‘He’s matured… and developed as a father and as a friend’
It was one of the most heartwarming scenes golf has witnessed. Tiger Woods, the man who seemed so private that he’d be reluctant to tell you the time of day, hugging his two children, Charlie and Sam, behind the 18th green, where he was also greeted by his mum, Kultida.
“He’s really matured over the last few years and a lot of it had to do with the fact that he had to deal with his human side,” observed Notah Begay, a close friend and former team-mate of Woods at Stanford University. “When you’re injured and hurt and the future is sort of uncertain, you start to ask yourself a variety of different questions and I think he came up with some really great answers and started to put a lot of his time into other things that were of interest to him.
“I think it really helped him develop as a father, as a friend and you saw at the end Charlie and Sam wanted to be next to their dad.
“Jokingly, throughout the last year or so, he would talk about them not having ever seen him play at the highest level.
“He gave them a little glimpse into it at the end of last year at the Tour Championship and an even bigger glimpse into it today.”
Begay, a former PGA Tour player, spent a lot of time with Woods as he recovered from his various back surgeries.
“I think the one telling thing to me was that he never wanted to talk about the end,” he added.
“He never wanted to talk about this window that was closing on him, that many of us in the world of golf thought was beginning to signify that he wasn’t going to be able to play at a high level again, much less win a major championship.
“I know that sometimes he would have questions about how far he could come back and whether or not to even decide to pursue it.
“But, when he decided to pursue it, I think he just left the outcome as an unknown and wanted to put his best foot forward, put everything into it and this is what you get – the guy’s just a remarkable athlete.”