Tiger Woods has had plenty of time to reflect on his career and life.
Tiger learning a lot about himself along the comeback trail
100TH PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
ST. LOUIS — Tiger Woods still needs to prove he can go the distance. His comeback can be considered complete once he finally makes it all the way from the first tee Thursday to the trophy presentation Sunday. For now, it all still is a journey. He is back at a place that reminds him that journeys have their own rewards.
Woods was here at Bellerive Country Club, site this week of the 100th PGA Championship, for a World Golf Championships tournament on Sept. 11, 2001. He was playing a practice round with Mark Calcavecchia when everyone on the grounds learned of the attacks. Golfers stayed around for another day before tournament officials decided to cancel the event. Without any flights available, players all scattered in their own ways. Woods chose to go the distance in a car, alone. No hotel stays, no dinner, just a few stops to get gas and use the restroom.
“Seventeen hours to get back home to Florida,” he said Tuesday, “and it was a very surreal time on that drive. A lot of reflecting.”
Mostly, he reflected on the Tiger Woods Foundation — an organization set up to introduce youngsters to golf — and what might have happened to it if he had been in the World Trade Center or aboard one of those planes.
“Well, we wouldn’t really be anything,” he said, recalling his conclusion, “because we were basically what I called a traveling circus. We would raise a bunch of money, be there for one week and be gone for 51.”
By the time he pulled into his garage in Isleworth, he had decided the foundation should be designed to help kids prepare for life in general. Before the month was out, he had a lease on a building in Anaheim and a blueprint for a learning center.
“So, that one drive changed the directive of my foundation,” he said.
Discovering limitations
Since then, Woods has had many chances to reflect on his own life, particularly his missteps.
One of his major conclusions was how much golf means to him. So, at 42 and requiring respites like the one Monday that was devoted to rest and an ice bath, he is making the trek from back fusion surgery and trying to get back on top of the hill. He came close at the most recent major, leading the British Open during the final round before falling into a tie for sixth.
“I know how to play the game of golf,” he said. “It’s just, what are my limitations going to be? As the year has progressed, I’ve learned some of those things.”
Rory McIlroy, who will play with Woods and defending champion Justin Thomas on Thursday and Friday, said, “Well, first of all he had to learn how to move again. He had to learn how to swing. Geez, I mean, 18 months ago, the guy couldn’t walk. He just had his fourth back surgery, so to get to this point is a phenomenal
achievement already.”
To be sure, there are people who have had their fill of Woods and all of the attention he receives. At the same time, many others cannot seem to get enough of him. As McIlroy said of his threesome this week, “You just have to accept that 75 percent of the people who are out there watching are watching one guy in that group and that’s it.”
Losing the fear factor
Francesco Molinari acknowledged that Woods was “a model and an idol for me growing up,” but was unfazed about having been in the same twosome at Carnoustie last month. Molinari didn’t blink and didn’t make a bogey and won the Claret Jug.
Knowing that he does not intimidate his competitors is part of the journey for Woods. In effect, it began at this tournament nine years ago, when Y.E. Yang stared him down and won the Wanamaker Trophy.
“Y.E. outplayed me and so it goes,” Woods said. “This is another PGA Championship, and hopefully I can put myself back up there again.”