The Masters: When Tiger Woods made everyone sit up and take notice

At Augusta in 1997 a young black man played the most fabled golf course in America like it was his own back yard and won the Masters by 12 strokes.

This was Georgia in the deep south, where traditionally young black men were treated like second-class citizens – or worse.

But Tiger Woods struck a blow for black America and transformed a sport stuck in a time warp of discrimination and plus-fours into one of accelerating technology, super-fit athletes and a more open mind.

Golf had never seen anything like it and would never be the same again.

Twenty years on the golfing world returns to Augusta with Woods a shadow of the cultural phenomenon that was born that week.

But what he achieved over those 72 holes back in 1997, what his victory meant, will never be forgotten.