He was just different. Better.
The 2-iron Woods hit the par-5 10th hole at the TPC Sugarloaf, prompting Stewart Cink to say, “That’s a skill set I don’t have.” Padraig Harrington once saw Woods hit an 8-iron so majestic at Firestone that it stuck in his head and led to the Irishman making a triple bogey.
Nick Price played the first two rounds with Woods at St. Andrews during the 2000 Open and felt like the tournament was already over. Mark O’Meara played a practice round with him at Pebble Beach before the 2000 US Open and told his wife before the championship started, “Tiger is going to win. And he’s not just going to win, he’s going to blow the field away.” Woods won by 15.
All these years, so many great players in the game have never been able to identify with Woods. And now they finally can.
Even Woods can’t beat time. He turns 50 on Tuesday.
It’s a milestone for everyone, but golf is different because the sport can be played well past the age at which athletes have long since retired from other sports. Phil Mickelson won a major at age 50. Jack Nicklaus made an early Sunday attack at the Masters at the age of 58.
With Woods it’s complicated.
He is now eligible for the PGA Tour Champions ages 50 and older. He has also undergone more surgeries than the fifteen majors he has won. This is the first year he has not played a single tournament, the result of a torn Achilles tendon in March and a seventh back surgery in September.
“I’m probably going to play 25 events on both tours and I think that should cover most of the year, right?” Woods joked in the Bahamas when asked if he was turning 50.
He won the US Open just eight days before having reconstructive surgery on his left knee. He won the Masters two years after lower back surgery. But he hasn’t been the same since that car crash in Los Angeles in 2021. Woods has made 11 appearances over the past five seasons, completed just four of those tournaments and hasn’t been closer than 16 shots to the winner.
“Come back to what point?” said Bos. “I would like to play golf again.”
And so this celebration is more about looking back than looking forward.
Ernie Els was most prescient in 2000 at Kapalua, when he was once again on the losing side — no one finished second to Woods more than the Big Easy. They matched eagles on the 18th in regulation, birdies on the 18th in a playoff and Woods got it with a 40-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole. Vintage tiger.
“I think he is a legend in the making,” Els said that day. “He’s 24. He’ll probably be taller than Elvis when he’s in his 40s.”
That is of course up for debate. The impact Woods has left on golf is undeniable.
The popularity soared and the prize money skyrocketed. Woods made golf look different and he made it cool. And perhaps his greatest legacy is that he unknowingly trained a generation of players who wanted to be just like him. Scottie Scheffler said nothing inspired him more than watching Woods’ intensity when he was out of contention at the 2020 Masters. Woods shot a 10 on the 12th hole and followed with five birdies over his final six holes. He finished in 38th place.
Woods, who turns 50 on Tuesday, has accomplished some incredible things in his historic career. Here is a list of 50 of his most impressive.
“Tiger was just different in the way he approached every shot. It looked like the last shot he would ever make,” Scheffler said. It was the only time they played together. Scheffler is now on the cusp of three years at No. 1 in the world, the longest stretch since Woods.
But it started with those skills that are unlike any other.
“He’s the only man I’ve ever known who consistently exceeded expectations,” Tom Lehman said. “No matter how much you expected from him, he found a way to exceed them.”
Lehman remembers a moment at the Memorial on the 17th hole, a green so rock hard that it seemed impossible to get close. Lehman hit the 5-iron as high and far as he could and was happy to see it roll 25 feet out of the cup.
“He hit this shot all the way up in the air and it came down like a parachute,” Lehman said. “Lands near the cup and bounces two feet and stops. I think he must have hit a 7-iron. I said, ‘Tiger, what club was that?’ He said, “That was a little three-finger 5-iron.” He just filleted it there.
“When I think of him, that’s what I think of. Only one man could hit that shot. And he did it a lot.”
Woods had a Grand Slam career at the age of 24, the youngest of them all. He had 50 wins worldwide and 10 majors before he turned 30.
It wasn’t as easy as he could make it seem. The late Dan Jenkins once said when Woods was in top form, “Only two things can stop Tiger: an injury or a bad marriage.” It turned out to be both. His path was derailed in late 2009 by revelations of multiple extramarital affairs, and the wounds continued to pile up. In 2013, he still reached No. 1 in the world, taking his PGA Tour wins to 82, tied with Sam Snead.
“If he never got injured, he would have 25 majors and 125 wins,” Fred Couples said.
Tiger Woods has been in the public eye for almost his entire life. Here’s a look at some key dates when he turns 50 on Tuesday.
Matt Kuchar saw it differently. He felt the injuries contributed to Woods’ legend, especially his 2008 US Open victory at Torrey Pines.
Woods played that week with torn ligaments in his left knee and two stress fractures in his left leg. It is often overlooked that Woods had not completed 18 holes since the Masters until the opening round at Torrey Pines.
“The legacy is bigger because of the injuries,” Kuchar said. “What he did at Torrey Pines, what he did at the Masters (2019) is a bit Hoganesque. At some point, like almost everyone else, I left him out of the equation. And then he wins again.”
Woods is busy outside the ropes. He was appointed to the PGA Tour policy council in 2023 without term limits, as the tour was in the middle of a battle with Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf. He now heads the Future Competition Committee, charged with reforming the touring model.
The next question is when – and where – he plays. Woods is the only player to win the US Junior Amateur, US Amateur and US Open. The US Senior Open is at Scioto, the golf course in Ohio where Jack Nicklaus learned to play.
April in Augusta isn’t the same without Woods. He set the Masters record in 2024 by making the cut for the 24th consecutive time. How much more? How much longer?
“People want to see him,” Kuchar said. “And if he shoots 76, people still want to see him. He’s unique in our sport.”
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