Why Tiger Woods still means so much to so many

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Golf doesn’t do field stormings. Patrons tend to hold themselves to somewhat higher standards — or somewhat more restrained expressions of emotion — than college students. Politely applaud achievement from outside the ropes, that’s the customary golf way. 

Except for September 23, 2018. On that day, the final day of the 2017 Tour Championship, the golf world did indeed see a field storming. As Tiger Woods walked up the 18th green at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, just a few steps away from his first victory in five years, the gallery burst right through the flimsy barrier of rope and decorum. Thousands followed in Tiger’s wake, a reverential congregation delirious with joy, gratitude and communion wine in the form of $15 beers. 

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The delirium that ran through the crowd on that afternoon at East Lake was the kind of communal disbelief that sends college students pouring out of the stands after a shocking upset. It’s the kind of transcendent joy that comes when you’ve seen victory so unlikely you didn’t even dare believe in it, when you can’t believe you’re lucky enough to be a part of it all. It’s why people hold their phones high when rushing onto the playing surface; you want to hold onto this moment as long as you can, because deep down you know that even if a victory like this happens again, it won’t feel like this one.

Woods did win again after that 2018 Tour Championship, capturing an even more impressive achievement by winning the Masters seven months later. (No one dared storm the 18th at Augusta.) Tag on one more did-that-really-happen win in October 2019 at the Zoso Championship in Japan and, well … that’s it to date for Tiger Woods victories. 

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Since that magnificent September afternoon in 2018, Woods has spent far more time on the operating table than in the winner’s circle. Over the weekend, as he was recovering from one catastrophic injury (ruptured Achilles), he announced he’d undergone surgery to repair a collapsed disc in his back. We’re not orthopedic surgeons, but that doesn’t seem like the kind of surgery — the seventh that Woods has had on his back alone — that allows for a quick return to the links. 

The full list of Woods’ injuries is, frankly, stunning in its scope. Golf Digest prepared — or, more likely, just updated — a graphic listing all the procedures Woods has endured in his career. Consider that almost any one of these would sideline normal humans for weeks, months, or years, and then remember that Woods has fought his way back from virtually all of them:

Maybe that’s why the golf world greeted the news of Woods’ latest surgery with grim resignation. OK, so, maybe he’s not ready to play with Charlie this December at the PNC Classic, but with a bit of rehab he can tee it up next spring at Augusta … 

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We know how unlikely it is that Woods will ever play again at a competitive level. And still, we hope, because golf has a way of gifting its fans with these one-last-ride happy endings. Jack Nicklaus at Augusta in 1986 remains the standard, the Sunday that made our fathers and grandfathers weep even if we didn’t understand why at the time. Tiger at Augusta in 2019. Phil Mickelson in 2021 at the PGA Championship, inspiring a field storming of his own at Kiawah Island (sand storming?) that, in retrospect, was the last high point of his career. Hell, Nicklaus made the cut in a major in the 21st century. (T54 in the 2000 Masters at age 60. It’s true.) 

We hold onto these moments, because to admit the Tiger Woods train has come to a full stop is to give in to the passage of time. Woods seemed — hell, was — so untouchable, so invulnerable, so unbeatable in his prime that it seemed impossible he’d ever falter. And he recovered so many times from so many little injuries that every new one seemed to be just another speed-bump to be navigated and put behind him. 

Everyone — fans, media, sponsors, the majors, the PGA Tour, the entire golf-industrial complex as a whole — has invested so much for so long in Tiger Woods, it’s still daunting to imagine what the sport will be like without him.

At some point, though, the hard numbers start to add up. Woods will be 50 later this year, an age where he’d struggle to keep up with the current game even if he was in perfect health. He hasn’t won a tournament since before the pandemic. He hasn’t made the cut in all four majors in a year since 2013. He hasn’t made the cut in any non-Masters major since the 2020 PGA Championship. Time and the surgeon’s knife are doing what generations of players couldn’t, bringing Woods down to earth at last. 

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And yet, no matter how realistic we are about the numbers, the recovery prospects, every single Tiger Woods fan still keeps alive a tiny flicker of possibility, a candlelight of If anyone can do it… The other option — sad acceptance — is too grim to contemplate.  If Father Time can bring down even Tiger freaking Woods, what chance do the rest of us have?

Even though we know it’s never coming around again, we keep hoping for one more run up the leaderboard. One more victory. One more chance to walk the fairway alongside Tiger Woods, on one more triumphant Sunday. Wouldn’t that be great?

This news was originally published on this post .

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