Green on black, with a splash of red.

Of all the vibrant colors that define Augusta National, none effused change the way those did 10 years ago.

"He's out there playing another game on a golf course he's going to own for a long time," Jack Nicklaus predicted.

"He's Michael Jordan in long pants," Paul Azinger gushed.

"Unless they build Tiger tees about 50 yards back, he's going to win the next 20 of these," Jesper Parnevik warned.

OK, so the Swedish PGA Tour pro, whose nanny, Elin, would go on to become Tiger's wife in 2004, was a little off.

But no one will deny that Tiger Woods ushered in a new era in golf a decade ago when he demolished the Masters field by 12 shots in his first major as a professional.

Woods, dressed in "power" red that final round, broke or tied 26 Masters records in finishing at 18 under par.

At 21, the statistics show, he was the youngest Masters champion. What they don't show is that, more significantly, he also was the first black Masters champion, his epic win coming nearly 50 years to the day after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball.

"You realized the historical impact that it had," Chicago Tribune columnist Ed Sherman said of a black man donning the green jacket at lily-white Augusta National.

"But when you learned a couple days later that this was the all-time highest-rated golf event . . . and that non-fans were tuning in to this guy, you realized you were watching the beginning of the next Michael Jordan, someone who transcends the game."

Woods, who is favored to win his fifth Masters title when the tournament starts Thursday, raised the profile of golf globally, boosted purses and changed the shape of players with his focus on fitness.

He changed fashion (short- sleeved mock turtlenecks), stretched courses (Tiger-proofing) and bumped television ratings (35 percent to 50 percent when he plays) - a fact not lost on the now-defunct International at Castle Pines.

Though he has yet to call another black player his equal on tour, his historic win in 1997 knocked down racial barriers.

To think, it all started with a horrible 40 on the front nine on a course where he never had broken par in six previous rounds.

'Why Tiger Won't Tame Augusta'

Ten years later, Sherman still takes flak for that headline, and admits it was the worst by the Windy City's flagship newspaper since "Dewey Defeats Truman" ran in 1948.

"That was my first golf tourney I covered and I was just trying to be edgy," Sherman says today. "If you looked at (Woods) coming in, he didn't have that much momentum. He won the Mercedes in a playoff, but it wasn't like he was playing lights-out golf. He had never made the cut in that tournament, it was his first time as a professional."

Put all those things together, and Sherman figured there would be a learning curve.

When Woods stumbled out of the gate, Sherman's prediction was looking pretty safe.

"We both made a right mess of the front nine," Woods' playing partner, Nick Faldo told Golf Digest recently. "It was tough to tell if he was tight or nervous. There wasn't a lot said between us that I recall. But crumbs, he was hitting it all over on the front side, in the trees. I'm sure most people were probably thinking, 'Right, he's still in a little over his head.' "

As Woods made the turn, he made a mental adjustment on the run and fixed his swing. After shooting 4 over on the first nine, he went on to play the ensuing 63 holes at 22 under.

He bombed in a long birdie putt on No. 10, but Sherman remembers No. 12 in particular, a tricky par 3 in the midst of Amen Corner.

"He's over the green and I'm thinking things will get worse," Sherman recalled.

Instead, Woods chipped in and went on to fire a back-nine 30, beating Faldo by five shots that day.

"He walked underneath my tower on 15. I'm thinking, 'My God, he just looks like a creature from another planet,' " CBS analyst David Feherty told Golf Digest. "He was physically incapable of doing anything other than focusing on the job at hand. The guys were talking about his disastrous start - not that he was aware of it. You probably could have walked up to him with a baseball bat and whacked him over the head with it, and it would have bounced off. He wouldn't even have felt it."

The next day, Woods shot 6- under 66 to dust Azinger by seven shots and boost his lead to three on Colin Montgomerie, who added fuel to Tiger's fire with comments about whether "experience" would prevail.

It didn't, as he walloped Monty by nine shots with 65, then boosted his lead even further Sunday with a final-round 69.

"He refused to let the pedal off the metal, even with a 12-shot lead," Sherman said of Woods, who also had the foresight to ask for a green jacket that would still fit him today.

"I think that's what stood out. Even down the stretch, when he made that last putt, he didn't want to finish with a bogey. That's stood out his entire career. Regardless of where he's at, he's always grinding."

Father knows best

Though Azinger made the Jordan comparison, today he says he wasn't sure Tiger would go on to dominate the way he has.

"When he won by such a large margin, it was so impressive," Azinger said of Woods, who now carries about 25 more pounds of muscle on his 6-foot-1 frame. "But we also had seen Jose Maria Olazabal win the World Series of Golf by 11 shots. His dad was the one that really knew. Who else knew?"

Earl Woods was lucky to even be at Augusta that week.

Actually, he was lucky to be alive, having nearly died of complications from heart bypass surgery in February and traveling to the Masters against doctors' orders.

When his only son approached him Wednesday night worried about his putting stroke, Earl gave him a few pointers that paved the way for an incredible week on the slick greens - no three-putts and no misses inside 10 feet.

Saturday night, as they talked past midnight, Earl had different advice as Tiger closed in on a tournament he had dreamed of winning since he was a boy.

Earl told him to sleep, not worry.

" 'You know, it's going to be the most important round of your life, but you can handle it,' " Tiger recalled of that conversation. " 'Just go out there and do what you do. Just get in your own little world and go out there and just thrash 'em.'

"So that was the mind-set. When I hugged him on 18, looking back on it now, I could not have won that tournament without him."

Click, click-click

Before there was that memorable hug for a father fortunate enough to see three more Masters wins before he died in May, before the congratulatory call from President Clinton and the subsequent appearance on Oprah, there would be a walk with the masses up 18.

A camera shutter clicking on Woods' final tee shot made him lurch at his driver, sending his ball left of the fairway.

Woods found himself enveloped by the crowd, jumping up to find caddie Mike "Fluff" Cowan, who was getting the distance for yet another wedge shot to a green.

He joked with them, high- fived a few, then lofted another high-arcing shot.

As applause followed him up the fairway, from the mostly white crowd to the black club employees gathered on the clubhouse lawn, Woods couldn't help but think about one thing - how to get up and down from 20 feet.

"My focus never left me, is what I'm trying to say," Woods admitted afterward. "Even with all the ovation I got and everybody cheering me on, it was a special moment . . . but I knew I had to take care of business first."

He did, and to this day, it's a trait that, along with his incredible power and deft touch, makes for a special combination.

Just like green on black, with a splash of red.

debruinl@RockyMountainNews.com

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