This is the first post of a new series I’ll be working on.
The feeling of butterflies in your stomach is one of the greatest privileges human beings can experience. Formative events trigger the sensation; first dances and home games and holding hands on the walk home. Sitting at your desk before the teacher hands out the year-end exam. Checking the mail in hopes of a thick-envelope with a school’s logo stamped on it.
We get older and the fluttery feeling starts to fade, less frequently bursting in other ways. For many, myself included, we look to sports. We find a team to cheer for and follow their ups and downs, going into a season with a one-in-thirtysomething chance of achieving immortality. Unless your team gets within a handful of wins of raising a trophy and soaking in champagne showers and lifting a banner to the stadium rafters, those butterflies never quite come back.
Then there’s Tiger Woods, the Justin Bieber for the 18-to-79 male demographic. Since 1997, when a 21-year-old showed up to Augusta National and ripped apart the fabric of the whole damn sport, finishing twelve strokes ahead of second-place Tom Kite and winning his first major championship, the world paid Woods the attention his talent demanded.
It’s impossible to fit all of what makes Woods the greatest athlete we will ever see into one column. It would be impossible to do it in a book. Or two. I won’t attempt that. Let’s focus on last week.
Woods announced he would play in the Genesis Invitational, his first non-major since October 2020. Once the news and push notifications came through, so did the messages from dormant group chats. Friends reached out in all caps and exclamation points. Excitement was starting to creep in. Thursday-through-Sunday’s plans were set in stone. The butterflies were back.
He started the week with an opening round 2-under 69, capped with three birdies on the final three holes. The roar of the crowd after each putt sank was reminiscent of the soundtrack of the early 2000s, with hundreds yelling “Get in the hole” out of sync as the ball rolled, then a collective “Yeah!” once it fell into the cup. Grown men in shorts and ill-fitting golf shirts, holding cans of beer highfiving and fistpumping.
The players paired with him for the first two days watched with astonishment. Rory McIlroy grinned every time Woods’ tee shot rolled past his own. Justin Thomas laughed to himself after the 47-year-old sank his final putt on Thursday, thinking the same thing we all thought watching from home. “How is this happening?” As they attempted to carve their own spot on the leaderboard heading into the weekend, they paused at times to spectate, to enjoy the front row view of the most amazing sight: Tiger Woods dialed in.
A friend’s father summed it up in a text to him early Thursday afternoon, which he shared via screenshot:
“The anticipation of what may be is an unbelievably great feeling.”
I can see where this friend gets his turn of phrase. And he’s not wrong. The feeling of what may be is why we watch sports. The chance something magical could happen over the course of four hours or four days or for a lifetime.
He struggled on Friday, shooting a 3-over 74 that put him at 1-over for the tournament, which ended up being the cut. Bogeying three of the final four holes, watching every poor tee shot and missed putt made him look as mortal as the tour players whose names we don’t know. That evening, a friend reminded me what’s most important about this final chapter in Tiger’s story:
“I just want to treasure every moment we have to watch him.”
Watching him on Saturday, those feelings came in spades, culminating in a 4-under 67, one of the better cards of anyone in the field. The size of the crowds that followed Woods vastly outnumbered those that followed even those atop the leaderboard, including world number three Jon Rahm and number twelve Max Homa.
On Sunday, it became clear that Woods, whose first career PGA tour event was the Genesis in 1992, ran out of gas. After birdying the first hole, he bogied three on the front-nine, then shot a colourful back-nine with two birdies and bogeys, finishing with a 2-over 73, putting him at 1-under for the tournament and tied for forty-fifth.
The final result was nothing short of disappointing for the man himself, but overall, fans of the sport couldn’t be happier. Tiger Woods played four rounds of a non-major tournament for the first time in over 800 days, and provided two exhillierating rounds that showcased flashes of the past. Be it an approach shot from 180 yards that gave him a chance for birdie, or a par-3 tee shot that rolled just inches from an ace, the last week set up what promises to be an exciting season of golf.
Remember, just treasure the moment. A great feeling awaits.