Chapter 84

PGA Tour headquarters

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

March 9, 2022

Cameras are rolling as Tiger, Sam, and Charlie walk the red carpet outside the PGA Tour’s “global home,” in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Tiger’s looking effortlessly cool, wearing dark sunglasses, a turned-backward ball cap, a Nike long-sleeved T-shirt, and coordinating shorts and sneakers. The navy-blue-and-white color palette is a preview of the formal wear he’ll sport when it’s time to get glammed up tonight for the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

He’s known this day was coming for the past two years. In March of 2020, members of the selection committee for the World Golf Hall of Fame had cast their ballots, selecting Tiger Woods for the class of 2021.

Tiger issued a statement calling the Hall of Fame nod “the ultimate recognition to never give up and keep chasing.” But he’d had to wait an extra year to be officially inducted into the elite, soon-to-be-164-member society when the ceremony planned for 2021 was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fourteen-year-old Sam Alexis Woods has put considerable thought into her speech, but the color of her outfit was a no-brainer. That’s easy. Her dad’s colors are red and black, and so are the clothes her grandmother Tida and brother, Charlie, are wearing. Tida and her grandkids are seated in the front row of the PGA’s event space.

In a red sleeveless minidress and red heels decorated with butterflies, Sam steps to the presenter’s podium. Over the next four minutes, her words wing their way into the hearts of all who hear them. The capacity crowd of five hundred includes PGA golfers as well as attendees such as Tiger’s longtime childhood friends Bryon Bell and Jerry Chang, all here to witness a career-capping moment for a golfer who needs no introduction.

“It’s been at the soccer fields and golf tournaments over the years that Charlie and I have begun to realize how famous he actually is,” Sam says of her father, gently teasing. “I mean, how can a guy who still FaceTimes his friends to discuss Marvel-DC timelines and who goes to Comic-Con dressed as Batman be one of the greatest golfers that ever lived?”

The Hall of Fame has mounted a commemorative display of Tiger’s career. The memorabilia fills three cases—hardly enough space to tell his story, one that’s grown more remarkable by the year. But it’s telling that many of the items Tiger has chosen to display date from his remarkable amateur years.

“Train hard, fight easy,” Sam says, invoking the words of another family member, her grandfather Earl Woods, who died in 2006, the year before she was born.

Tiger nods knowingly as Sam addresses her father directly, saying, “You’ve defied the odds every time.”

She bravely touches on the near-fatal car crash in faraway Los Angeles County, when the family worried and wondered, along with the rest of the world, if the seemingly insurmountable odds against recovery would defeat a competitor as fierce as Tiger Woods. “We didn’t know if you’d come home with two legs or not,” Sam says. “Now, you’re not only about to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but you’re standing here on your own two feet. This is why you deserve this.

“Dad,” Sam says, “I inducted you into Dad Hall of Fame a long time ago. But today, I am so proud to present, my dad, Tiger Woods, into the World Golf Hall of Fame.”

Onstage, Sam holds an engraved plaque in her hands. Tiger walks over, on the legs that nearly failed him, to accept it. The moment is awe-inspiring—even to the legend himself.

“Crap, I just lost a bet to [Steve] Stricker that I wouldn’t cry,” Tiger begins. The opening is unrehearsed perfection.

Starting “kind of retro,” Tiger recalls his formative years in the sport in riveting personal detail. The list of those who inspired and influenced him features corporate titans, his childhood dog Boom-Boom, and a who’s who of golfing greats, including the incomparable Charlie Sifford, whose memory lives on in Charlie Woods. Echoing Sam’s words, Tiger also invokes Earl’s mantra, “Train hard, fight easy.”

Team Tiger made it look that way.

Now it’s Tiger’s turn to directly address a particular member of the audience.

Through fresh tears, he looks at Tida and says:

“So without the sacrifices of Mom who took me to all those junior golf tournaments, and Dad, who’s not here, but who instilled in me this work ethic to fight for what I believe in, chase after my dreams, nothing’s ever going to be given to you, everything’s going to be earned.

“I’ve had two amazing parents. I had amazing golf instructors, unbelievable caddies, friends that I’ve had for a lifetime,” he says. “I know that golf is an individual sport. We do things on our own a lot for hours on end, but in my case, I didn’t get here alone.

“This is an individual award, but it’s actually a team award. All of you allowed me to get here. I just want to say thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.”

On March 29, Tiger watchers identify his Gulfstream G550 jet—tailnumber N517TW—en route from South Florida’s Martin County Airport to Augusta Regional Airport.

At Augusta National, Tiger and Charlie hit the driving range and then play a practice round, thirteen-year-old Charlie’s first on the hilly course where Tiger’s won five championships.

Will he try for another in April? It would be his twenty-fifth Masters start.

As of Sunday, April 3, 2022, his status remains a “game-time decision.”

If he’s going to play, he needs the right equipment. “My apparel is an extension of me,” he told Golf Galaxy in February. It’s important that all parts of his game, from his golf balls and clubs “to my apparel, to my footwear, my glove, my lid, everything,” work in unison. “I don’t want to feel uncomfortable. Because when we’re out there competing, we’re in a very uncomfortable environment. The last thing you want to do is have something that’s nagging at you.”

On Thursday, April 7, Tiger steps to the first tee. It’s been 508 days since he played competitive golf.

The television cameras reveal a monumental equipment change. Gone are the Nike Air Zooms he wore from 2019 to 2021.

On his feet are 2022 FootJoy Premiere Series Packard spikes.

In a pre-tournament press conference, Tiger discussed the reason he changed shoes, despite his decades as a Nike ambassador. “I have very limited mobility now with the rods and plates and screws that are in my leg,” he explained. “I needed something different, something that allowed me to be more stable. That’s what I’ve gone to.”

Tiger’s mobility issues, Golf magazine surmises, may require a shoe that keeps his foot flatter on the ground than the more padded Nike soles do.

“Like golf fans around the world, we are delighted to see Tiger back on the course,” Nike said in a statement, making no mention of the shoes. “As he continues his return, we will work with him to meet his new needs.”

Endurance will be his first need, with a marathon four-round tournament underway. Social media buzzes with the initial results. A first-round -1 for Tiger is truly remarkable. What a treat for all of us. Miracle of doctors and medicine, and his hard work back, one fan posts on Twitter.

But Tiger’s right leg isn’t fully healed, and the prospect of completing all four rounds is daunting—and so painful that throughout the back nine on the third and fourth rounds, Tiger can be seen leaning on his clubs as if they’re canes. He shoots a pair of 78s, the worst scores he’s ever recorded at the Masters. The crowd nevertheless cheers his forty-seventh-place finish, and he rewards them with a smile that’s part happiness, part relief.

Tiger walks off the course with a feeling “I don’t think words can really describe,” he tells CBS Sports, “given where I was a little over a year ago and what my prospects were at that time. To end up here and be able to play all four rounds, even a month ago, I didn’t know if I could pull this off.”

While Tiger’s prize money for the 2022 Masters is $43,500, his old clubs go for more than $5 million. On April 10, a fan pays $5,156,162 for nine Titleist 681 T irons and two Titleist Vokey Design wedges stamped TIGER. Though on March 29, Mark Steinberg told Golfweek that Tiger still possesses the Tiger Slam–era clubs, Golden Age Auctions attested with “100 percent confidence that these clubs were used by Tiger Woods during his legendary 2000–01 seasons.” It’s a huge profit for the seller, who’d bought the clubs in 2010 for $57,242.

What’s indisputable is that Tiger’s latest, and perhaps most inspiring, comeback has further burnished his Hall of Fame legacy.