Hello, friends.
If it is a truth that nothing can match The Masters for sheer self-reverential malarkey, it is also a truth that few sporting events, year after year, can match The Masters for drama and excitement. The 2019 edition of this event may have been the most dramatic of them all, and the old canard that "The Masters never really begins until the back nine Second Nine on Sunday" was never more true than it was today.
The victory of Tiger Woods at the age of 43 - his fifteenth Major, his fifth Masters win, his first Major win since 2008, and his first Masters win since 2005 - was simply amazing. The dramatic ebbs and flows of all of the other contenders on that final nine, which saw names such as Xander Shauffle and Patrick Cantley atop the leader board, albeit briefly, the strange and awful things that can happen to golfers on Augusta National's shortest hole, the Par 3 twelfth, were all on display, and through it all the resolute determination and sheer will of Tiger Woods, not to mention his still remarkable golf skills, shone through like a beacon. It was an amazing thing to watch, and performances and events such is this is why people who follow sports, well, follow sports.
Two comments made by Nick Faldo on the telecast stood out to me. As it became apparent that Woods was likely to win this event, Faldo commented about the generations of younger golfers now on Tour who came of age watching Woods play. Whereas at the height of his powers, Woods would have to fight off the occasional Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, or Davis Love, today, Faldo remarked, Woods was fighting off - and would eventually - overcome an entire field of young guns. Faldo also told the story of how two years ago at the Masters Champions dinner, Woods told him that he doubted that he would ever be able to play golf competitively again, much less win on the sport's biggest stages.
It was a comeback of monumental proportions, and it is doubtful that any sports story that might develop and occur over the course of 2019 will be able to top the story of Tiger Woods' win at this years Masters.
Before writing this post, I went to the Blog search box and typed in "Tiger Woods", and I found sixteen posts that I had written over the years that featured Tiger Woods. Some of them concerned the topic of who might become the "next Tiger". In every one of those, I came to the conclusion that we are never, at least not in my lifetime, ever going to see another Tiger Woods. This weekend's accomplishment confirms that opinion.
Like I said, what we saw today is why we follow sports.
Michael Phelps, the Tiger Woods of Swimming,
follows the ball on Woods' near ace on #16.
Green Jacket #5
"It still fits."
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