By Sean Quinn
We can’t fathom what it is like to be Tiger Woods. We can grasp what talent it takes and what ability it takes to be the greatest golfer in history, but we can’t fully understand what it is like to be that mentally focused.
We can’t comprehend his mentality that always strives for perfection. The mentality that tears down a golf swing that propelled him to 200-plus straight weeks as the number one ranked golfer in the world, and builds it up again as if it were a TLC remodeling project. We haven’t seen any athlete who has the mental capacity of Woods and we probably never will. Tiger Woods won the 69th Masters, his fourth career Masters, differently than any other one of his nine professional major championships by showing us everything he had, strengths and weaknesses. It’s true that he is still an astonishing nine-for-nine in majors after leading or co-leading after 54 holes, but this one wasn’t a lock in the fourth round. The fairways of the back nine at Augusta didn’t serve as a red carpet to Tiger’s green jacket. Woods’ march up the 72nd hole was exactly that, a march of determination, not the usual stroll up to the green where he is wondering how many times he should tip his cap to the crowd rather than figure out how to avoid a playoff.
We all expected Tiger to ease to victory on Sunday, nobody can deny that. After his second and third rounds of shooting 65 and 66, the crowds and viewers watched the fourth round to see how much Tiger would win by, not if he could win. Woods was down by three shots to Chris DiMarco when they began finishing up their third rounds early Sunday morning. The first hole showed everyone what was to come. Woods birdied, playing the hole in textbook fashion and DiMarco was in the trees for most of the hole, scoring a double bogey. By the time they headed into the fourth round, Woods was up three shots. And after Tiger birdied the first two holes to start the final round in the afternoon, extending his lead over DiMarco to four strokes, everyone thought the tournament was over.
Rosie O’Donnell was nowhere to be seen, though, no fat lady had sung. Chris DiMarco, without telling anyone else, decided that he was still in this thing. He was, after all, playing in the final group at Augusta for the second straight year. Had he played the final round in 2004 with anyone other than Mickelson he probably would have won.
This knowledge and experience DiMarco had was right in front of us all, but we were somewhat oblivious to it. No player challenges Tiger Woods. No player has the ability, or more importantly, the mental toughness to hang in there with Tiger Woods. If it were a heavyweight fight, DiMarco would have been gasping for air, his face plastered on the mats back at the third tee box. It was like our old friend Tiger was back on the block and he was going to win, he was supposed to win, and that’s all there was to it.
Then we finally got it. When DiMarco quietly played Woods shot for shot, and when Tiger stumbled, DiMarco took advantage. He never let up on Tiger Woods. DiMarco almost holed an approach shot on 14. Then he birdied 15. Entering the 16th hole, DiMarco was only one shot back. Now everyone was wondering how Tiger could blow this? All of the sudden Jim Nantz, the galleries, the other players, were all just wondering if DiMarco could do it. No one has ever knocked off Tiger on the final round of a major he was leading. Could Tiger falter? Would he crumble facing his first big test with his new swing? Jordan, Ali and Mantle would never have blown an opportunity like this. So many questions we were all wondering.
Then came the shot.
After DiMarco hit a nice approach shot to set himself up for a makeable birdie putt, Tiger punched an 8-iron shot over the green. It was possible that there could be a two shot swing on this very hole. Woods could be down one with two holes left if DiMarco birdied and Tiger bogeyed. Everyone knew it could happen. Tiger had cooled off since his hot start. He had done just enough to keep his lead all day. Then Tiger did what he always does, no matter what type of swing he has, he won. Sure it took a playoff and a heck of a pressure putt to actually seal the deal, but he won his fourth Masters and won everyone over with that chip on 16. Just as Nike had planned it, with the ball pausing on the edge of the cup before rolling in, Tiger won the Masters. And it was over. The fist pump came just as soon as the ball hit the bottom of the cup. The high five with caddy Steve Williams came right after that. And Tiger Woods was back on top of the golfing world.
So maybe he hiccupped with a bogey on 17 and blinked when face to face with putt to win on 18. That’s the Tiger we haven’t seen. The guy who is married, will soon enough be called a dad, and is as rich as his wife is gorgeous. He’s not in his mid-20’s, when he won four straight majors and dominated every player out there. But he still is Tiger Woods. The same Tiger Woods who wins. The same Tiger Woods who will be the closest any of us comes to perfection. The same Tiger Woods who makes you want to pick up a club in your living and pretend your on the fairway at Augusta or just in your own backyard.
So forget all the talk about no wins in the last 10 majors. The guy has more majors than the next top three golfers combined. Some guys have no wins in a lifetime of majors. Just stop to think about how high Woods sits upon this pedestal we’ve created for him. Comparing him to Nicklaus and Palmer even before his second major win. Nicklaus and Palmer comparing him to Nicklaus and Palmer before Tiger even turned pro. Just stop to think about that. Quite an accomplishment right? Now take a deep breathe and realize that Nicklaus won 11 of his record 18 majors after he turned 30, and three of those after he turned 40. So Tiger still has at least 15 more years of great golf left in him. That’s going to be amazing for us and scary for his co-workers.
Tiger will surpass Nicklaus’ records, don’t worry about that. And he will probably change his swing again too. He will have different chapters to his golfing bible, and he turned a new one Sunday at Augusta. Tiger isn’t worried about his critics or if he goes on a slump, so neither should we. He knows he’s going to win and so do we, but he wants to be perfect. If he wants to change his swing after being the most dominant player of the present in order to be the most dominating player of the past or the future, then we should let him. This is the guy who has a mental game on a whole level above his physical game. And he is, after all, still Tiger Woods and he reminded us of that on Sunday.