“Tiger, tiger burning bright, in the forest of the forest of the night.”
To borrow from William Blake’s 1794 poem, The Tyger, yet Tiger Woods once again made golf ever so bright thanks to a thrilling win down at the Masters to claim his fifth title and 15th overall.
Move over, Virginia Cavaliers, as the man many credit for bringing golf back to prominence claim the throne of greatest Cinderella comeback story ever.
On a Sunday in which many around the world were counting down the hours till the eighth and final season of HBO’s epic Game of Thrones, the 43-year-old former golf prodigy from Stanford reclaimed his old throne and glory in perhaps the most watch golf match in recent memory.
Like his animal namesake, Woods stormed back from two holes behind Francesco Molinari of Italy, after he found the water in front of the short 12th. His birdie on the long 15th and another on a short 16th would be met with thunderous “Tiger!, Tiger!” roars from his glorious heydays of years past.
There was no doubt who everyone came to see, as every swing and every put was met with loud applause and collective gasps from the crowd. Not bad for a man, who for a period of time was considered done after a serious injury in 2014 and undergoing career-saving spine fusion surgery in 2017.
With his first-ever win after trailing going into the final round, Woods is now second all-time to fellow American Jack Nicklaus. His 14-year gap between Masters win was longest in tournament history, and at the age of 43, Woods becomes the oldest champion since the aforementioned Nicklaus in 1986.
In winning his fifth overall green jacket, Woods now sits one behind Nicklaus, who has six.