Chapter 61

Isleworth Golf they now share the harrowing experience of witnessing a loved one—Tiger’s father, Earl, and Clarke’s wife, Heather—struggle with cancer for years.

“We were talking about it all day,” Tiger says. “It puts things in perspective real quick. You hit a bad shot and you want to get upset, but you know what, in the whole scheme of things, it’s just a golf shot.” Tiger finishes the Players Championship tied for twenty-second.

That same evening, on March 26, 60 Minutes airs an interview between Tiger and Ed Bradley.

Despite Team Tiger’s mandate that Bradley keep the questions to golf, the conversation turns to Tiger’s personal life. He and Elin have now been married for eighteen months.

Tiger: “I have found a life partner, a best friend. She’s brought joy and balance to my life. We love doing the same things.”

Bradley: “How do you think having children will affect your day job?”

Tiger: “Family always comes first. It always has been in my life, and always will. I may sleep a little bit less, and we have to work on that as a team.”

Bradley: “Can you see yourself giving as much time to your kids as your parents gave to you?”

Tiger: “As best I can. I always want my kids to know their father.”

Tiger, the defending Masters champion, is in the Augusta National press room on April 4. It’s the first Masters he’s ever played without Earl nearby.

When asked about his father’s health, Tiger says, “He’s fighting.” Earl, he notes, possesses “an unbelievable will and, you know, hopefully he’s passed a little bit of that on to me.”

It was Earl who taught Tiger to hold focus, no matter how tough the obstacle.

“I’ve been dealing with it for years, so nothing has changed,” Tiger tells the press about his father’s poor health. “But as far as that being a distraction, no.”

The course itself has again been revamped: Now further extended to 7,445 yards, it’s not the same Augusta National where Tiger won last year. For once, Tiger’s not the clear favorite—there’s talk of a “Mickelslam” if Phil Mickelson can follow his 2005 PGA Championship win with a second consecutive major victory. To conquer the course’s new length, Mickelson carries two drivers in his bag, including “the bomb driver” for maximum distance.

After weather delays push the conclusion of the third round to Sunday, April 9, Tiger briefly vaults into the lead—until bogeys on 14, 15, and 16 leave him two strokes back of Mickelson. After a three-hour break, the players return to the course.

Mickelson’s prediction for the final: “It’s going to be an eighteen-hole shootout.”

But Tiger’s putting fails him. He finishes in a five-way tie for third, one behind the second-place finisher, Tim Clark, and three behind Mickelson, who wins his second career Masters.

Caddie Steve Williams grabs Tiger’s putter and, in an exaggerated gesture, extends his leg and pretends to break the offending weapon in two. “I’m probably going to go snap this putter into eight pieces,” Tiger says. “As good as I hit today was as bad as I putted. I putted atrociously.”

He knows Earl will agree. “I’m sure he’s watching and probably a little mad at me for the way I putted,” Tiger says. “I’m sure he knows what I did wrong.”

Last April, Mickelson helped Tiger into his fourth Green Jacket. Today, the rivals reverse roles. “He played great,” Tiger concedes. “He peaked at the right time. That’s what you try to do, peak four times a year.”

What Mickelson does next is an act of human kindness. In the midst of his victory speech, he looks to Tiger and asks the crowd to say a prayer for Earl, adding, “We all know how important parents are in life.”