in to talk some more about our favorite story of the morning.

LAURA OKMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Isn't it wonderful? What a fun weekend, you guys.

HARRIS: Incredible. Incredible.

OKMIN: Yes. Just amazing.

What else can we say? Well, actually, we will think of something right now. We may continue to debate the historic merits of what Tiger Woods accomplished over the weekend, asking whether winning four straight majors constitutes a Grand Slam if it doesn't fall on a calendar year. But in 294 days, Tiger did something that Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan or Player all could not: hold all four major titles at once.

And he did it in typical Tiger fashion, needing just a two-putt for the victory. So, of course, Tiger does it in one, dropping the birdie on 18 for his second Masters victory and fourth straight major, finishing 16 under par.

CNN/Sports Illustrated's Tom Rinaldi sat down with the Grand Slam champion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIGER WOODS, MASTERS CHAMPION: It wasn't so overwhelmed. It was a feeling of relief. It was a feeling of: "It's finally over. I have no more shots to play."

Because when you're focusing, you're grinding your butt off out there and you're working so hard on each and every shot, where you have to put -- especially on this golf course -- I made the putt -- yes, I was excited.

I'm was excited and I just thought to myself: "You know, I have no more shots to play. I'm done. The tournament's over." And on top of that, "I just won the Masters." So I started to get a little choked up a little bit, and then put my hat over my -- over my face just, because of the fact I didn't want to go over there and shake Phil's hand, because Phil had a putt. And I didn't want to, you know, be sobbing and not shake his hand properly. TOM RINALDI, CNN SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: I know you have said over and over that it's up to us to put your accomplishments into perspective. But as such a student of the game, where do you place this victory in the history of this sport?

WOODS: It's a pretty good place.

(LAUGHTER)

WOODS: I probably won't -- probably won't answer your question, but I do have to say it was a lot of fun trying and competing out here this week. I enjoyed competing against one of my good buddies, David, and Phil in my group. But to actually truly understand and appreciate what I had accomplished, I don't think I'm going to know for quite some time.

RINALDI: What's the significance of winning the fourth consecutive major here, of all venues, at the tournament organized and founded by Bobby Jones?

WOODS: It's pretty ironic, isn't it? It is pretty ironic to have the tournament that I needed to win to complete, I guess, the so- called Slam, the tournament that, obviously, he started. And he's the one who originally won the Slam. It was -- it's just ironic that a lot of things have worked out of my life kind of that way.

RINALDI: I've heard the answers that you've said. Some of them have been witty. Some of them have been a little evasive. Now that you've won four in a row, is it the Grand Slam to you?

WOODS: Well, I won all four. I'm going to put -- I'm going to put my jacket, my U.S. Open trophy, my Claret Jug, my PGA Championship trophy right down on the same table. I don't anyone who has -- who owns any one of those concurrently right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OKMIN: Good point. We'll score one for Generation X. Tiger collects his sixth major championship at a mere 25 years old. Even his golfing hero, the great Jack Nicklaus, only had four by that age. And the scariest thought of all: This is probably just the beginning.

Meanwhile, a sad ending in the world of sports, as baseball loses one of its all-time greats: Willie Stargell passed away early this morning after suffering from a long illness stemming from a kidney disease. Stargell was a seven-time All-Star who starred in the Pittsburgh Pirates 1971 and '79 World Series championship teams. He remains the franchise leader in homes runs with 475.

Stargell's manager for his final six seasons, Chuck Tanner, said, "When you had Willie Stargell on your team, it was like having a diamond ring on your finger."

Willie Stargell was 61 years old.

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