Tiger Woods plans to play the Masters at Augusta, Georgia, in the US, after recovering from a crippling injury in 2021. Although there’s no confirmation that the golfwill tee-off on Thursday, the news has created a buzz in golfing circles. Here’s a look at the life and career of Woods and his tryst with the Dubai Desert Classic.
Beware the wounded Tiger
Shyam A. Krishna, Senior Associate Editor
The life and times of Tiger Woods have never been short of drama. A Masters winner at 21, back-to-back wins at Augusta (a first in golfing history), 15 majors, numerous extramarital affairs, a divorce, the 2019 Masters win after surgery and a crippling accident last year: these are some of the peaks and troughs of his storied career. A Woods return to Augusta would undoubtedly be another dramatic moment.
Will Woods tee off with South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann at 10.34 am ET Thursday morning? That’s not a certainty. But Woods says he feels like he’s going to play. “I don’t have any qualms about what I can do physically from a golf standpoint,” he said on Tuesday.
It’s the 25th anniversary of Woods historic victory at the 1997 Masters: the first of his five wins at Augusta, Georgia. So the Masters is perhaps the apt tournament for Woods to resume his career after suffering severe leg injuries in a car crash in February 2021.
Woods seems upbeat about his ability to play, but can his body stand up to the rigours of playing four rounds of top-flight golf? It must be. Or else Woods would never attempt it. Because he is too much of a perfectionist. Yet, he worries about his ability to trudge the course for 72 holes.
That also brings up the question: Will he play? Woods will play only if he has a chance to win. The 15-major winner doesn’t play for fun. He doesn’t turn up. He wants to win. Woods admitted. He was asked whether he legitimately thinks he can win? “I do,” was the answer.
No surprise there. For, he is addicted to winning. It’s a champion’s addiction that helped Woods accumulate 82 career PGA Tour wins — the most in history, along with American golfer Sam Snead.
Born Eldrick Tont Woods on December 30, 1975, he was introduced to golf at the age of two by his father, Earl, a single-figure handicap golfer, in Orange County, California. A child prodigy, Woods enjoyed an outstanding college and amateur golf career before turning professional at 20.
A year later, Woods justified the hype by winning the 1997 Masters — the first non-white golfer to win it — by a record 12 strokes after coming to Augusta on the back of three PGA Tour wins. At 24, Woods became the youngest of five golfers to complete the career grand slam — 1997 Masters, 1999 PGA Championship, 2000 US Open, 2000 Open Championship. When he won the 2001 Masters, Woods became the only golfer to hold all four major trophies simultaneously.
In less than a year after turning pro, Woods rose to number one and dominated the first decade of the 21st century. He remained on top for 264 consecutive weeks (August 1999 to September 2004 and June 2005 to October 2010) and won 13 majors.
Scandal and divorce
At the peak of his powers, Woods was embroiled in one of the most infamous sports scandals after a report in 2009 referred to an extramarital affair. As more reports of affairs surfaced, Woods lost significant sponsorship deals, spent 45 days in rehab and took a break until the 2010 Masters.
His six-year marriage disintegrated as Woods and Elin Nordegren divorced on August 23, 2010. That had an adverse effect on his game. Although he continued to win, he was no longer a dominant force. When Woods won the 2019 Masters, it was his first major in 11 years.
Throughout his career, Woods had battled injuries. That hasn’t stopped him. He won the 2008 US Open while carrying two stress fractures and a torn ligament; his 2019 Masters win came two years after a spinal fusion surgery — the fourth of his five back procedures. But last year’s car crash in Los Angeles was the worst. Woods’s leg fractures were so bad that he wasn’t sure of playing the PGA Tour again.
Since then, he has come a long way. Even to contemplate playing the Masters is a big ask. With his “altered” leg, it will be tough to walk on the undulating terrain of a golf course. This is why Woods says that playing golf isn’t the issue; walking the course is a bigger hurdle.
Why does he want to return to big-time golf? Definitely, not money. With career earnings of $2.1 billion, Woods is the second richest sportsman behind basketball legend Michael Jordan ($2.62 billion).
That means Nicklaus’s 18 majors could well be the target. The argument is not without merit, as Woods has been tipped to overtake Nicklaus ever since he broke into the golfing world as a prodigy. Woods is certainly one of the greatest golfers, but a record haul of majors would settle the argument about the best in golf history.
When Tiger prowls the Augusta, the Masters is never beyond his reach. History tells us that.
On reflection: Tiger Woods in Dubai
Nick Tarratt, Special to Gulf News
How many readers in Dubai can remember Tiger Woods playing the Dubai Desert Classic at the Majlis Course of the Emirates Golf Club?
Negotiations to bring Woods to the Dubai Desert Classic began around 2000 when Mark O’Meara finished tied 46th in Dubai. Conversations progressed with the help of O’Meara’s friendship and connections to Woods and their collective management, and it looked as if Tiger and O’Meara would play in Dubai in 2001.
I was then the General Manager of the UAE Golf Association (now the EGF), responsible for the Dubai Desert Classic with a great friend of Dubai, Bob Wilkinson, who is sadly no longer with us.
The deal took no longer than 30 seconds with a conversation with the then chairman of the UAE Golf Association, Mohammed Alabbar. It was a no-brainer to take the tournament from a domestic European Tour event (now DP World Tour) to a truly global tournament, but fees and private jet expenses still had to be found and/or funded. Alabbar was also the vice-chairman of the main sponsor DUBAL (now EGA) at the time, so a fast-track decision was possible.
There was a buzz around the tournament, and it cemented Dubai’s place on the world golf stage. Woods’s visit was extraordinary, with the famous ‘SOLD OUT’ sign positioned outside the entrance to Emirates Golf Club. His participation elevated the tournament. Additional security was involved, and rooms at the official hotel, JA The Resort, Jebel Ali, were converted to gyms to accommodate the world’s number one golfer. Everything had to be right for Woods.
Woods’s first visit was in 2001 when he tied second, two behind then Dubai resident Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), along with Padraig Harrington (Ireland), another player in this week’s Masters. Woods returned in 2004 and tied fifth behind his big buddy Mark O’Meara.
Woods’s Dubai wins in 2006 and 2008 were sandwiched with a tied third in 2007 behind Henrik Stenson. In 2014, he returned for the Champion’s Anniversary edition Dubai Desert Classic to finish tied 41st.
Wood returned again in 2017 and shot 77 in round one, and withdrew from the tournament with back spasms. Many of us thought it would be the last time we would see Woods in a golf tournament anywhere in the world, and retirement seemed inevitable.
How wrong was I? And everyone else! Since then, Woods has added another major and a Green Jacket to his wardrobe with his victory in the 2019 Masters.
What can we expect of Woods this week following his sabbatical from golf following his car crash in 2021? Who knows?
Never write off Tiger Woods, we are so lucky, here in Dubai and the UAE, to have seen him and experienced the ‘Tiger fever!’
It will be a compelling watch!
What’s so special about Woods’s return to Augusta?
Gautam Bhattacharyya, Senior Associate Editor
Kolkata: The suspense over ‘Will he, won’t he?’ is finally over. Tiger Woods has now announced in the customary media conference on Tuesday that he plans to tee off at the Augusta Masters on Thursday - and actually hopes to win it.
Once the hype and the emotions over having the most influential golfer ever back in his natural habitat is over, it will be an even-playing field over the next four days. Expressions of ‘golf needs him’ from his peers will count for nothing as it remains to be seen if his lower right leg, which is knit together with the ‘hardware,’ in Woods’s own words, can withstand the rigours of walking the rolling course over 7510 yards.
It’s only expected in professional sport but then, but the frenzy that one witnessed over the past week of the five-time champion at Augusta coming back to play his first competitive tournament after that crippling accident in February, 2021 leaves one in awe about the man who has nothing more left to prove in his sport. What, exactly, comprises of the importance of being Woods at Augusta Masters?
For starters, he is not even the holder of the highest number of Green Jackets with five titles - that belongs to the legendary Jack Nicklaus with six. Emulating Nickalus’ record with a return to the Tour on what marks his 25th anniversary of that pathbreaking triumph at the Masters in 1997 can be the last word in terms of fairytale comebacks in sport and an amazing sense of occasion - but professional sport doesn’t always guarantee you that. Even if you are a Tiger Woods.
For all of Woods’s superhuman feats on the golf course, his romance with the Augusta has endured over 25 years for varying reasons. This is the course where a 21-year-old coloured American first challenged golf’s elite with a win by 12 strokes - a record which has stood the test of time. He is the only golfer to win it back-to-back, at the height of his prowess, in 2001-2002. e
Only five players have achieved the career Grand Slam of The Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open and The Open Championship - and Woods was just 24 years old when he won The Open Championship in his first attempt in 2000, joining Gene Sarazan, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Nicklaus in the elite club.
Injuries started taking a toll on his body but he won the 2008 US Open with a broken leg and torn knee ligament. It would be more than a decade, and five back surgeries later, before he won his next major title at the 2019 Masters, taking his career tally to 15 - making the Augusta National course a venue which would keep coming back like an encore in a fascinating journey.
The overwhelming response that the 46-year-old received when he played the back nine for a practice round at the venue on Monday - even from the hardcore connoisseurs of the sport who lined up the patrons’ gallery - showed what makes him so special for the venue. Golf has, to put it bluntly, moved on beyond Tiger as injuries and advancing years no longer made him the invincible force that he once was - and it would make him no less an achiever if he fails to add even a single title to his 83 PGA Tours titles, forget a major.
This is where his X-factor lies. This is what one makes the tennis fans pine for one last flourish from Roger Federer, now 40, knowing fully well that it will be a tough ask to add to his 20 slams. This is what made legion of his fans pray that Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal earns a berth for Qatar 2022 despite knowing fully well that they don’t have the depth to go the distance.
One can only hope for Woods to last the course and give his best...anything more will be a huge bonus!
