March 28, 2024

He’s officially back

I wasn’t sure what was going to get me out of my funk that set in after Iowa blew its football game Saturday night. The game was just disappointing in so many ways and with a front row seat for it all, it was hard to not be affected.

A couple of rays of light came from the Cubs winning both games Saturday and Sunday and the Bears getting a victory over the Cardinals to go 2-1 for the season. Now only five games from winning the division and two games from securing the wild card, the Cubs are on the upswing for postseason.

Even with those teams posting Ws, the game was still looming in my mood. I had one final hope for the weekend to pull me out of the stupor.

Like most golf tournaments, the tour championship for the PGA started Thursday. It had an abbreviated field, whittled down after weeks of tournaments to find out who the best of the best are.

I glanced at the leader board throughout the day Thursday and saw Tiger Woods, my all time favorite golfer, was doing well. It wasn’t the first time he had a good start this year, but in other tournaments he just didn’t sustain the lead.

As Friday rolled around he kept moving up, or down depending on how you look at it, and by the end of play Saturday he was sitting with a three shot lead. For what I think was the first time this year, Tiger was in the final pairing Sunday, primed to win his first tournament in five years.

I have been a fan of Tiger for more than two decades. I watched as he won his first Masters, rolled over the competition for 10 plus years, had a fall from grace because of his personal life and underwent major medical procedures that left him wondering if he would even swing a club again.

During the later part of his career, where he wasn’t actually playing, I tried to continue to follow golf, but the magic wasn’t there. I like Phil Mickelson a lot and have learned to enjoy some of the younger guys, but really, I just didn’t care.

When Tiger announced he would start playing in a tournament here and there to work his way back on the tour, I was very excited. I watched, trying to keep my expectations low and just enjoy that he was playing again.

The first couple of tournaments were a little rough but there were glimpses of the greatness I had become accustom to during his high points.

As the season progressed, he continued to finish higher on the leader board and even had the lead in a few tournaments. A victory was just not meant to be and he couldn’t quite put a complete four days together to pull out the win.

When he teed off on hole number one Sunday, I was holding my breath, just hoping it didn’t all fall apart on the next 18 holes. He proceeded to birdie several holes and climb, at one point, to a five stroke lead. The golfer in second posted his score, which brought him within three of Tiger with three holes left.

Tiger posted two bogeys on the final four holes bringing his lead to two with two holes left. The sweat was building in my palms and my hands were trembling a bit as he worked to finish out the tournament. It had been so long since I saw Tiger win, I really wasn’t sure if it would happen again.

He parred the 17th, leading to an almost certain victory, with hole 18 a par 5. I have seen Tiger play in a lot of tournaments, including dozens of majors, but I have never witnessed what took place as he walked the fairway to the 18th green. Hundreds of fans began following him, surrounding him with each step he took, in what became a wave of people looking to see Tiger take the final step and claim a long-awaited victory.

He didn’t quite get the picture perfect birdie ending and settled for a two-putt and a gigantic sigh of relief. In his post round interview he said it took a lot for him not to cry as he walked up to the green leading to him getting a little emotional as he talked about his road back from not being able to walk to claiming his 80th tour win.

For all that he is, I still love watching him play. It is just exciting, makes me happy and reminds me of when I was cheering for him to win his first green jacket all those years ago. I can’t wait for this weekend and the Ryder Cup, but I might have to DVR it, since a 2 a.m. Paris start time doesn’t quite fit into my sleep schedule.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com