Tiger Woods Comes All the Way Back, Wins Masters

In 2008, Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open, his 14th Major Golf championship since he started playing professionally in 1996. Besides the majors, Woods won dozens of other tournaments, and was the top ranked golfer in the world. Then the wheels started coming off.

There were the multiple reports of infidelity, which led to the end of his marriage in 2010, and ended some of his lucrative endorsements. There was a DUI arrest. There were also back injuries, that kept him off the course. He did manage to win six tournaments ( no majors) in 2009, three in 2012, and five in 2013, plus 31 top ten finishes in those three years, but he had no wins in 2010-11, or ’14-’17 as he dealt with injuries. He had no PGA tour event starts at all in 2016 and only one in 2017. It looked like he was finished as a force in professional golf.

Then, in 2018 at age 42, and with his back problems finally behind him, Woods began to regain his form of the past. He started 18 events, the most since 2012, and had seven top ten finishes, including two seconds and a victory in The Tour Championship event in September. One of his second place finishes was in the PGA Championship, his best finish in a major in nine years.

Woods entered the final round of the 2019 Masters tied for second, one stroke behind the leader Francesco Molinari. Woods had never trailed going into the final round of any of his 14 major tournament victories, but he made three birdies on the final six holes to edge out three others by one stroke to win his first major in 11 years. At 43, Woods is the second oldest golfer to win the Masters, behind Jack Nicklaus who was 46 when he won the 1986 Masters. It’s also Tiger’s fifth Masters win, and the first since 2005.