Talk to any golfer who has played against Tiger Woods and there is sure to be at least one story about a shot so sublime that they were certain it couldn’t be hit by them or anyone else.
He was just different. Better.
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The 2-iron Woods hit into the par-5 10th hole at TPC Sugarloaf led Stewart Cink to say, “That’s a skill set I don’t have.” » Padraig Harrington once watched Woods hit an 8-iron so majestically at Firestone that it went into his head and led the Irishman to make a triple bogey.
Nick Price played the first two rounds with Woods at St. Andrews during the 2000 Open and felt the tournament was already over. Mark O’Meara played a practice round with him at Pebble Beach before the 2000 US Open and told his wife before the championship started: “Tiger is going to win. And not only is he going to win, but he’s going to blow up the field.” Woods won by 15.
Over the years, so many of the game’s greats have never been able to relate to Woods. And now, finally, they can.
Even Woods can’t beat the time. He will be 50 years old on Tuesday.
This is an important milestone for everyone, but it is different in golf, as the sport can be played well past the age when athletes have long retired from other sports. Phil Mickelson won a major tournament at age 50. Jack Nicklaus launched an attack Sunday morning at the Masters when he was 58 years old.
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With Woods, it’s complicated.
He is now eligible for the PGA Tour 50-and-Over Champions. He has also had more surgeries than the 15 major tournaments he has won. This is the first year he has not competed in a single tournament, the result of a ruptured Achilles tendon in March and a seventh back operation in September.
“I’ll probably play 25 events on both tours and I think that should cover most of the year, right? Woods joked in the Bahamas when asked about turning 50.
He won the US Open just eight days before reconstructive surgery on his left knee. He won the Masters two years after surgery to fuse his lower back. But he hasn’t been the same since this car accident in 2021 in Los Angeles. Woods has played 11 times in the last five seasons, finished only four of those tournaments and been no more than 16 shots behind the winner.
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“Come back how much?” Woods said. “I would like to come back to golf.”
This celebration is therefore more a question of looking back than looking forward.
Ernie Els was most prescient in 2000 at Kapalua when he was again on the losing side — no one finished second to Woods more than the Big Easy. They faced eagles on the 18th in regulation, birdies on the 18th in a playoff and Woods got it with a 40-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole. Vintage Tiger.
“I think he’s a legend in the making,” Els said that day. “He’s 24. He’ll probably be taller than Elvis when he hits 40.”
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This is up for debate, of course. The impact Woods left on golf is undeniable.
Popularity soared and prize money skyrocketed. Woods made golf look different and he made it cool. And perhaps his greatest legacy is that he unwittingly raised a generation of players who wanted to be like him. Scottie Scheffler said nothing inspired him more than watching Woods’ intensity while he was out of contention at the 2020 Masters. Woods made a 10 on the 12th hole and followed that up with five birdies over his final six holes. He is tied for 38th.
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“Tiger was just different in the way he approached every shot. It felt like the last shot he was going to make,” Scheffler said. It was the only time they played together. Scheffler is now closing in on three years at world No. 1, the longest spell since Woods.
But it all started with this skill set like no other.
“He’s the only guy I’ve known who continually exceeded expectations,” Tom Lehman said. “No matter how much you gave him, he found a way to surpass them.”
Lehman remembers a moment at Memorial, on the 17th hole, a green so rock hard it seemed impossible to get near. Lehman hit the 5-iron as high and as far as he could and was happy to see it roll 25 feet from the cup.
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“He hit that shot high in the air and it was falling like a parachute,” Lehman said. “Landed near the cup, bounced 2 feet and stopped. I guess he must have hit a 7-iron. I said, ‘Tiger, what club was that?’ He said, “It was a little three-finger 5-iron.” He just filleted it there.
“When I think of him, that’s what I think of. Only one guy could make that shot. And he did it a lot.”
Woods won the career Grand Slam at age 24, the youngest ever. He achieved 50 world victories and 10 major tournaments before turning 30.
It wasn’t as easy as he made it seem. The late Dan Jenkins once said when Woods was at the top of his game, “Only two things can stop Tiger: an injury or a bad marriage.” » Turns out it was both. His path was derailed at the end of 2009 by revelations of multiple extramarital affairs, and the wounds continued to pile up. He still returned to world No. 1 in 2013 and increased his number of PGA Tour victories to 82, tied with Sam Snead.
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“If he never got injured, he would have 25 majors and 125 wins,” Fred Couples said.
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Matt Kuchar saw it differently. He felt injuries contributed to Woods’ legend, particularly that 2008 U.S. Open victory at Torrey Pines.
Woods was playing that week with shredded ligaments in his left knee and two stress fractures in his left leg. It’s often forgotten that Woods hadn’t played 18 holes from the Masters until the first round at Torrey Pines.
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“The legacy is bigger because of the injuries,” Kuchar said. “What he did at Torrey Pines, what he did at the (2019) Masters is sort of Hoganesque. At one point, like almost everyone, I shut him out. And then he wins again.”
Woods is very busy outside the ropes. He was named to the PGA Tour board without term limits in 2023, while the tour was in the midst of a battle with Saudi-funded LIV Golf. He now heads the Future Competition Committee responsible for reshaping the circuit model.
The next question is when – and where – he plays. Woods is the only player to have won the US Junior Amateur, US Amateur and US Open. The US Senior Open is at Scioto, the Ohio course where Jack Nicklaus learned to play.
April at Augusta isn’t the same without Woods. He set the 2024 Masters record by qualifying for the 24th consecutive time. How much more? How much longer?
“People want to see it,” Kuchar said. “And if he shoots 76, people still want to see him. He’s unique in our sport.”
