Tiger Woods and the 2011 Masters
Surprisingly a lot of people cheered for Tiger Woods as he came close to winning his first tournament in 20 months. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, everyone has heard the story of Tiger’s fall from grace. How he went from multiple major winner and
one of the most highly regarded athletes in the world to an object of scorn and ridicule for the entire world.
Maybe things would have been better for him if he had kept up his winning streak. But coupled with his failed personal life was his swing change and putting problems which have kept him out of the top and seen his rankings fall from World No.1 to World No.7
before the 2011 Masters.
Recently, after every event, Woods has made it a habit of assuring everyone how he’s more in control of his swing and how his personal life is falling back together again. But words are wind and Woods hasn’t really a result to show for all his talk. His
best finish this year before the Masters was at the WGC Cadillac Championship where he finished 10th after a last round charge. Out of the 16 rounds he played, he only went below 70 in 5.
It was refreshing then to see the former World No. 1 show a spark of his old form and raise hopes of a fairytale win that would end his barren spell and once again usher in the era of the Tiger. So maybe it wasn’t so surprising to see so many people cheer
for Woods. We all know just how good he is, we’ve seen him in his prime when nothing could stand in his way, and in a way we all feel sorry for the way he is now and just wish he would get back to his winning ways.
It wasn’t Woods' swing that caused trouble this time. It was his putting. He would be sorely missing a two foot putt that earned him a bogey on the 11th hole after which he completely lost his momentum. He could only manage one birdie on the back
nine after 4 birdies and an eagle on the first nine holes.
"I should have been three or four more under par on the back nine," he remarked wistfully afterwards. "I got off to a nice start there and posted 31 and then on the back nine could have capitalised some more. But I hit it good all day. I'm happy about that."
He did have a reason to be happy about. After finishing his four rounds with a total score of ten under par with almost a non-existent chance of victory, he earned a hearty applause from the crowd for the great show he had put up. This is, after all, what
golf is about.
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