The Masters: A Decade of Dominance

2003 -- The beginning of "The Slump." Tiger won five of the 18 tournaments he played, but he did not win any majors. He did however manage to take home more than $6.6 million in prize money, and was still regarded as the best player on the tour evidenced by his fifth consecutive Player of the Year honors. Woods was the first to receive the Player of the Year more than twice since its creation in 1990. His per tournament winnings were about $100,000 more than Vijay Singh's. 2004 -- The Slump turns into a drought, or vice-versa. Tiger does not win any majors in 2004 either, though he spends most of that time still ranked one in the world, except for a few weeks in which he is overtaken by Vijay. He is feuding with Butch Harmon, his swing coach; he is changing his swing, and he gets married to Swedish au pair, Elin Nordegren. A lot of adjustments and no major wins. There is open speculation about whether Tiger will ever be Tiger again.

2005 -- The slump will end and what better place to do it but at Augusta. He wins the 2005 Masters with an exciting tie-breaker win against Chris DeMarco. He returns to his top raking in the world, and goes on to win the British Open giving him his 10th major title in nine years as a professional. Nike even gets in on the action, turning his exhale-loudly-and-hope-it-falls chip-in on 16 into a commercial.

2006 Tiger is all grown up, and his winnnig ways have returned. He has already won the Buick Invitational, the Dubai Desert Classic and the Doral Invitational. His return to form though is overshadawed by his father's deteriorating health. Tiger has said that his father failing health is not a distration because he has been dealing with it for a long time, but no one including him can minimize the role Earl Woods played in making his son the best golfer in the world. No one can forget the bear hug between father and son after the the first Masters win nine years ago. He is my best friend," Tiger says.