The look on Tiger Woods’s face as he walked off the 18th green told you all you need to know about what he’s been through in the last 14 months.
Woods had just shot his second consecutive round of 78, which is the worst score he’s ever made in the 24 years he’s been playing here, and done it on a day that seemed tailor-made for going low. The round left him 13 over par for the tournament, and 22 shots off Scottie Scheffler’s lead, in 47th place. And despite it all, he was grinning like he’d just won the tournament. He clearly wasn’t exaggerating when he said he wasn’t sure whether his injuries would ever allow him to play competitive golf again.
“It was an unbelievable feeling,” Woods said when he was back in Butler Cabin. “I wasn’t exactly playing my best out there, but just to have the support out there and the appreciation from all the fans, I don’t think words can really describe it, given where I was a little over a year ago, and what my prospects were at that time. To end up here, and to be able to play in all four rounds, even a month ago I didn’t know if I could pull this off. “ Woods described his comeback as one of the greatest achievements of his career. “Without a doubt.”
Woods’s perspective on the game is understandably different these days. His priorities seem to have been reshaped by his near-death experience in that car crash outside Los Angeles, by his first hours in the hospital afterwards, when there was a genuine possibility that they were going to have to amputate his right leg, and by the countless hours of gruelling rehabilitation he has done. “I’m just thankful, I keep saying it, but I am. I really am. I truly am. Just to get to this point. Just to be able to play,” he said.
He wasn’t the only one, the game, the fans, even his fellow players, were glad to have him back too. Woods got a standing ovation when he reached each of the last nine tees, when he walked on to the 18th green, and when he walked off it again. The bridge on to the 12th belongs to Ben Hogan, and the bridge off the 13th to Byron Nelson, the crossing over the pond on the 15th is Gene Sarazen’s, but these last few days Woods has seemed to own every other part of this course. They should call it Tiger’s place. “This tournament has meant so much to me and my family, this entire tournament. You go back to the year I was born, that was the year that the first black man played in the Masters in Lee Elder. He was there when I won in ’97. And 25 years later here I am playing again.”
Woods wasn’t in contention and he didn’t play especially well beyond the 71 he made on Thursday, but that didn’t really matter to the thousands of fans packed rows deep around every single inch of each tee-box, fairway and green he played. His crowd on Sunday was undoubtedly the largest gallery ever drawn by a man in 47th place. The game’s different when Tiger’s playing. TV ratings have been up more than 20% on last year’s Masters. The cameras love him so much that CBS showed the entirety of his walk from the 18th green to Butler cabin live, even though the tournament leaders, Scheffler and Cameron Smith, were playing the 1st green at the time.
One day, when Woods finishes, this is going to be a problem for the sport because of the vacuum he will leave behind. The R&A will be delighted that it will not have to worry about filling it during the Open this summer, because he’s confirmed he’s going to play at St Andrews too. He said after his round here that the Old Course is about the only place in the sport that matters to him nearly as much as Augusta National does. “St Andrews is, obviously, near and dear to my heart because it’s the home of golf, and I’ve been able to win a couple of Opens there,” he said. He’s going to try to make the PGA Championship next month, as well.
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By then, Woods will have started to rebuild his game, he will be working on it day by day, in the same way he has been rebuilding his body. He didn’t have much touch with his putter this week, and will want to hone that in particular. “I don’t quite have the endurance that I would like to have had, but as of a few weeks ago, didn’t even know if I was going to play in this event. Now we’re excited about the prospects of the future, about training, about getting into that gym and doing some other stuff to get my leg stronger, which we haven’t been able to do because it needed more time to heal.”
Woods added: “I think it needs a couple more days to heal after this, but we’ll get back after it, and we’ll get into it. I’ve got some work to do and I’m looking forward to doing it.” After everything he’s done in the last couple of years, you would be a fool to bet against him working his way back into the sort of form where he can win again.
