The cheering was deafening.
Tiger Woods, adorned in his usual red shirt on Sunday, was walking up the 18th fairway of his final round of the Masters golf tournament. As in, where else would he be, what else would he be wearing?
This was the victorious Tiger, but not based on his four-day score at the Augusta National Golf Club.
Rather, this was the Tiger of survival. Fourteen months ago, he was in a horrific automobile accident, from which it was said that his professional golf career would not recover. That he might not walk again. That his injuries were so serious he might even lose a leg. But none of those occurred. Instead, he worked and worked and worked on his body and decided on the morning of Thursday, April 7, that he would enter the Masters, an event he has won five times. His next goal was to make the cut, which narrows the field of players after the second round of golf to the top 50 (including tie scores), so he could play Saturday and Sunday. And that he did. Then, of course, reality set in. As I watched him on television over the weekend, it was obvious his body had not fully recovered. He limped. He was hurting. His shots and putts did not remind viewers of the old Tiger. But he soldiered on. His four-day scores were 71-74-78-78. Of the 52 golfers who made the cut, he finished in 47th place at 13 over par. He made $43,500.
Woods will need a lot of ice and time to recuperate. The next major golf tournament is the PGA Championship May 16-22 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s probable that he won’t play on the tour until then — if even then. After that, the U.S. Open is June 13-19 at the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. After the Masters, Woods said he would prepare and decide on those tournaments as he did the Masters. But he said he would play in the British Open July 11-17 at St. Andrews in Scotland.
His schedule might resemble that of another great golfer who was in a car wreck, Ben Hogan, who suffered a broken collarbone, pelvis, rib and ankle in his accident in 1949. The next year, Hogan won the U.S. Open and two other major tournaments in 1951. But Hogan played infrequently after his accident.
I have not been a Woods fan, possibly because I am (or was) such a super fan of Jack Nicklaus, the player I have followed since his days as a teenager. But this past week, I could not have been more in favor of Tiger Woods. I particularly liked the way he talked about his “team.” I hadn’t heard him talk that way before. Have you?
Woods’ presence in the Masters took away some of the excitement of the tournament itself, won by Scottie Scheffler at 11 under par. Sunday’s fourth round started with Scheffler four strokes ahead of Cameron Smith and after Smith birdied the first two holes and Scheffler struggled to make pars, it appeared there would be a contest.
Both Scheffler and Smith put their third-hole drives in the woods, then down a hill from the hole with bogies in view. Scheffler pitched first and the ball went right in the hole for a birdie, probably the most important shot of the day. Smith made the expected bogie and the duo were four strokes apart again. Scheffler never let up while Smith faded and Rory McIlroy exploded, making up eight strokes and finishing runner-up to Scheffler by three while the winner was losing ground on his final hole – taking four putts.
In this calendar year, Scheffler has won four tournaments for $9 million, including $2.7 million for the major. All in 57 days. Not bad, huh?
