It’s Masters week this week. The one week on the golf majors tour that always goes to the same place in Augusta, Georgia. There are few places in the sport that are as legendary as Augusta National Golf Club – maybe only St Andrews can match the clout of this course. But even with all that prestige and tradition, the only thing people are talking about is will Tiger play?
Few players in any sport are able to create a draw like Tiger Woods. Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and a small handful of dead baseball players might come close. But none of them are still competing. Heck, even Roger Federer isn’t the same draw in tennis that Tiger is in golf. There’s a lot that goes into this, his sheer dominance for over a decade. Chasing the previous legend and coming close to what is thought of an untouchable victory level. Jack’s number is still likely to never be touched, but there’s something about Tiger that gets even the less than casual golf fan to tune in.
I’d say I’m one that fits into that less than casual golf fan group. I’ll tune into the Masters and the US Open. I’ll maybe watch a little of The Open if my schedule allows. Now that the PGA Championship is in May though, I really have no reason to tune in – there’s just too many other things going on at the same time. The August slot worked better for me. So even though I’m usually late to jump on the bandwagon for these great players – I mostly get turned off from the excessive hype – even I jump on the Tiger train and cant miss when he jumps in a major.
Tiger’s story is a wild one – it’s basically an American royalty story. He’s been in the public eye since he was on Johnny Carson when he was a kid sinking shots left and right that weekend golfers could only dream of. Then he goes on to win the US Amateur. Goes on to dominate collegiate golf at Stanford before bursting onto the professional scene in the late 90s. He didn’t look back. He’s been in the public eye nearly his entire life – more than anyone else to play his sport.
The fact that he’s been in the public his entire life made people feel his fall even more than we would for other athletes and celebrities. Sure, we all know he was in the wrong when his SUV got smashed by his then wife. But we still felt the pain of that. Then there were the injuries. Years of injuries hurt his game and he wasn’t the same. Yet, he wasn’t done. And neither were we as fans. We wanted more, and he delivered in 2019 at the same Augusta National course he might take this weekend. That 2019 victory gave us the hope that he might come back and challenge Jack’s record. But then there was the crash. Nearly a decade after the SUV incident he lost control of his car, but this time was severely injured. Nearly to the point where it wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to walk again, let alone golf.
There’s been a massive hole in the golf world – looking for one star to ride and market towards. Sure there’s been a lot of young talent that show sparks of life. Koepka, Spieth, McIlroy, Dechambeau all have given their run at grabing that spotlight. Brooks and Bryson even gave us a different spin creating an intense rivalry bordering on hatred. But nothing has stuck yet. The hype hasn’t stuck with any of them the same way it did with Tiger Woods. Sure we still have time for someone to come up and take the reigns – there was nearly a decade between Jack’s last major and Tiger’s first. But in the meantime there’s a slew of players vying for that spot – and plenty have a head start. But until Tiger’s officially retired, we’ll still be waiting.
As it stands today, Tiger is 3 wins away from tying Jack’s major victories. Back in 2008 when Tiger won his last major, the US Open, it seemed like he was all but guaranteed to own that title. Then he didn’t win. He didn’t win for over a decade. It seemed the torch was passed to one of those younger players and we as fans realized how difficult it is to dominate a sport to set these kinds of records. Jack won his last major at age 46 (side note, how impressive of a legend do you have to be to only be known by one of the most common names and everyone will know who you’re talking about – that’s what Tiger is going against). Tiger this year is 46. Asking someone coming off as serious of an injury as he had to win three more majors at an older age is an impossible feat. The record is safe with Nicklaus. But we can dream of the fairytale ending. After all, Tiger is an American prince. Maybe we get that happily ever after.