It’s OK to watch Woods for nostalgia
The first time I saw Tiger up close, he almost hit me. But I warmed up to him over the years
JASON LOGAN
The first time I saw Tiger Woods up close he nearly hit me with his golf ball.
This was on Sunday at the 2004 Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. I was in Georgia on a weeklong travel junket and the ticket to the tournament’s final round was a parting gift from the organizers.
It was a sweet treat.
Woods was the co-leader with Jay Haas through 54 holes, and therefore in Sunday’s final group. The two men playing together made for a juicy storyline. Woods was in the midst of more swing changes and had won just once — the WGC Match Play — in two seasons. Haas, meanwhile, was less than a month shy of his 51st birthday and hadn’t won anywhere in a dozen years.
So there I was on what was then the course’s tournament front nine, having left Mike Weir, who was also in the hunt, to watch Woods. I was standing alone in the rough on the inside of the slight dogleg of the seventh hole, when a ball came screaming over my head, hit a tree and fell not far from its trunk. The sudden rush of spectators toward my spot made it clear the ball was not hit by Haas.
A few minutes later, Woods appeared, with me in the pole position to watch him try to escape the sticky situation. I recall thinking that he didn’t look real. Everything about him seemed so … new. His shirt, his pants, his hat, his skin. He was like a walking wax figure. He did what he could with the shot, lofting his ball up and over trouble, but it fell well short of the green and he bogeyed the hole. I had walked up behind the seventh green, next to the rope line between it and the eighth tee. When Woods walked by his head was down and he was muttering to himself. “Come on, Tiger. Come on.” There were expletives mixed in as he had not yet made a birdie in his round.
Ultimately, Woods carded a 72 and lost by four shots to Retief Goosen, who closed with a 64. Weir tied for fourth. Five weeks later, Woods won what is now called the Hero World Challenge, the tournament at which he is making yet another comeback this week. It marked his first stroke-play victory in two-plus years, although one that was unofficial. The next year he won six times, including two majors, and was officially “back.”
But I’ll never forget how spitting mad he was walking to that eighth tee at East Lake.
I wasn’t a huge Woods fan when he turned professional. I thought his overpowering of golf courses early in his career masked deficiencies that I appreciated most when watching the world’s best. As Woods later admitted, he had very little distance control with his wedges. He would blast 300-plus yard drives only to airmail greens. I hated that. Back then, my favourite pro golfers were Fred Couples and José María Olazábal. Couples bombed it but had such soft hands, and nobody possessed more wizardry with wedges at that time than Olazábal. To me, Woods was a onepunch heavyweight where I preferred true technicians of the sweet science.
Boy, did that change. Woods rebuilt his swing — again and again — and ultimately became the most well-rounded golfer the game has seen. He morphed into a true artist on the course, hitting shots his peers wouldn’t attempt, let alone execute. He triumphed with both brawn and brains. He won me over and then some. He captured the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool hitting just a single driver all week. He claimed the PGA Championship a month later for what was then his 12th major. He won on broken limbs and when nobody thought he ever would again. He won the 2019 Masters aiming away from the pin on the perilous par-3 12th hole after his three closest competitors aimed at it and found Rae’s Creek.
Throughout his career, Woods’ dominance was often likened to that of Michael Jordan. Beyond their Nike clothing and trophies and popularity, the comparison made sense because of the way both evolved their games. Jordan was the ultimate scorer when he entered the NBA but eventually became one of the basketball’s best defensive guards, a big reason his Chicago Bulls won so many championships. Woods eventually matched his prodigious power and strong will with sound strategy, patience, precision and creativity. It was laughable when tournament organizers tried “Tiger-proofing” their courses by adding hundreds of yards to them because they were really only hurting Woods’ competition. Had the NBA raised its rims six inches, you don’t think Jordan would still have been the league’s best player?
This week Woods returns to the game yet again. Unlike legends who came before him, Woods has always said he’ll never become a ceremonial golfer. Which is to say he won’t play tournaments simply for nostalgia. We’ll see about that. In the meantime, it’s OK for us to watch him partly for that reason. To watch someone who for a long time was impossible not to watch, even if he’ll never truly be that guy again. Because one of these times will be the last time.
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2023-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z
2023-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z
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