Tiger’s Triumph

Photo credit: Andrew Redington / Getty Images

Perhaps you heard the roar this afternoon. After all, it probably stretched from Augusta, Georgia to wherever you are.

Tiger Woods won The Masters again. Tiger Woods won a major tournament again. Tiger Woods took out an entire field of competitors again. Tiger Woods had crowds worked up to a complete frenzy again. Tiger Woods is back on top again.

Yes, this is the same Tiger Woods who saw his personal life implode due in large part to his selfish behavior and then saw his professional career implode due in large part to health problems.

This is the same Tiger Woods who many said during the peak of his career would go on to break every record in the game, but also the same Tiger Woods who at one point just a few years ago said he was done.

This is the same Tiger Woods who many love, and many…well, don’t. I get it, not everyone will be happy about his win today. But, I am.

You see, I relate to broken people. I am one.

I like seeing broken people pick up the pieces and find a renewed sense of purpose. I like comeback stories. I like watching people with an undying desire to win do exactly that. I like that a guy who’s basically the same age as me just won the biggest prize in his sport; one of the biggest prizes in all of sports. I like that it happened 11 years since he last won a major tournament and 14 years since he last won this tournament. I like watching the great ones do what they do.

I was rooting for Tiger from my recliner all day today. What a thrilling final round it was. I shouted and yelled when he made that final putt but I’ll admit, my cheers turned to tears afterward. If you missed it, here’s what happened next.

Tiger Woods Wins The Masters

Roaring back.#themasters pic.twitter.com/nlTwxWJW8X

— Masters Tournament (@TheMasters) April 14, 2019

Tiger’s reaction afterward – jubilation, relief, and who knows how many other emotions after such a long road where he hit rock bottom in life. That’s some good stuff, right there. Perhaps you have gone through some tough times in your life and by God’s grace have found your way to the other side of it. You might relate.

But, the moment he hugged his son and the excitement he felt to share the special moment with him…wow. All the other things I mentioned liking earlier take a back seat to that.

“It means the world to me,” Woods said, wearing another green jacket, “their love and their support. I just can’t say enough how much that meant to me throughout my struggles when I really just had a hard time moving around. Just their infectiousness of happiness, you know.“

As someone who loves being a parent and someone whose children have meant more to me through the ups and downs of my life than I have time to write here, this was my favorite moment from today. I can relate to that infectious happiness kids provide and how much it means to get to experience that.

So glad they all got to experience today’s celebration together. Bravo, Tiger. Enjoy it.

Masters Madness

What a day at Augusta National. The back nine on Sunday at the Masters is almost always must-see TV, but this year was ridiculous.

Plenty of storylines to go around. Gotta start with Tiger Woods returning to his old form and spending the afternoon near or at the top of the leaderboard – and in the process, making any outcome to the tournament relevant.

I mean, let’s face it. Without Woods doing his thing out there today, the fact that there were seemingly countless people in contention right until the end wouldn’t have attracted anywhere near as much attention from casual golf viewers. Tiger Woods is golf. Plain and simple. When he’s in contention, it’s something special to watch. There’s no one else like him and when he’s ‘on’ it is hard to turn away.

There was Rory McIlroy. The leader going into the final round and still the leader until the back nine until a triple bogey 7 on the 10th began a downward spiral, resulting in him shooting a 43 on the way in. Ouch. This kid will be winning tournaments for a long time but today was anything but his day.

It was almost painful to watch him out there after that triple bogey. To go from leading to several shots back in one hole, then progressively farther down the leaderboard after that is tough stuff.

You had the Australian angle with this one. Three Australians in contention to win and right until the guy behind them put his approach shot on the green at 18, two of them were looking to become the first Aussie to ever wear the green jacket.

Which of course brings us to Charl Schwartzel. How about making birdie on the final four holes to win – by two. Not bad, Charl. The fact that the CBS announcers barely mentioned him until the very end echoed the fact that this guy just found a way to make it happen at the end, without much of the fanfare the others were receiving.

It was quite an effort. Worthy of a victory, for sure. With all of the players who contended for much of the afternoon and all of the drama that came along with some very tight competition, Schwartzel made it relatively uneventful by the time he knocked in the final birdie (which at that point he didn’t even need) to win.

While I will admit that the Tiger factor makes it exponentially more exciting, I tend to watch the majors in golf no matter who’s up there at the top. There’s just something about watching these guys attempt to make shots that you know you couldn’t make if you practiced it 1,000 times in a situation where just one bad swing could cost them the entire tournament. When the level of play is what it was today, it makes it even more exciting.

Looking forward to seeing what happens at Congressional this June.