On his return to competitive golf after his catastrophic one-car crash on February 23, 2021 almost cost him a leg, Tiger Woods has shot a one-under-par 71 in the first round of The Masters.
Woods has extraordinary pain resistance. For example, his 2008 U.S. Open win at Torrey Pines (his next to last major championship before his remarkable 2019 comeback at The Masters), is probably the most famous display of putting in golf history. It’s all the more remarkable because he needed to make all those crucial long putts because his tee to green game was off because he was playing with three major leg injuries incurred or worsened by his secret training sessions with the Navy SEALs, including a couple of fractures.
It’s a little reminiscent of Ben Hogan’s 1950 comeback after his car was rammed headfirst by a bus driving on the wrong side of the highway on February 2, 1949.
In his first tournament back, the 1950 L.A. Open a year later at Riviera, Hogan lost to Sam Snead in a playoff.
Still visibly in pain, in June 1950 Hogan won the U.S. Open.
One difference (so far) is that Tiger hasn’t won anything (yet). He’s just played one round competently.
Another is that Tiger’s car crash was his own damn fault.
I’ve written a certain amount about Tiger over the years, especially about two topics that have escaped massive publicity:
The extraordinary tale of how Tiger strongly considered quitting golf after the death of his Green Beret father in 2006 to join the Navy SEALs, training for which may have contributed to his career-threatening string of injuries from 2008 onward.
And how that may be related to why the naturally wiry Tiger got so swole in that period.
- From 2009, “Tiger Juice.”
- From 2012, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Soldier.”
- From 2018, “The Tiger Mother’s Son.”
