Professional golf career of Tiger Woods first professional golf event at the Greater Milwaukee Open, tying for 60th place, recorded a hole-in-one, and would win two events in the next three months to qualify for the Tour Championship. For his efforts, Woods was named "Sports Illustrated"'s 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. He began his tradition of wearing a red shirt during the final round of tournaments, which was a link to his college days at Stanford. The following April, Woods won his first major, The Masters, with a record score of 18-under-par 270, by a record margin of 12
Professional golf career of Tiger Woods the water surrounding the famous island green essentially handing Woods the tournament. Woods finished far down the leaderboard at the U.S. Open at Merion in June won by Justin Rose. At the Open Championship at Muirfield in July, Woods was in contention but a poor fourth round dropped him into a tie for sixth, five shots behind Phil Mickelson, who won his first Open Championship. In early August, Woods won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone for the eighth time. A second round 61 propelled Woods to a seven-shot victory, his fifth and final win of the season. Woods finished far