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American Morning

Tiger Woods on Top

Aired April 09, 2001 - 11:15   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tiger Woods claiming the greatest feat in modern golf. Yesterday, the 25-year-old won his second Masters title. It makes him only -- the only golfer in history to hold four major titles all at the same time. After his big win, Tiger sat down with a one-on-one chat with Tom Rinaldi of CNN Sports Illustrated.

(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)

KAGAN: Well, that must be some table. Who -- what golfer in America wouldn't just give up all their clubs in order to have that table there? By the way, Woods now has won six majors, as many as Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino. He is only one behind Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, and Harry Vardon.

Well, let's -- let's bring in Tom Rinaldi. He just sat down and did that interview with Tiger Woods, and he's joining us on the phone now. He is at Lake Oconee, Georgia, which means he hasn't quite made it all the way back here to Atlanta. And, Tom, good morning. Good to talk with you.

RINALDI: Thanks for having me.

KAGAN: Well, you put Tiger on the spot. We're going to put you on the spot. Where would you put this accomplishment historically looking back in the annals of golf?

RINALDI: You know, I find it interesting that Woods himself has sort of backed away from saying that it's a grand slam, as we've sort of gotten closer to the media green, that it is, in fact, a grand slam. My own personal opinion -- it is not. I agree with Arnold Palmer who in 1960 said the professional grand slam must begin with The Masters.

The irony is, of course, he's only positioned himself to get the traditional grand slam in the same calendar year, and the pressure is only going to mount, as beautifully as he plays under that sort of scrutiny, to see how long he can continue. Will it be five in a row with the U.S. Open in mid-June, and can he go on from there?

KAGAN: We want to look ahead to Tulsa and the U.S. Open in just a second. But, first of all, getting -- getting back to this question of is it a grand slam or not, isn't it just really a moot point when you look at what this young man has put together, that what we're hearing called a Tiger slam is even than a grand slam. I mean, give the guy his due.

RINALDI. I agree fully. I mean, at some point, it simply becomes what title you want to put on the Mona Lisa. Whether you call it the Mona Lisa or not, it's still an amazing work of art and genius, and that's what Woods has pulled off.

His incredible grace under pressure, I think, is what is the most astonishing -- remember golf is designed to be a choke game. It's played in silence without anybody moving, and when you consider the fact that he always executes under pressure, that he makes all of the putts he needs to, five one-putts in a row, all over six feel long in the middle of that round, it's astonishing. It really is.

KAGAN: And nothing says that better than when you look at the final round yesterday and what happened to Phil Mickelson and David Duval, excellent golfers in their own right, and yet, at the end, they kind of fell apart.

RINALDI: Can you -- can you -- when you think about it, can you really be cruised to have your greatness happen to intersect with someone who is literally rewriting all of the records in golf?

I mean, Woods has so clearly transcended his sport. He's transcended all sport right now. I think that's one of the questions we asked him that didn't make it into the tape that played a little earlier, was "Why do you think so many people are so eager to celebrate your victory?" and I think it's because so many people are moved by this level of excellence, regardless of the venue.

KAGAN: Well, yeah. And take it outside this sport in particular, when you look at other great athletes that we've been able to witness in recent times, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, two that come to mind, what he's accomplishing in golf seems to be even grander than what they were able to accomplish in their individual sports.

RINALDI: You know, when Jordan won the last final in '98, he something and -- I was there, and he said something I'll never forget. He said, "Everybody's got to lose sometime. I just don't want that to be my time." Obviously, it never was. The Bulls went 6 and 0.

But what Tiger is doing is not beating a series of teams or going through playoffs. Remember he's beating a field, in this case of nearly a hundred or 99 that entered in other events. He's beating a field of 125, 150, one against a field, and he continues to beat them. It really is an astounding level of excellence on -- in an individual sport, really, really just an inspiring thing to witness.

KAGAN: Well, and there's that comparison they were talking about an individual sport versus a team sport.

Let's look to the U.S. Open in Tulsa in mid-June, as you mentioned. What will you watch for?

RINALDI: Well, here -- here are two things, I think, you can look out for. Obviously, Tiger has handled the media scrutiny and the pressure beautifully in terms of all of the demands that are made on his time, and I think he handles that for one simple reason, he loves the game. If basketball has a gym rat, then Tiger Woods is a range rat. He doesn't mind hitting thousands and thousands of shots. He enjoys that.

As we get out to U.S. Open where the conditions are even tougher, his length and his putting are still going to favor him. He's able to eliminate par fives almost to play a par 68 course, while everybody else plays a par 72, and his clutch putting is really approaching Jack Nicklaus's level. If you've noticed, the signature on so many of these wins, he always ends with a birdie. Really remarkable.

KAGAN: Great point. Tom Rinaldi, pleasure to have you on. Thanks for talking with us. I know yesterday was a very long day for you.

Now we want to talk to you and hear your vote. On the Internet, you can go to CNN.com, AOL Keyword CNN, of course. You page down to where it says "quick vote," and you look there, and you then answer our question, the question being that "Now that Tiger Woods has won The Masters, should he be credited with a grand slam?" You heard Tom Rinaldi weigh in. He thought not, although giving him his props and his due. But we want to hear what you have to think, and we'll show you those results a little bit later.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You know, thinking about that, this is almost like the NCAA and how they sort of engineered this debate every year at the end of the football season where you don't know for sure who the national champion is.

KAGAN: Yes, and that that's a good thing.

HARRIS: Same thing with this. Well, it's a good thing for them, it keeps debate up, and it keeps interest up, exactly as has happened here.

KAGAN: It does. I'll give it to you in golf. I'm not giving it to you in college football. We need a national champion. We need a playoff.

HARRIS: I still -- I -- I'm with you on that one.

KAGAN: OK. OK.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: Don't worry about it.

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