Thousands upon thousands of fans followed every move on Monday and Wednesday, with Tuesday’s heavy rains interrupting the Love Festival and creating a remarkable and scary scene at the same time. Remarkable, of course, because Woods could have been killed when he destroyed his SUV south of Los Angeles less than 14 months ago, and he could have lost his right leg to amputation due to the horrific injuries he sustained. Scary because the graphics of the practice round proved once again how much golf still desperately needs a marked and battered 46-year-old who walks in this arena with the face of an old man. When Woods first appeared as a college kid in the mid-1990s, golf was a fringe, country club sport best known for its embarrassing history of exclusion. Woods changed everything, eliminating the pitch with unprecedented power and precision. With the muscles and massive acclaim of Arnold Palmer, and the determination and ability of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger became the first golfer to become the most recognizable athlete in the world. The game drove this wave and lasted for a lifetime through scandal, surgeries, roadside police video, more surgeries, and even accident. Golf would never be as popular as football, baseball and basketball in this country, but Tiger Woods made it feel, at times, as big as the NFL’s biggest Sunday. There was real hope that a new generation of athletes – inspired by Woods – would leave the courts and diamonds and courts to take golf to new heights. Tiger Woods starts at MastersGetty Images Although Rory McElroys, Brooks Koepkas and Dustin Johnsons have brought more sport to the game, this revolution has not happened. Coby Bryant and then LeBron James were there to transport the NBA after Michael Jordan took his ball and went home. Golf has its share of promising new players, but I do not see any Kobes or LeBrons. I do not see any Tigers, except the one who thinks he can win this one-legged tournament. Once upon a time, I did not think that any superstar golfer could be bigger than the Masters themselves. Augusta National is Wrigley Field meets Fenway Park, the only championship venue that never changes and never disappoints. The feeling of the sun and the view of the greenest grass and the whitest sand can have a profoundly refreshing effect on a northeast that has been worn by another long winter. But Woods proved me wrong. I have covered Masters with and without him in the field, and the difference in experience is the difference between a dusty, ragged par-3 in your local muni and the 12th hole in the Amen Corner. As he practiced the seventh hole Monday, Jon Rahm saw the gallery watching the Woods, Fred Couples and Justin Thomas team walk into the second hole and said, “I have never seen such a large crowd, not even a Sunday in conflict.” . Thomas, one of the best players on the planet, walked next to this gallery for nine holes and said, “I had some friends send me some pictures. [Monday] at night, and there are probably more people than have ever seen me play a round at Augusta National and they were not there to watch me. “ Tiger WoodsGetty ImagesTiger Woods walks the path to Augusta.Getty Images He was there to watch the Tiger because even at this age, even in this situation, he surpasses everything for the game he plays. In other words, no sport has ever needed an athlete more than golf and it needs Tiger Woods. Jordan promoted professional basketball worldwide, but Magic Johnson and Larry Byrd had already saved the NBA late at night, delayed from the pre-MJ irrelevance movie long before Cobby and LeBron dominated the social media era. after MJ. Tom Brady helped notarize the NFL as a must-see TV show, but Aaron Rogers and Patrick Machomes came in behind him as improvised geniuses in the most visible position in professional football. Nick Faldo and Greg Norman preceded Woods, and McIlroy, DJ and Jordan Spieth reached the back of his nine acne. Legitimate stars, no doubt, but as champions and public figures who do not belong to the largest Tiger team. “On Monday, I have never seen anything like it,” the couple said on Wednesday. “I was in the last group here, I won here. … I have photos [from Monday] which I will probably have made. They do not concern me. It’s just the gallery people sent me… [from] No. 8, No. 7 back in the corner, and there [fans] 10 deep. “So they wanted to see the big one, they saw him and they saw good golf. “It’s unbelievable.” And scary at the same time. So at 10:34 a.m. Thursday morning, when the 15-time Grand Champion and 82-time Tour winner starts with Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann, the entire golf world will stop and watch and roar. This sport will keep Tiger Woods for as long as he can, because there is no one else like him approaching from behind.
