Tiger at 40: Tiger's impact on today's stars

STEVE DESIMONE REMEMBERS the exact moment when he knew Tiger Woods was the best golfer on the planet. It wasn’t during one of Woods’ signature victories at the U.S. Amateur, or the Masters, or the U.S. Open. No, Desimone’s moment of clarity arrived on April 29, 1996, during the first round of the Pac-10 Championship.

That day, Desimone, the longtime coach at the University of California, camped out on Big Canyon Country Club’s 560-yard 16th hole, a brute of a par 5 that doglegs right and pinches into a tight landing area. From there, it’s drastically uphill, and into a prevailing breeze, with a narrow opening to a well-guarded green. The hole tripped up the rest of the elite field, but it…