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For one shining day, Tiger’s back on top, but will he stay there?
Tiger Woods is back on top of the golfing world after showing he remembered what he’s learned from a bushel-basket load of major titles to add another one at The Masters.
Tiger Woods is back on top of the golfing world after showing he remembered what he’s learned from a bushel-basket load of major titles to add another one at The Masters on Sunday.
It had gotten to the point he was almost an after-thought at these major tournaments.
He had started to show some spark in the PGA and British Open last year following a disaster at the U.S. Open where he missed the cut.
“I applied what I learned from last two major championships today,” Tiger said on CBS from the Butler Cabin after winning by a shot.
No, Tiger didn’t make some wild shots that stand out in everybody’s memory. There were no incredibly long and winding putts, fairway eagle hole-in shots or some bunker shot that rolled in the cup.
“I was as patient as I’ve been in a number of years,” he said later. “I kept control of my emotions and shot placement.”
In the end Tiger simply outlasted a jam-packed leaderboard for his fifth Masters title and 15th major. He didn’t win it as much as he didn’t blow it.
“I was just trying to plod my way around the course all day,” Woods said.
In the old days, Tiger would have started a day like this where he was tied for second, two shots back, charged past everybody on the front nine and watched everybody spraying shots all over the place on the back nine.
Not this time.
At a tournament where it’s long been said things don’t really get started until the back nine on Sunday, there was no “Tiger Charge,” but just a smart, steady nice walk through the Georgia woods on a Sunday afternoon.
Of course, the back nine is where everybody else may have felt the pressure a little.
“It all flipped at No. 12,” Tiger said, who had never come from behind on the final day to win a major title.
Francesco Molinari who had made his way to what was looking like a commanding lead hadn’t made a bogey the entire tournament until he got to the 12th hole where he promptly plunked a shot into the water.
That was all the opening Tiger needed.
“Francesco made a mistake and all these different scenarios started flying around,” he said later. “It was an amazing buzz to figure out what was going on. I kinda liked it.”
Woods birdied the 12th, 13th and 15th. His best shot of the tournament may have been on the 16th, though, when his tee shot landed perfectly on the slope and gently rolled slightly past the hole where he had a little 4-footer for another birdie and a two-shot lead.
That’s when his experience kicked in. Even with all of his well-documented problems personally and with his back surgeries, it was hard to imagine Tiger blowing a two-shot lead with two to play.
“Last year I was just lucky to be playing again,” he said. “It’s unreal for me to experience this.”
His last major championship came in 2008 and the last time he won The Masters was 2005. Since his ex-wife beat out the windows on his car and he struggled with serious back injuries, all the talk about Tiger was off the course.
Not Sunday.
“This was one of the hardest I’ve had to win because of what’s transpired the last couple of years,” he said as the emotion of the win was evident as he walked off the 18th green.
His first win in 1997 was emotional as he was greeted by his father. This time it was his children and mother waiting for him.
“It’s come full circle,” Tiger said later.
Now the challenge is staying at the top.
The last time someone of this stature surprisingly won at Augusta was Jack Nicklaus in 1986. The shot of the tournament was a LONG putt he snaked in from what seemed like halfway to Atlanta.
Nicklaus, bone-fishing somewhere down in the Bahamas, had come to shore Sunday morning to watch the tournament and was quickly on Twitter immediately after Tiger’s win.
A big “well done” from me to @TigerWoods! I am so happy for him and for the game of golf. This is just fantastic!!! ??@TheMasters
— Jack Nicklaus (@jacknicklaus) April 14, 2019
Jack was the oldest to win The Masters at 46 and now Tiger is the second-oldest. Of course that was the last major Nicklaus won.
We’ll see if Tiger can return to the dominant form he last showed over a decade ago.
Or if this is the end to his story.
