I was there: Tiger's win at the 1996 Las Vegas Inv't

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At the age of 20, Tiger Woods produced his first PGA TOUR victory in the midst of all that glitz and glamour of Las Vegas.

What's it like to be there in person when Tiger Woods win a PGA TOUR event? As part of our Tiger Woods Victory Room, we asked several members of our PGATOUR.COM team to give us their thoughts on a Tiger win they attended in person. Have you seen a Tiger victory up close? Just click here to e-mail us and we'll post the best ones.

'I was there'

MAGINNES: '96 Las Vegas Inv't
HAUSER: '97 Masters
AUCLAIR: '03 Bay Hill Inv't
DOLCH: '05 Ford Champ.
ROSS: '06 British Open
WACKER: '06 PGA Champ.
AWTREY: '08 Arnold Palmer Inv't
McALLISTER: '08 U.S. Open
Tiger Woods Victory Room

I didn't see Tiger in person that fateful week 66 wins ago at the Las Vegas Invitational.

My recollection admittedly is a bit hazy, but I do seem to remember surviving the cut on Friday. This seems logical for a couple of reasons. I was making the most of my first trip to Vegas, to be sure. I had lost in a playoff the week before and the fact that I was still around that Sunday is amazing. The fact that I was a dozen under par through three rounds was even more amazing. However, the 73 that I shot on Saturday was the equivalent of shooting 80 most weeks in a tournament when scoring looks like a progressive slot machine ticker.

We all knew that Tiger was in contention, but it looked like it was going to be Davis Love's week. That was the topic of discussion that night at the craps table at the Golden Nugget and surrounding downtown casinos where some friends and I were rolling the bones. The question was whether or not Tiger would make enough to keep his TOUR card. Remember, this was just his fifth event since turning pro and he was playing on sponsor's exemptions. He was in jeopardy of heading to q-school that fall.

Unfortunately for me the craps game went a little long. Did I mention that I went to the Jimmy Buffett concert at the MGM Grand that night before we started in on the games of chance? Regardless, that night the dice were hotter than Tiger's putter would be the next day. Before I went to bed I tried to schedule a wake-up call for 6:30 a.m. I had a tee time around 8:30 with Billy Mayfair and we were not going to make much money no matter what we shot. We were too far back.

The operator at the Nugget explained to me that it was already 6:45, so I hit the shower and headed for the TPC sans sleep. The fact that I managed to break par that Sunday is a testimonial to youth and outright stupidity. That same day a different kind of youth was served.

Tiger shot 64 to chase down Davis on the back nine and then went on to win a playoff. I would love to tell you that I stuck around to see that historic first win. Heck, I would love to tell you that any of us knew it was coming.

Truth is we didn't believe that anyone was as good as the kid turned out to be. After all, prior to Tiger there were only a couple of guys in the modern era who had played well enough to avoid q-school and still get their cards. We couldn't know. We couldn't even imagine.

There was only one guy, or perhaps two counting Tiger's daddy Earl, who believed in the destiny that would accompany the man who is now the most popular athlete in the world. But I am willing to bet to this day that he has never hit five 11s in a row with 25 bucks on the yo.

John Maginnes is a former PGA TOUR player who, at the time of this writing, is just 66 wins behind Tiger Woods on the TOUR's career wins list. Along with his contributions to PGATOUR.COM, John can be heard on the PGA TOUR Network's radio coverage (Sirius209 /XM146).