Claim: Tiger Woods won a competition.

The 1997 Masters Tournament was the 61st Masters Tournament , held April 10 -- 13 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta , Georgia .   Tiger Woods won his first major championship , twelve strokes ahead of runner-up Tom Kite . Through 2017 , the margin of victory and four-day score of 270 -LRB- − 18 -RRB- are tournament records . Woods also became both the youngest -LRB- 21 -RRB- and the first non-white player to win at   Woods struggled on his first nine holes of the first round , turning at 4-over-par 40 . Making four birdies and an eagle gave him a 6-under-par 30 the back nine for a 70 , three shots behind first-round leader John Huston .   In the second and third rounds , Woods scored the best rounds of each day -LRB- 65-66 -RRB- to open up a commanding nine-shot lead . A final-round 69 gave Woods a tournament record 270 -LRB- − 18 -RRB- , bettering the previous record of 271 set by Jack Nicklaus in 1965 and matched by Raymond Floyd in 1976 .   Woods ' victory set television ratings records for golf ; the final round broadcast on Sunday was seen by an estimated 44 million viewers in the United States .