Easy TigEr!
Golf’s former world number one has roared back into contention with his first tournament win in five years. Meet the woman everyone’s crediting for his return to form
FOR MORE than a decade Tiger Woods was the biggest name in golf. He dominated every tournament and course he played and no one disputed that he was the greatest golfer of his era. How could they? Even a broken tibia couldn’t stop him winning the 2008 US Open.
But the following year his career derailed in spectacular fashion. His wife of six years Elin Nordegren left him after discovering he had cheated on her with numerous women. Coming as it did just three years after the death of his father Earl Woods, who was not only his coach but also his confidant, the split hit Woods hard. Without the support of Elin or his late father his playing career went into a tailspin.
In May 2016 he dropped out of the world top 500 for the first time in his professional career and at one point tumbled to 876th in the global rankings. In February last year he stopped playing altogether and three months later he was arrested for driving under the influence near his home in Florida.
It seemed Tiger’s illustrious career was over and a bittersweet retirement was beckoning. But to the delight of his legions of fans and the disbelief of everyone else Tiger is back. On Sunday night he won the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake, Georgia, claiming his first major victory in five years despite multiple back injuries.
It is an astonishing return to form in a sport where physical and emotional fitness go hand-in-hand.
So just how has the wayward player turned his life around in so startling a fashion? The answer would appear to be Erica Herman, a petite 33-year-old restaurant manager whom he has been dating for the past year. It is she who is credited with inspiring him to return to the fairway and helping him recover his lost form.
Woods certainly appears to view her as his saviour. After his historic win at the weekend he made a beeline to his girlfriend’s side on the 18th green and burying his head in her neck he could be heard saying: “How about that? Mmmm… love you.”
sHE managed to kiss him in return before he was mobbed by fans thrilled by the result. Since they met last year at his pop-up restaurant The Woods, where she was general manager, Herman has remained guarded about the relationship, which provides a telling insight into the sort of authentic support she has been able to offer him.
Their relationship was first revealed a year ago when she appeared at the Presidents Cup in New Jersey in October wearing a shirt bearing the legend “Player spouse”: an item reserved for wives and girlfriends.
Two days later she was beside him in court as he pleaded guilty to reckless driving, a charge that resulted from police finding him falling asleep in an idling car.
They went officially public with their relationship last November and in December she was photographed on holiday with Woods’ daughter Sam, 11, and son Charlie, nine, on a beach in the Bahamas.
Two months later she left her job at his restaurant – a sign many took to signify that their relationship was now serious. Since then she has supported Woods in tournaments around the world as he has worked on his return to form.
It has taken Tiger the best part of a decade to find lasting happiness again following the end of his marriage to Elin, mother of his two children, in 2010. Things had started to go wrong for him the previous November with claims of an extramarital affair between Woods and Rachel Uchitel, a New York City nightclub manager.
Shortly afterwards he crashed his Cadillac into a fire hydrant outside his house and had to be pulled Daily Express Tuesday September 25 2018 from the vehicle by his wife. Before long claims began to emerge of the player’s involvement in numerous affairs with cocktail waitresses, porn stars and club promoters, among others.
Woods released a statement saying he was taking an “indefinite break” from professional golf and when his wife moved out of their home with their children, Woods checked into a sex addiction clinic. His actions began to catch up with him as advertising doors slammed shut. He was dropped from lucrative endorsement deals with companies including General Motors and AT&T, while consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble stopped featuring him as the face of Gillette razors and shaving products – a metaphor indeed for the tarnishing of his previously clean-cut image.
The following February Woods issued a televised apology for his actions and revealed he had undergone 45 days of therapy. But the declaration couldn’t stop the freefall in his game as injury and ignominy followed. The firing of his longtime caddy Steve Williams came shortly after he withdrew from the 2011 Player’s Championship following yet another injury and by November he was ranked 58 in the world.
Between 2012 and 2015, as he tried to pick up the pieces of his career, he dated alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medallist Lindsey Vonn, a woman with a remarkable physical resemblance to his former wife. He made a brief return to form in March 2013 before undergoing serious back surgery following a career-threatening injury.
VONN has since revealed she found it “really hard” being with the legend due to the scrutiny they experienced as a celebrity couple at the peak of their respective sports. As recently as August last year a hacker broke into her phone and leaked a nude selfie of the player to a website.
When his relationship with Vonn ended the golfer started dating stylist Kristin Smith in November 2016, the year he missed all four major tournaments for the first time after being sidelined for 15 months with injuries.
Perhaps inevitably, with all that was going on professionally, the couple split up in 2017 following allegations that the golfer had been unfaithful to Smith as well.
Yet just the previous month Woods had spoken of his desire to get his life back on track following his fourth major operation since the spring of 2014 to relieve lingering pain in his back and leg.
“When healed I look forward to getting back to a normal life, playing with my kids, competing in professional golf and living without the pain I have been battling so long,” he said.
A toxicology report at the time of his arrest revealed that Woods had five drugs in his system including traces of cannabis and the opioid painkiller Vicodin. “How much more can he take?” asked one sports commentator. “Whatever is left of Woods is beginning to overshadow his achievements. For one of the most decorated and accomplished golfers the game has ever seen, the story of Tiger Woods might not have a happy ending.” But he was writing without knowledge of the Erica effect.
Since meeting the brunette – who appears, refreshingly, to be the polar opposite of the type of woman that Woods previously tended to favour – he has found the emotional stability to make his game world class.
Once again Tiger bright. is burning