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Let's go get the facts.
Tiger Woods won the championship on Sunday. It was five years ago that he had won the last time, 1,876 days, to be exact. He did it. To put things in order, he did it during the final tournament of the season against the best players in the world, all in good shape.
D & # 39; AGREEMENT. Now, zoom out.
Before being reinstated in April 2017 – his fourth back surgery, Tiger Woods was not injured. He was broken.
"For a good part of four to six months, I had to be helped to get out of bed every day," he told ESPN during an interview early in the week. year. "And there were days when you helped me and I could not get up, I would have to fall or stay in bed."
Living for Woods was a pain.
You would be forgiven for thinking that it was over. Woods agreed.
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Nick Faldo, golf legend, told a story that, at the height of his back pain, Woods whispered to another champion at Master's dinner: "I'm done, I will not play golf anymore." ".
A year ago, the headlines sounded that Woods had been medically allowed to twist his back on half a spin and golf balls. He could still move. That was the good news.
And now, a victory.
OK, let's go back
Let's go to the promised moment in the title.
The 15th hole at the East Lake Golf Club. Woods is in place – things seem to be under control – but the wheels are starting to shake. The green of the par-3ème 15 is surrounded by water. Woods makes an iron fly and –swallowHe looks short. But, no, it lacks accuracy in the drink. Inches of disaster. A breeze away from failure.
And damn if it does not look like days of glory. Without the iPhones, it could be 2000. Stoic and staring at the wood, Woods goes to the green. A killer, even at the door of a victory that nobody – not even Tiger himself – could imagine last year. Fans are looking for an angle, to get a glimpse. Songs from: TIGER, TIGER, TIGER. Everyone pulls for him. Everyone reaches out to touch him. Maybe feel the moment. Maybe to give Tiger strength.
Tiger Golf Channel Tracker, a person who anonymously follows and comments every shot of Woods, tweets: "Do you remember when he was a big fan and you were having fun? Yeah, forget about it.
But then, a funny thing. This is not suddenly in 2000. We are in 2018 and Tiger gives in a bit, smiling just a touch. His ball is out of the water, he is about to win the victory and, by God, he has fun there.
Tiger Tracker quickly follows: "Ahahaha Nevermind He broke the character, good for you, T. Enjoy the walk."
Tiger Woods, in the heat of the action … happy?
Becoming the most dominant golfer is an exercise in suffering. Of course, he can, sometimes, be fun. Winning is good. But from birth, Woods had a club in his hands. It was a tool. And he pounded him – becoming a master craftsman – scathing golf balls in the night sky, long after everyone had gone home. Most people can play golf. It's the muscle memory and the practice and the training of your body to perfectly repeat a movement. And, yes, talent and athletic ability matter when you compete on the PGA Tour, but there is some truth to the nature of golf. If you are willing to suffer, if you can sacrifice, it will reward you.
Woods has been rewarded by the hand. Woods was smiling with trophies and screaming with joy but it was, in some ways, joyless – it was a big man to fulfill the destiny assigned to him. All the others were there to lose and, sadly, rejoice, they lost.
Before Sunday, Tiger Woods had won the PGA Tour 79 times. There have been great victories. Dominant wins. Shocking wins.
But there will never be another victory like the 80th. This is singular
Because another Tiger Woods has won.
He was a man whose life – by faults only his own – had disintegrated in the most public way possible. A broken man. A man who – suffering and taking a cocktail of prescription drugs – was found driving a car last year. A man without swing and without the unshakeable swagger that led to 79 wins.
Old Tiger Woods was a myth. It was a grim and scary concoction in hell on the golf course – but when that myth fell from the sky, it almost broke the man behind him. Then he got hurt and everything was lost. It took a descent, a merger and a bucket of acceptance to rebuild.
But now, the new Tiger Woods has won. But perhaps more importantly, he can pick up his children. He can play nine holes quickly for the better.
"I can play golf with my friends," he told ESPN. "That missed me so much."
The last 79 wins have been felt by Woods, without a doubt. The 80th felt miraculous.
Another moment, really fast.
The 18th hole Sunday. Tiger has two shots. He drives his course in the fairway, which essentially wins him. The catastrophe was now out of play and the catastrophe – an apparition in the corner of our eyes, slightly fuzzy – was all that could rob Woods of the moment that had escaped him for half a decade.
He goes down the fairway and the crowds fall behind him. Like a piper. Thousands and thousands of people rush to see it happen.
"It's something," Woods was seen tell his gaming partner, Rory McIlroy.
And that was. That was always the case. But Tiger could see it, maybe for the moment.
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