Before Sunday, it had been 10 summers since Tiger Woods celebrated making his final putt of a major with his signature fist pump. Even for him, most tournaments conclude without much emotion: making a quiet putt for par, doffing his cap, and shaking hands with his playing partner and the caddies. The mechanical procedure approximates the way he concluded every Masters, U.S. Open, (British) Open Championship, and PGA Championship from July 2008 through 2015, a period in which he missed six majors, missed the cut in six others, and finished in the top-10 “only” nine times. Then he didn’t play at all in 2016.
By April 2017, when doctors operated on his back a fourth time in four years, it seemed certain that the last image of Tiger Woods pumping his fist on the 72nd hole of a major would be from the 2008 U.S. Open, when he sneaked in a 12-foot birdie on the high side to force a playoff. It was the definitive image of Tiger: him, in the foreground whooo!-ing, and the gallery, in the background screaming. His left anterior cruciate ligament was like fraying yarn and his tibia had multiple stress fractures. Although he defeated the relentless Rocco Mediate the next day after 21 tense holes anyway, he took off for an extended period soon after to recover—a harbinger of the injuries and scandal in his personal life to come, which would sideline him off and on indefinitely.
At the time of Tiger’s last major win, the 2017 PGA champion and world No. 3 Justin Thomas was 15 years old. He is one of the leading members of a new generation of golfers who grew up watching Tiger and was inspired by his showmanship and talent. Evidence of Woods’s legacy abounds in these young competitors: in their commitment to muscle-building, their length from the tee box, and for some, like Thomas, their intensity on the course. These players—Thomas, and fellow recent major-winners Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, and Brooks Koepka—weren’t pupils. Only Johnson was a pro 10 years ago, and even then, it was his rookie season. Rather, they are the next evolution in the game, the continuing lineage, which doesn’t usually overlap on the field of play with what came before.
There are scarce examples in sport of the influence and his emulator competing against each other. Roger Federer and Kobe Bryant were both 19 years old when they went toe to toe with Pete Sampras and Michael Jordan in 2001 and 1997, respectively, with Federer actually defeating Sampras at Wimbledon. But all four were roughly a few years before or after their primes then; Jordan was the closest to his peak powers.
What the likes of Thomas, who was defending his PGA title during the weekend, and Spieth want is to square off with Tiger at his best while they are at theirs. “I’ve always wanted to battle it out in a major with Tiger. Who hasn’t? It’s kind of a dream come true just to have the opportunity,” said Spieth (also age 15 during the 2008 U.S. Open) during last month’s British Open.
In that tournament, Woods finished in a strong, but not unexpected, tie for sixth. The Open may suit his style best at this point—it deemphasizes length, encourages creativity, and levels the playing field with wild weather conditions. Tiger has flashed solid play at multiple points this year, and that he would do so in Scotland wasn’t a shock. But the unlikely development was his sole possession of the lead for a brief time on the back nine on Sunday. He faded down the stretch, either justifying a lack of faith in his ability to hang on the biggest stage or demonstrating just how close he is to doing it, depending on the perspective.
A repeat performance was not expected this past Thursday through Sunday. The PGA Championship is a tournament set up for scoring—of the four majors, it averages the lowest winning score to par. The host venue often resembles that of a familiar “long track” course played during many PGA Tour events throughout the year. It’s less a test of nerves than the Masters; less a test of patience than the U.S. Open; less a test of windbreakers than the British Open. The PGA is a test of going low—not just the first three days of the tournament, but also the final one, keeping down the accelerator to prevent anyone else from catching up. With so many skilled long hitters on the tour who can turn an intimidating 500-yard par 4 into a drive, a pitching wedge, and an 8-foot putt, keeping pace is a young man’s game.
So instead, Tiger played in his own wacky way to stick near the top. Down four strokes at the beginning of the final round, he didn’t hit a single fairway on the front nine—and still birdied four holes and bogeyed just one. He found the range a bit on the next few holes and went birdie-birdie to get within a shot. He made a seemingly crippling bogey right after—but he bounced back by nearly holing out from the fairway.
Vintage. ?#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/47DPisA9y1
— PGA of America (@PGA) August 12, 2018
Whereas at the British Open he began to lose it around the turn, at the PGA he held up until almost the very end, when a par at the par-5 17th hole took him out of contention. But in keeping with the tournament’s reputation, it may not have mattered. Back-to-back U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka was a sledgehammer, making birdies and not giving back shots. He not only seemed destined to win but destined to establish a new aggregate scoring record for the championship. The previous was 266 strokes in four rounds, set three years ago. Koepka made it in 264.
But Tiger had a putt for 266 (14 under par) on the 18th, left to right from about 20 feet. It was, at this point in Woods’s career, an unimportant shot for his professional reputation. It may have been the difference between solo second place and a tie. But it was apparent throughout the day that he was trying to get into the groove of feeling it like he once did—burying irons close to the hole and burying putts down the stretch. To do it for his reassurance, even his personal satisfaction, and not a result seemed enough—in fact, for someone so famously competitive, it seemed like something new.
So he rolled in the putt. He thrashed his right fist across his body. He sent an ocean of patrons into euphoria—unlike 10 years ago, this time with their outstretched hands holding up smartphones for pictures and videos instead of balled into fists pumping away just like Tiger. It was a Tiger moment captured by a new generation.
And felt by a new generation, too. The question of whether or not Woods is “back” seems to command an answer measured in wins and losses. But Thomas, who finished six shots off the lead, gave everyone a more insightful way to answer that question for the time being.
“This was the first real kind of a ‘Tiger effect,’ I guess, if you will that I’ve experienced, with that many people,” he said.
