An Oral History of Tiger Woods' Magical Fifth Masters' Victory
Where were you when it happened? Tiger Woods, 43 last April and 11 years removed from his last major-championship victory, turned doubters into believers again by winning his fifth Masters green jacket in the most emotional final day at Augusta National Golf Club since a 46-year-old named Jack Nicklaus won his sixth in 1986. We interviewed 34 of the key figures and observers in the hours, days, weeks and months after Woods’ powerfully poignant triumph. Even those gutted by Woods’ latest magic—and there were a lot of them so close to winning that day—professed feelings of wonder, grateful to have witnessed history. Here are their stories on what went on beyond the roars.
Prologue: The Long Way Back After Surgery
CURTIS STRANGE (on Woods’ spinal-fusion surgery in 2017): The consensus after that was that Tiger would never win another major. But you never say never.
ROCCO MEDIATE (who also has a history of back problems): If he had come back with the same golf swing he had before the injuries, you never would have heard of him again. But I was watching his tournament in the Bahamas, and I watched one swing, and I went, Oh, somebody figured it out. The club isn’t behind him. He’s not up and down as much. All of a sudden, now the back will hold.
PETER KOSTIS: His swing now is constructed to take pressure off his back. He used to control the club with his hands and arms; his body followed that swinging motion. Somewhere around the end of Hank Haney [as Woods’ teacher] and the beginning of Sean Foley, Tiger started to “body” his swing. He got more physical. He generated his arm swing through his body motion, rather than the other way around. And that’s when he lost his way. That’s when he hit a lot of foul balls. Since the last surgery, he has gone back to swinging his arms again. He lets his body accommodate itself to his arm swing. In that way, he was swinging in 2019 the way he swung in 1997, albeit with a different body and effort level.
FRANK NOBILO (CBS): Once the surgery took, he didn’t take as many risks. Go back to the [2018] Open Championship at Carnoustie. Oddly enough, none of us really agreed with his strategy—it appeared too conservative. He was more than a decade removed from winning a major championship. The other guys had watched, and they were a decade better, and they’re all playing aggressively. He just kept plugging away. So I think what he got out of Carnoustie was the fact that that type of golf, as proven in the Nicklaus era, would still work in the heat of the moment.
THOMAS BJORN: I thought the first 27 holes he played on the weekend at Carnoustie were the most telling indications that he was back. I remember thinking, Hang on—I know this guy. (...)
Foreshadowing A Big Final-Round Putt
TIGER WOODS: The one smart decision I think we really made was on Tuesday, when it just hosed down rain. All the guys who went out and played said it was useless to go out there because it was gonna be so much faster come Thursday. I just did drill work and worked on technique.
JOE LACAVA: Wednesday, we did nine with Fred [Couples] and JT [Justin Thomas]. You might not have heard the story, but the pin on No. 9 [in the final round] was basically out there on Wednesday, the same location. Tiger dropped one on the back of the green [about 70 feet from the hole] and challenged JT to a little putting contest, closest to the pin. So we basically hit the same putt on Wednesday that we did on Sunday. I mean, you can putt that thing off the green. You could leave it up top, which means you’re going to make a 5 or 6. Wednesday, it’s a pretty easy putt. Not on Sunday. You’ve got to barely carry the ridge to trickle it down there, and he did [to within a foot]. Amazing putt, really.
A Good Start
Woods shoots a first-round 70—matching his opening score in three of his four previous Masters wins—and was T-11, trailing co-leaders Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka by four strokes. The last Masters winner outside the top 10 after the first round had been Woods, who was T-33 and seven strokes behind Chris DiMarco after the opening 18 in 2005.
JOE LACAVA: It’s nice to get off to a good start by hitting that first fairway. It sounds weird—every hole counts just as much as the others. Make a good drive on 1, which might not be his favorite driving hole, and knock it safely on the green. A no-sweat 20-foot two-putt par is kind of nice, you know what I mean? He just had this demeanor about him, but he was still in a mood where he could talk to people and say hello. He wasn’t ignoring people, just a little more focused than he had been.
A Near-Disaster
Woods shoots a second-round 68 and moves up to T-6, trailing co-leaders Koepka, Jason Day, Francesco Molinari, Louis Oosthuizen and Adam Scott by a stroke, but the day has a scary moment: A security guard attempting to keep spectators back at the 14th hole slips on the wet turf and clips Woods’ ankle.
TIGER WOODS: He was just trying to do his job. Look, it was slippery out there. He tried to put the brakes on, and unfortunately my right knee went around my left. And that’s what hurt. It did hurt. My LCL in my right leg, I definitely felt it. But, I gotta go play, so off I went [and birdied the hole]. … You know, when you play in front of a lot of people, things happen.
JOE LACAVA: Friday is a round that could have been better. He birdies 11 [but misses opportunities at 12, 13, 17 and 18]. You know, you’re just happy to be in contention, but I always look at it as we should be better, if not running away with the tournament. (...)
‘The Perfect Storm’
A rainy forecast necessitates an early start on Sunday. Molinari enters the final 18 leading Woods and Finau by two shots, Koepka by three, and Ian Poulter and Webb Simpson by four. Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele, Oosthuizen, Matt Kuchar and Justin Harding are five back.
JOE LACAVA: With the weather moving in, we got a break by going in threesomes on Sunday—otherwise we wouldn’t have been in the last group. The fact that Tiger’s in the last group [with Molinari and Finau], and everyone’s pulling for Tiger, that certainly helped our cause. … People were texting me, going crazy ’cause Tiger said on the air that he had to get up at 3 o’clock to get that tee time. I said, “To be honest with ya, he’s usually awake at 3 or 4 in the morning.” So I’d much prefer to have a tee time at 9 o’clock, because by the time the 3 o’clock in the afternoon tee time comes, which is normally when it is, he’s been up for 12 hours; he’s exhausted almost. Most people sleep till 7 o’clock in the morning. He just doesn’t do that.
NICK FALDO: It was the perfect storm for Tiger. It really was. Jim [Nantz] asked me Sunday morning, “So what’s going to happen?” I said, “I think Tiger’s going to win.” Before we went on the air. I’ve never seen the patrons go from 10 deep to 12, to 15, to 20 deep, and he hadn’t arrived yet.
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Sitting in the clubhouse, we knew he was coming 15 minutes before he appeared. The security started to get ready. And people lined up just to see him walk past. Then he arrived and made his way through the crowd. Everyone stepped out of his way. He had his head down. He made eye contact with nobody. And he smiled at nobody. He was the old Tiger.
by John Huggan, Dave Shedloski, Henni Zuel, Golf Digest | Read more:
Where were you when it happened? Tiger Woods, 43 last April and 11 years removed from his last major-championship victory, turned doubters into believers again by winning his fifth Masters green jacket in the most emotional final day at Augusta National Golf Club since a 46-year-old named Jack Nicklaus won his sixth in 1986. We interviewed 34 of the key figures and observers in the hours, days, weeks and months after Woods’ powerfully poignant triumph. Even those gutted by Woods’ latest magic—and there were a lot of them so close to winning that day—professed feelings of wonder, grateful to have witnessed history. Here are their stories on what went on beyond the roars.
Prologue: The Long Way Back After Surgery
CURTIS STRANGE (on Woods’ spinal-fusion surgery in 2017): The consensus after that was that Tiger would never win another major. But you never say never.
ROCCO MEDIATE (who also has a history of back problems): If he had come back with the same golf swing he had before the injuries, you never would have heard of him again. But I was watching his tournament in the Bahamas, and I watched one swing, and I went, Oh, somebody figured it out. The club isn’t behind him. He’s not up and down as much. All of a sudden, now the back will hold.PETER KOSTIS: His swing now is constructed to take pressure off his back. He used to control the club with his hands and arms; his body followed that swinging motion. Somewhere around the end of Hank Haney [as Woods’ teacher] and the beginning of Sean Foley, Tiger started to “body” his swing. He got more physical. He generated his arm swing through his body motion, rather than the other way around. And that’s when he lost his way. That’s when he hit a lot of foul balls. Since the last surgery, he has gone back to swinging his arms again. He lets his body accommodate itself to his arm swing. In that way, he was swinging in 2019 the way he swung in 1997, albeit with a different body and effort level.
FRANK NOBILO (CBS): Once the surgery took, he didn’t take as many risks. Go back to the [2018] Open Championship at Carnoustie. Oddly enough, none of us really agreed with his strategy—it appeared too conservative. He was more than a decade removed from winning a major championship. The other guys had watched, and they were a decade better, and they’re all playing aggressively. He just kept plugging away. So I think what he got out of Carnoustie was the fact that that type of golf, as proven in the Nicklaus era, would still work in the heat of the moment.
THOMAS BJORN: I thought the first 27 holes he played on the weekend at Carnoustie were the most telling indications that he was back. I remember thinking, Hang on—I know this guy. (...)
Foreshadowing A Big Final-Round Putt
TIGER WOODS: The one smart decision I think we really made was on Tuesday, when it just hosed down rain. All the guys who went out and played said it was useless to go out there because it was gonna be so much faster come Thursday. I just did drill work and worked on technique.
JOE LACAVA: Wednesday, we did nine with Fred [Couples] and JT [Justin Thomas]. You might not have heard the story, but the pin on No. 9 [in the final round] was basically out there on Wednesday, the same location. Tiger dropped one on the back of the green [about 70 feet from the hole] and challenged JT to a little putting contest, closest to the pin. So we basically hit the same putt on Wednesday that we did on Sunday. I mean, you can putt that thing off the green. You could leave it up top, which means you’re going to make a 5 or 6. Wednesday, it’s a pretty easy putt. Not on Sunday. You’ve got to barely carry the ridge to trickle it down there, and he did [to within a foot]. Amazing putt, really.
A Good Start
Woods shoots a first-round 70—matching his opening score in three of his four previous Masters wins—and was T-11, trailing co-leaders Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka by four strokes. The last Masters winner outside the top 10 after the first round had been Woods, who was T-33 and seven strokes behind Chris DiMarco after the opening 18 in 2005.
● ● ●
JOE LACAVA: It’s nice to get off to a good start by hitting that first fairway. It sounds weird—every hole counts just as much as the others. Make a good drive on 1, which might not be his favorite driving hole, and knock it safely on the green. A no-sweat 20-foot two-putt par is kind of nice, you know what I mean? He just had this demeanor about him, but he was still in a mood where he could talk to people and say hello. He wasn’t ignoring people, just a little more focused than he had been.
A Near-Disaster
Woods shoots a second-round 68 and moves up to T-6, trailing co-leaders Koepka, Jason Day, Francesco Molinari, Louis Oosthuizen and Adam Scott by a stroke, but the day has a scary moment: A security guard attempting to keep spectators back at the 14th hole slips on the wet turf and clips Woods’ ankle.
● ● ●
TIGER WOODS: He was just trying to do his job. Look, it was slippery out there. He tried to put the brakes on, and unfortunately my right knee went around my left. And that’s what hurt. It did hurt. My LCL in my right leg, I definitely felt it. But, I gotta go play, so off I went [and birdied the hole]. … You know, when you play in front of a lot of people, things happen.
JOE LACAVA: Friday is a round that could have been better. He birdies 11 [but misses opportunities at 12, 13, 17 and 18]. You know, you’re just happy to be in contention, but I always look at it as we should be better, if not running away with the tournament. (...)
‘The Perfect Storm’
A rainy forecast necessitates an early start on Sunday. Molinari enters the final 18 leading Woods and Finau by two shots, Koepka by three, and Ian Poulter and Webb Simpson by four. Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele, Oosthuizen, Matt Kuchar and Justin Harding are five back.
● ● ●
JOE LACAVA: With the weather moving in, we got a break by going in threesomes on Sunday—otherwise we wouldn’t have been in the last group. The fact that Tiger’s in the last group [with Molinari and Finau], and everyone’s pulling for Tiger, that certainly helped our cause. … People were texting me, going crazy ’cause Tiger said on the air that he had to get up at 3 o’clock to get that tee time. I said, “To be honest with ya, he’s usually awake at 3 or 4 in the morning.” So I’d much prefer to have a tee time at 9 o’clock, because by the time the 3 o’clock in the afternoon tee time comes, which is normally when it is, he’s been up for 12 hours; he’s exhausted almost. Most people sleep till 7 o’clock in the morning. He just doesn’t do that.
NICK FALDO: It was the perfect storm for Tiger. It really was. Jim [Nantz] asked me Sunday morning, “So what’s going to happen?” I said, “I think Tiger’s going to win.” Before we went on the air. I’ve never seen the patrons go from 10 deep to 12, to 15, to 20 deep, and he hadn’t arrived yet.
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Sitting in the clubhouse, we knew he was coming 15 minutes before he appeared. The security started to get ready. And people lined up just to see him walk past. Then he arrived and made his way through the crowd. Everyone stepped out of his way. He had his head down. He made eye contact with nobody. And he smiled at nobody. He was the old Tiger.
Image: J.D. Cuban
[ed. See also: This was supposed to be Masters week, and folks in Augusta are feeling the emotional and financial sting; and 'Surreal': Jennifer Kupcho looks back on winning the inaugural Augusta National Women's Amateur (Golf Digest).]
