I was nine (three months shy of my 10th birthday) when Tiger Woods won the Masters in 1997. My relationship with golf was a lot different back then. I had some clubs that my dad cut down for me so I could hit some shots when I went out and sat in the cart while he played. I watched golf on TV, but was more of a causal viewer. I watched all the majors, usually rooting for Greg Norman to finally win at Augusta (spoiler: he never did). I was basically your run-of-the-mill casual fan.
Then something changed.
I remember being blown away by this kid who showed up at place like Augusta and didn’t just win, but did it in such a dominant fashion that it made even the most “traditional” golf observer stop and say “wow.”
From there, I was hooked. If Tiger teed it up that week, I was watching.
I watched as Tiger dominated not just the golf world, but the sports world. I watched as Tiger Woods became a household name. People who had never picked up a golf club in their lives were suddenly running out and buying clubs. People who had never watched a single shot of golf hit on TV were suddenly fixated to their televisions for hours on end. People who had never attended a PGA Tour event were suddenly buying tickets in hopes of getting a glimpse of the man himself do what he did in person.
The Tiger Effect was happening before all our eyes.
During the decade of Tiger’s domination, my relationship with golf made a complete 180. I went into the back of my dad’s closet and dug out a set of his old clubs and started playing (my woods were actually made of wood and my driver was a 1 wood). I started watching golf on a weekly basis, to watch the Tiger show in action. I started learning more about just not the present state of the game, but also about its past. I learned about Jack and Arnie and Gary. I learned about St. Andrews and Augusta National. Old Tom Morris and Bobby Jones.
Tiger went through all his personal problems off the course and I stuck with him. The infidelity, health issues, all of it. After I graduated college and started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life I thought about covering golf because of Tiger. When Tiger had his DUI I wrote about it, because that’s what I was supposed to do. It killed me inside as I did it, seeing the person that I grew up watching and idolizing having his life fall apart in the public eye, and down the street from my house nonetheless.
I didn’t let it change my opinion on Tiger Woods the golfer or even the man though. I hoped that he could get his life back in order, not just for me and all the other people that enjoy watching him play, but for the sake of his family and his two children.
I watched intently as he tried to make his latest comeback. Every time he showed a flash of the old Tiger I got overly excited. Every time he missed another cut and looked lost out there I got overly upset. I wanted so badly to be able to re-live my childhood excitement as an adult where I felt I could truly appreciate it. I wanted to see one final run.
The 2018 season brought all of us a lot of hope. There were the near misses in Tampa and at the PGA. There was the Saturday 66 at the Open. There was the constant feeling that he was on the verge of being back.
Then the Tour Championship happened.
I wrote about how I felt after the Tour Championship and I felt some closure. I felt that the comeback was finally complete. It made me felt like a kid again, watching Tiger walk up the 18th fairway on Sunday wearing his Sunday Red while thousands of fans swarmed him in hopes of getting a chance to once again see what they saw so often for so long. I never, in my wildest dreams, ever thought I would get to experience what it would be like for Tiger to win a major ever again though. I had come to terms with it and was just happy to see whatever version of Tiger we were going to get.
[irp posts=”2419″ name=”The Tiger Woods Comeback is Complete”]
Then the Masters happened.
I’m at a different point in my life now then where I was even two or three years ago. Responsibilities have made it where I just simply can’t watch every golf shot hit every week anymore unless I am actually at the tournament in the Media Center.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I watched every single shot that Tiger Woods hit on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I felt like a kid again. While Tiger went back in time for the week with everything from his outfits to his stature and demeanor, I went back to those days of watching Tiger dominate fields of some of the greatest golfers ever to play the game. I went back to the days of Tiger knowing he had the thing won before he even stepped on the first tee box because that’s how intimidating he was. I went back to the days of watching Tiger do things on a golf course that I couldn’t imagine doing even in my wildest dreams.
When Tiger won his first Green Jacket in ’97, he was greeted by his mom and his dad as he walked off the 18th green. The picture of a young Tiger hugging his dad Earl is one of the most famous golf pictures of our generation. Sunday he walked off that 18th green again and again he was greeted by his mom. Something was different though this time. Sure, his dad wasn’t there (his dad passed in 2006) but in his place were his two children, Sam and Charlie. His kids never got to experience the Tiger that we all did. Sure they have heard countless stories about who their dad was in his prime but they never got to see it with their own eyes. After all, when Tiger won the U.S. Open in 2008 on one good leg, Sam was an infant and Charlie wasn’t even born yet.
That all changed on Sunday though. For the first time as a father, Tiger got to hug his kids walking off the 18th green after having just won a Masters, the same way his dad got to hug him when he won it in 1997.
It was at that moment that I cried. Sure I had gotten a little misty as Tiger walked up the fairway on the 72nd hole. I got a little emotional when we got that patented Tiger fist pump and celebration after the final putt finally dropped. But that moment when he went and gave his kids a hug is when it all finally kicked in. The comeback was complete.
I got to experience what it was like being a kid again Sunday. Getting lost in something much bigger than yourself. I got to watch Tiger Woods do what he did for so many years one more time, except this time around I didn’t take it for granted. I soaked it every shot hit and every moment like I was that 9 year old watching him win a major for the very first time.
If Tiger never wins another major for the rest of his life, at least I got one last day of feeling like a kid again.
For that, Tiger Woods, all I can say is thank you.