ORLANDO, Fla. — I took a temporary detour on my drive to Bay Hill on Thursday for the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Instead of taking a left down Apopka-Vineland, I stayed straight on Conroy-Windermere and went a mile up the road so I could drive by the gilded gates of Isleworth.
You see, whenever I drive by Isleworth, it always reminds me of Tiger Woods.
It always reminds me of nearly two decades ago when I first moved to Orlando and I’d drive by those iron gates and my two young daughters would giddily start yelling, “That’s where Tiger lives! That’s where Tiger lives! Daddy, can we go see Tiger? Can we? Can we?”
Now, as I make a U-turn and head back toward Bay Hill, I wonder if we will ever see Tiger again the way we once knew him:
Winning golf tournaments.
Kissing trophies.
Bringing Bay Hill to its knees.
On the day the Arnold Palmer Invitational teed off on Thursday, Tiger presumably was still in the hospital in Los Angeles where he is recovering from serious leg injuries following a horrific accident in which his SUV flipped multiple times. Although the severity of Tiger’s injuries aren’t fully known, he had to have emergency surgery on several open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones in his right leg. Additionally, trauma to the muscle and soft tissue required a surgical release of the muscle’s covering due to pressure.
When you take into account Tiger was still recovering from his fifth back surgery when the crash happened, who knows when or if he will try to make a comeback.
“He’s not Superman ... He’s a human being at the end of the day,” said Rory McIlroy, who shot a 6-under Thursday to grab a share of the first round lead at The Arnie. “At this stage, I think everyone should just be grateful that he’s here, that he’s alive, that his kids haven’t lost their dad. That’s the most important thing. Golf is so far from the equation right now, it’s not even on the map at this point.”
Which makes you long even more for those bygone days when Tiger lived in Orlando, would roll out of bed at Isleworth, drive the 10 minutes over to Bay Hill and dominate the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He’s won The Arnie eight times, including one stretch in the early 2000s when he won it four straight years.
Back in 2008, I made a dinner bet with former WKMG-News 6 sports anchor David “Ping” Pingalore, who took Tiger and gave me the rest of the field. Tiger dramatically drained a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to beat PGA Tour journeyman Bart Bryant, and I ended up serving Ping dinner while he did his sports report on the 6 o’clock news.
Those were the days.
The days when we had two of golf’s greatest icons living right here in Orlando just a couple of miles from each other.
Tiger loved Arnie and Arnie loved Tiger.
In fact, there’s a famous picture of Tiger and Arnie standing next to each other on the 18th green for the trophy presentation after Tiger won for the last time at Bay Hill in 2013. Tiger whispers something in Arnie’s ear and the two of them bust out laughing. In the photo, Arnie is laughing so hard it looks like he’s crying.
It’s been five years now since Arnie passed away, and Tiger’s only played the tournament once since then. Partly because of his health, partly because he doesn’t live in Orlando anymore, partly because of his limited schedule, but mostly, I’m guessing, because Arnie’s not here anymore.
“To be able to win this tournament and have Arnold there to shake my hand and give me a big hug or having him say, ‘I called it, I knew you were going to make that putt,’ " Woods said on the eve of his last appearance here in 2018. “The little things like that — sharing jokes with him out on the green and he and I laughing together — those are the moments that, unfortunately, I’ll never have again. But I have those memories.”
Wood’s former caddie Steve Williams believes Palmer’s death helped persuade Tiger that he needed to change his attitude. Tiger became less aloof, more friendly, and actually made a concerted effort to get fans and fellow players to like him.
“Tiger was a huge fan of Arnold Palmer,” Williams said in an article for Athlete’s Voice. “He loved playing Arnold’s tournament at Bay Hill — and there was always added motivation for him to win there, knowing that if you walked off the final green, Arnold would be standing there waiting to congratulate you — it was very special to Tiger.
“So I’m thinking that when Arnold passed away, there was a realization in Tiger that golf had lost a guy who was the most popular player ever. It was about a year after Arnold died that Tiger started his comeback after his back surgery and I think he may have decided that with his second chance he wanted to be remembered the way Arnold was remembered.”
We can only hope Tiger fully recovers and that one day he returns to the tournament he’s won as many times as any golfer has ever won any tournament.
Get well soon, Tiger.
We miss you.
Golf misses you.
Orlando misses you.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational misses you.
I think I’ll drive by Isleworth again on my way home.
