The mammoth win in the 1997 Masters Tournament began Tiger Woods‘ journey to perfection. He had beaten the field at ANGC by a record 12 strokes, but Woods was not satisfied with it. He wanted a better swing, and so he approached Butch Harmon, a man who helped him develop the swing that he had back then. The two started working on a better technique that would help the 82-time PGA Tour champion win the remaining 78 titles of his career. Fast-forward to the 1999 PGA Championship win, his first, and the look of “pure exhaustion”, as described by Jim Nantz, was because he had achieved what he was working on for the last two years. Woods had another tool in his arsenal that would help him compete with history. A history that was written by Jack Nicklaus.

Very few recognized what Tiger Woods was going for. But Nantz could decipher what was going on in his head as early as the 2000 PGA Championship. As he mentioned in an interview with CBS recently, the final round of the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla was a contest between Woods and Bob May. But it also marked the last time Jack Nicklaus played in the major. And unlike Woods, his journey only lasted till the second round of the event.

For the first couple of rounds, Woods and Nicklaus were in the same group, and it was the perfect duo of the past and future of golf. They also had the 1998 PGA Championship winner, Vijay Singh, as the third of their group. Both Singh and Nicklaus missed the cut for the weekend while Woods made it through for the third round. While the 15-time major winner celebrated an emphatic win over May in the end, it was his last hole with the 18-time major champion that caught a lot of attention. After Woods grabbed the win, Nantz, sitting in the commentary box, said, “He has taken the torch and he is running with it.” 

Explaining why he made that call instead of talking about the legend’s second Wanamaker Trophy, Nantz said, “Everything in Tiger’s career was always going to be measured against Nicklaus. So for him to be in his company for two days and then to ultimately win that 2000 PGA Championship, I just felt like it was a hand off.” Getting a first-hand view of everything that was happening at Valhalla that year, Nantz could see how the focus was being shifted from the greatness of the enigmatic Jack Nicklaus to the determined Tiger Woods.

Adding more substance to the call he made, the famed golf analyst added, “There was a cut-away when they were playing on Friday, what would be Jack’s last hole. He nearly made the cut at age 60.” Nicklaus only needed a birdie in the final hole on Friday to play the weekend of his last PGA Championship. It was still quite phenomenal for a 60-year-old to push himself close enough to nearly play the entire major. Unfortunately, Nicklaus has a mountainous wedge shot from nearly 60 yards away from the hole. He did get tremendously close, but narrowly missed the cup by a foot to confirm his exit from the tournament.

“There was a cut-away of Jack looking over his shoulder on that green and giving Tiger a thumbs up. There was clearly a passing of the torch from one legend to the next,” said Nantz as he recollected the final moments of Nicklaus’s time in the major. With the vote of confidence from the man himself, Woods certainly had enough motivation to push through for the amazing win at the 2000 PGA Championship, the second of his career.

Speaking of why he ended up making the “taken the torch and running with it” call, Jim Nantz admitted, “It was not preplanned. It just felt like the right thing to say at that time.” And what a call he made as over the next few years, Woods turned from just another multi-time major winner to a legend competing with Nicklaus for a piece of history. It was also the beginning of the Tiger Slam, something Woods had worked hard to achieve in the last few years.

However, unlike the celebration of the win in 2000, Tiger Woods displayed different emotions during his 1999 PGA Championship victory.

What changed between the 1999 PGA Championship and the 2000 win at Valhalla for Tiger Woods?

Most would celebrate winning the first PGA Championship of their career. Some would also shed a tear after the years of struggle they faced. Just ask Xander Schauffele what he felt after he finally broke the deadlock at Valhalla in 2024. It was truly an emotional moment for the 30-year-old, as he also had his friends by his side supporting him. But for a 23-year-old Tiger Woods, capturing the 1999 PGA Championship was the end of a struggle. As Jim Nantz phrased it, that was a look of “pure exhaustion” after he finally won the second major of his career at Medinah Country Club. It came after Woods had worked exhaustingly hard with Harmon to change his swing.

While the win at Medinah confirmed that Tiger Woods can go back to focusing on winning, the win at Valhalla ensured that he was on the path to greatness. Now that he had received the torch from Jack Nicklaus, the 49-year-old would go on a rampage to break countless records. Woods nearly caught up to Nicklaus’s total major wins. He had the most PGA Tour wins in a career. Grabbed the Green Jacket 4 more times after 97. Also became the only golfer to ever hold all four major championships at the same time.

There are very few records Tiger Woods doesn’t hold. Throughout his career, he kept on proving Jim Nantz’s call of “He has taken the torch and he is running with it” to be true. Today, with the history that Woods has created, it’s almost as if Nantz never needed to explain why he made the call back in 2000.