20 years since historic Masters win, Woods’ impact, despite injuries and infidelities, still felt

ground to our chapters because an African-American, specifically Tiger, had achieved the level of succss on the PGA Tour and in golf.”

While Barrow says that Woods’ impact has waned (after all there is just one African-American on the PGA Tour, Harold Varner III), “I don’t think any athlete has the impact that they had when they were at their peak. It’s not just Tiger. Any athlete has that ebb and flow.”

Conrad Ray, the current head golf coach at Stanford University, Woods’ alma mater, was a teammate of Woods during their Cardinals’ playing days − “I carried a lot of luggage back then,” Ray jokes. Having just finished his 12th season at Stanford, Ray says Woods’ impact on the collegiate golf scene was gigantic when Ray first started coaching, and that Woods’ shadow still looms large.

“A lot of kids that I was directly recruiting were brought to the game because they grew up watching Tiger on the weekends,” says Ray. “He had a massive influence on the college game and junior golf, and it has continued. He’s still at the top of the totem pole in the golf world, for sure. Any collegiate player or coach or parent around the college game, you have to be into the craft. I think if you’re into the craft, you’re a fan and you appreciate how intriguing Tiger’s story has been and the impact he’s had.”

Steranka says Tiger’s reach stretched to all corners of the sport when he was at his peak.

“No golfer in the modern era quite crossed over the generational, gender, racial lines the way Tiger did,” says Steranka. “As a result, column inches grew, television ratings doubled, the Internet, which came along later in his career, became fascinated with him. Doubling television ratings led to a doubling of rights fees, a doubling of purses, so the PGA Tour players enjoyed those riches, but so did every golf business at that time.”

lll Rocco Mediate, who dueled with Woods in that ’08 U.S. Open before Tiger emerged victorious in a playoff, says that Woods’ biggest problem now is fixing his swing.

“I don’t think he’s finished. I may not know everything that’s going on, but he can’t possibly be done. As of now, he’s just not ready yet. If he figures out what’s causing the problem and he fixes it, his body will respond better,” says Mediate. “It’s a 100% the golf swing. His golf swing − it’s not horrid − it’s just putting stress on certain places that he can’t have stress on. It’ll keep breaking.”

Mediate, who has battled back woes over the years, now endorses Osteo Bi-Flex medication for joint pain, and Mediate says he would recommend Woods use it, too. At this point, how could it get any worse for Woods’ physical ailments? “It makes it easier to do everyday life and the life that I lead,” says Mediate.

Bill Harmon, a golf pro and the younger brother of Woods’ first swing coach, Butch Harmon, says that even if Woods does get healthy, “his best years are behind him.”

“How long can he accept playing poorly?” asks Harmon.

But even if Woods is never able to flip the switch back on, and the TV ratings or frenzy around golf majors never reach the levels from the ’90s and early 2000s, Tiger will always be Tiger. The name will stand the test of time.

“For a period, he was bigger than his sport,” says Faldo. “There is no comparison. Tom Brady is not bigger than the NFL, (David) Beckham is not bigger than soccer and (Roger) Federer is not bigger than tennis.”