His Legacy Continues: Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods has returned. Wearing his trademark red shirt and black trousers, Woods showed up to the Masters looking like a winner. Woods showed why he is the G.O.A.T by winning the 2019 Masters Tournament, arguably the world’s most renowned golf tournament.

The news of his win shook the entire world: news sources are still busy reporting the event, while the people watching Woods on TV cannot forget the excitement. Even President Donald Trump congratulated Woods’s win by saying he would award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. One might wonder why everyone was so excited about his win at the Masters.

Before anything else, it’s the enormous charisma that Woods possesses. Viewers are attracted to his charm and gamesmanship, which can only be associated with Woods. Naturally, many patrons who came to the Augusta National Golf Club followed every shot taken by Woods. When his plays came alive, they also came alive. If he was disheartened by his previous shot, they also grew dismayed. It was the same for the people watching him on TV, going through sleepless nights. If he birdied, they yelled alongside him.

Like always, the Masters venue, Augusta National Golf Club, was beautiful. Any scene of the club shown on TV was like a painting that could be put up in the Met. A clear fairway with no blemishes, a sparkling white bunker, lakes clear like a mirror, and a dense forest. The patrons calmly sitting around the green were reminiscent of flowers. At this magnificent place, Woods stayed focused, like a tiger looking for its prey.

81 PGA Tour wins, 15 major titles, and five Masters wins—this brilliant record is almost impossible for anyone else to achieve. Woods is now one win away from tying Sam Snead’s 82 PGA wins, and he is three wins away from golf legend Jack Nicklaus’s 18 Major wins. It is unlikely that we will see another golfer chasing both of these records at the same time.

After his win at the Tour Championship in September 2018, many critics were quick to claim that Woods could not break these records. However, with his win at the Masters, many predict that Snead’s record will be broken, perhaps by the end of 2019. Breaking the 18 Major wins is not impossible. Three of the four Major Tournaments still remain for this season. During his prime in 2000, Woods was able to take home three of the Majors: U.S. Open, British Open, and the PGA Championship in the same year. The following year, he took home the Masters, achieving the “Tiger Slam,” winning all four Majors. But, he split up in two years.

When he three-peated the U.S. Amateur Championships and became a professional back in August of 1996, no one imagined that Woods would be accumulating such accolades. However, just two months after becoming a pro, he won the Las Vegas Invitational, his first PGA Tour win. The following April, he took home the Masters, becoming the youngest and the first black champion. He was only 21. Woods celebrated his win by giving his father, Earl Woods, a warm hug. Former President Bill Clinton called it “the best shot of the day.”

After that, Woods continued increasing his win count. Before this year’s Masters, Woods had 14 wins just in Majors: four in Masters, four in the British Open, two in the U.S. Open, and four in the PGA Championship. Woods’s resume goes on: 12 wins in European, Japanese, and Australian Tours; 14 wins in ‘PGA Grand Slam of Golf’; nine wins in the President’s Cup; and eight wins in the Ryder’s Cup.

Woods was faced with his biggest crisis in 2008. He had to undergo ACL surgery. He was involved in a car accident along with a sex scandal in 2009, and in the following year, he divorced Elin Nordegren. He went through four back surgeries over the course of three years in 2014 and was even arrested for drug abuse in 2017. Not being able to walk or lie down properly, Woods was forced to consider quitting golf. He missed the Masters in 2014 and was cut in the second round of the Phoenix Open in February 2015 with an 11-over-par. People believed that he could not play golf anymore. His world ranking dropped to 1199 in November of 2017.

However, Woods was able to come out of his slump, win the 2018 Tour Championship, and win the Masters seven months later. This is why everyone is so excited about his recent success. Everyone believed that Woods would never be able to achieve similar successes from the past, but he came back with a bang. With this Masters win, he increased both his PGA Tour wins and Majors win count; he made his first comeback at a Major (Woods was in sixth place as the third day ended). It has been 14 years since his last Masters win in 2005, and 11 years since his last Major win in 2008. He also reclaimed his Top 10 spot in the world rankings as the win placed him at sixth place. Going from 1199th to sixth in just a year and five months is something only Woods can do.

Former President Barack Obama congratulated him and said, “Congratulations, Tiger! To come back and win the Masters after all the highs and lows is a testament to excellence, grit, and determination.” Jack Nicklaus also commented, “I am so happy for him and for the game of golf.”

The struggles Woods had to go through were clearly shown during his winner’s interview. “Just to come back here and play as well as I did…means so much to me and my family. It’s something I’ll never ever forget,” Woods said.

Tiger Woods will continue to break new records in the future. And with Woods back in the pack, the golf world just got a little more interesting.