YE Yang to play in NZ Open
guess, hello world, huh.’’ Twenty years after he shyly uttered those famous words, ‘the Chosen One’ has again set foot on a golf course. Resurrected by the Ryder Cup, and how ironic is that, the second coming of Tiger Woods is upon us. He will turn 41 at the end of this month but, heck, old man Woods looks as if he may have another major within him.
Even the week’s setting seemed charged with meaning. Did Tiger really return among us at a place called New Providence? Or was it just a rich man’s marina, full of yachts and super cruisers, in the Bahamas? There has always been that ambivalence about Tiger.
So was this comeback the real thing? Stunningly, there were times over the previous few days when the flow he had through the driver, the club that wrecked so many of his later years, reminded you of when Tiger was a kid coming out on tour.
After three spinal surgeries and 466 days away, Woods is once more able to turn his back to golf like the boy he used to be. Maybe finding that kid again is the secret. Tiger says he is never happier that when he can go out on the golf course in Jupiter, Florida, and just potter about in the gloaming. It brings it all back home.
He says: ‘‘I love going out there in the evening by myself. That’s one of the happiest times I can ever experience. It brings back all the great times I had with my dad ... We’d go back in the corner, on No 6, way back there in the corner ... and we’d be on the tee back there just hitting golf balls, not saying a word to each other. Going out in the evenings brings me back to that happy place.’’
Woods certainly looks far more at ease with himself. He was touched when this year’s American Ryder Cup team lined up in T-shirts, found by Zach Johnson, with the message, ‘Make Tiger Woods Great Again’.
It might have seemed like an insult to the old Tiger, but he was genuinely moved by the show of support. These days Tiger’s ambition is to play golf for the rest of his life – professionally, with his mates or alone of an evening, he just wants to be able to play.
He told Time magazine at the end of last year: ‘‘The most important thing, though, is that I get to have a life with my kids. That’s more important than golf. I’ve come to realise that now … Now I know what my dad felt like when we’d go out there and play nine holes in the dark.’’
Some sportsmen never find that out. There are very few like Nico Rosberg who can win the world championship for the first time and then say: ‘‘I am done. End of story, and the next step is being a dad and a husband and I am very much looking forward to that.’’
I cannot ever remember observing Tiger Woods and thinking that he was truly happy. Even now some of the old Tiger is still in there, the guy who now insists that he wasn’t obsessed with Jack Nicklaus record number of major wins, but with his ‘youngest’ landmarks; and ‘‘I beat them all, I beat them all.’’
But, over the past few days in the Bahamas, Woods looked like a man who was genuinely feeling the evening sun warm his soul. When Dan Hicks and David Feherty teased him for a failed club twirl, Woods could laugh and say: ‘‘I played that well and you show me that. Come on.’’
Tiger no longer seems burdened by proving his immortality. And there were mistakes out there. He duffed a chip on his final round. In the third round he had also run a chip up a bank from a re-seeded area, when from the same spot Hideki Matsuyama had clipped the ball up and over the bank. There is some scar tissue in Tiger’s mind.
And he was the first to admit; ‘‘Made a lot of birdies, made a lot of mistakes. I made some poor decisions, missed the ball in some wrong spots ... Quite frankly it feels a little bit weird not to play in a cart.’’
No-one knows better than Woods that, right now, his bad isn’t good enough. He has told us, ‘‘The game of golf is about eliminating your mistakes. How bad is your bad.’’
He never came to terms with the final hole of the Albany course. On the first day he put a driver in the water. On the final day, he chickened out of rotating through the 3-wood and splayed it right, saying, ‘‘Oh, s**t.’’ There are holes in Tiger’s head.
But he made the most birdies in the tournament. The old Scotty Cameron putter with which he won 13 of his 14 majors was releasing sweetly. He was able to control the trajectory of his irons. There was so much to celebrate, not least the pure happiness that Woods felt at times, competing again, with the world roped off, at peace inside.
His former coach Hank Haney said: ‘‘I definitely think he wins again and wins another major, maybe more if he doesn’t start yipping chips again.’’
Who among us is not now looking forward to the Masters with a heightened anticipation? Who among us is not now looking forward to the US Open at Erin Hills where the Wisconsin cheeseheads will rock up from Milwaukee with a bellyful of brew? Then we shall really find out how at peace Tiger is.
But not so long ago Woods was practising in the back garden when he hit the nerve in his back. He lay on the ground unable to move. The cell-phone was out of reach. Then his daughter Sam comes out and wondered why daddy is lying on the ground.
So it is a happy wonder to see Tiger Woods standing so tall again. Korea’s YE Yang, the first Asianborn male golfer to win a major, will play at the New Zealand Open in Queenstown next March.
Organisers confirmed that Yang, known as ‘The Tiger Killer’ after his victory over Tiger Woods at the 2009 US PGA Championship, will compete at the ISPS Handa New Zealand Open to be staged at Millbrook Resort and The Hills.
Yang, who has enjoyed 11 victories as a professional over the last two decades, has amassed more than NZ$15 million in prizemoney around the globe, having played on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, the Japan Golf Tour and the Asian Tour.
His involvement in the 98th New Zealand Open brings his career full circle, after the Korean ventured to this country for several years to hone his skills before turning professional in 1996.
Yang is self-taught, moving to New Zealand as a 21-year-old after working in the construction industry and after completing his military service.
Yang turned professional at 24 in 1996, with his breakthrough coming a decade later with his fourth win on the Japan Golf Tour followed by victory in the Korea Open and the HSBC Champions event, co-sanctioned with the European Tour.
He made his way on to the PGA Tour in 2008 but was forced to return to qualifying school the following year.
That paved the way for a remarkable 2009 with a breakthrough win at the Honda Classic. Later that year he secured a brilliant three-shot win in the 91st US PGA Championship, the first time that Woods had not won a major when leading after 54 holes.
Also confirmed for the tournament are leading New Zealand professionals Ryan Fox and Michael Hendry, both coming off their best 12 months in the game.
Woods looked like a man who was genuinely feeling the evening sun warm his soul. Tiger no longer seems burdened by proving his immortality.