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Tiger Woods’ Far From Perfect Circle
We do love redemptive stories in the third act, after the darkness of the second eclipses the high notes of the first.
The Masters is the golf tournament that tends to transcend the sport. Like the Super Bowl does for football, or the Daytona 500 does for NASCAR, it’s larger and almost singular at its place on the cultural calendar that occasionally overlaps with the sporting one. The transcendent stars in golf, that are known to casual and even non-fans, stand out on such a stage. And without question the game of golf, the Masters itself, and sports as a whole has been somewhat the lesser in the 14 years since Tiger Woods won a green jacket. He last did it in 2005, as those watching on Sunday were reminded over and over again, as the improbable unfolded and moment by moment became reality.
The moment that will forever be etched in many people’s minds is not Tiger jubilant in victory, arms raised in his traditional red Sunday shirt, or the outburst of joy at holing out his final put. It was the moment his son ran to him, and the embrace, and the moment that reminded many of the once child prodigy Tiger hugging his own late father the first time he ruled Augusta as champion.
That was in the before time. Before the drought of winning, before the…
