Tiger Woods at 124 US Open on Wednesday.
getty photos
PINEHURST. NC – Tiger Woods brings the heat. He’s 48, decades past his prime, but still packs heat. He’s not just being careless, and neither is the USGA, which picked up the tab for his dinner Tuesday night, for Tiger and his mother, from his two children. He received the Bob Jones Award and it comes with dinner.
The highlight of Tiger’s golf career is his USGA record. His three US Junior victories were followed by three US Amateurs, followed by three US Opens. Nine USGA titles. No one has more. Bobby Jones has nine, too.
Phil Knight got his Nike checkbook thanks to those first six baskets, and Tiger’s life story. His brilliant, abusive, mad-as-a-fox father, with degrees from Kansas State (sociology) and Vietnam (Bronze Star). Her Thai mother, who didn’t go to junior tournaments to drink tea with other mothers. Tiger’s two years at Stanford, his natural shyness, his exploding fist pumps. He was a black man in a white game with a body he stole from Gumby. Good lord it was fun.
The ink was still wet on that Swooshed check when Tiger started winning PGA Tour events. His scoreboard total is 82 PGA Tour wins, 15 of which are majors. There isn’t enough money in the world to make Woods go to LIV. That’s why none of Mark Steinberg’s clients are LIV golfers. Mark Steinberg owes his career to Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods owes his professional career to the PGA Tour, and his training on it came in many forms, including, at its core, the USGA.
A tiger can reach 10. It still holds 10 USGA titles. He is 48 years old and his body has been ravaged by heavy lifting, excessive exercise, extreme living and a mysterious car accident three years ago that could have killed him. But his golf skills are still remarkable and so is his will. Up to 10.
Tiger will be 50 years old when the US Senior Open goes to Scioto Country Club in Columbus in 2026. Scioto is where Jack Nicklaus learned the game. Big Jack won two US Senior Opens. No sport breeds a generation like golf. Woods’ biggest competition has always been against Jack Nicklaus. Tiger will be tanned, rested and ready for that ’26 Senior Open. You can book that. Nicklaus will be 86, and he’ll still have that Buckeye boy voice, and he’ll say another version of this and say it: “I’ve said it a million times: Never bet Tiger Woods.” Jack Nicklaus’ last US Open was at Pebble Beach in 2000 at the age of 60 but all these years later he remains one of golf’s most important voices. He’s still crazy about the golf ball.
The steal here, because this is as good as it gets:
Don’t go gently into that good night,
Aging should be hot and throbbing at the end of the day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas was born in Wales, died in New York City at the age of 39, and wrote lyrics that have an eternal shelf life. You can draw a line from Dylan Thomas to Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, if you like.
Instantly shiny.
When Jack bowed out of the US Open, Tiger Woods won, by 15 shots. 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach. Golf cannot be played at a high level. If you pull out a pencil, you can draw a straight line from Bobby Jones to Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods. It says there will never be another Tiger Woods here like there never will be another Bruce Springsteen. The tiger did it The manager to his email address.
‘To my mother’: Tiger Woods pays heartfelt tribute to his mother
Alan Bastable
You think or anyone Do you care how much money Woods got for winning that US Open at Pebble? When he endorsed the check this word (you can imagine) was stamped on it: Immortality. The cost of that win we will never know, although we have all seen Tiger’s life. (Imagine having a camera pointed at you the entire time.) But those four days at Pebble will live forever, for those of us who care about such things.
On Tuesday night, in the Grand Ballroom at the Carolina Hotel, Woods received the USGA’s highest honor, the Bob Jones Award. Not the Bobby Jones award. Not the Jones Award. The Bob Jones Award. Golf, as Tiger Woods played it and as the USGA administers it, requires precision. Mike Tirico and Mike Whan talked about Tiger’s nine USGA titles, noting that Jones had nine. “Mr. Jones,” as Woods addressed the big amateur at Tuesday morning’s press conference. Rickie Fowler was Rick in that same era. Donald Ross was Donald.
But Bobby Jones was “Mr. Jones.” He created the Masters, golf in the South, the USGA record book. You drive into Pinehurst on Highway 1, also known as the Jefferson Davis Highway. Do you think that information was lost on Earl Woods? It’s impossible. He and Tiger came here in 1991, to play in a little event called the Big I. Woods has been here ever since, and Pinehurst has changed since then. Now the USGA and the World Golf Hall of Fame are at Pinehurst. You can play golf here, at this time of year, until 9 o’clock or later, at long sunset.
On Tuesday night, at the Carolina Hotel here, Woods stood on the platform, in front of the microphone, and spoke without notes for about six minutes. It reminded us of his induction into the Hall of Fame two years ago, and his acceptance of the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House, just weeks after winning the 2019 Masters. He talked about his father, his daughter, his son, but especially his mother. It was short. He returned to his seat at the banquet table to a standing ovation backed by an electropop rendition of “Don’t Stop.”
It stops. Eventually, for all of us, everything stops. Ben Hogan and Mickey Wright had their own way of saying goodbye to their community golf. Sam Snead and Tom Watson had one. Arnold Palmer had another. Nicklaus. With a title that came from winning a record 18 majors and leading the life he lived, he won his first major at the age of 22 and was the front runner at the Masters and Memorial, along with Fred Ridley and Mike Whan and Jay Monahan. give him the speed dial.
Listening to Tiger, and watching him and his son Charlie, you get the feeling that he would gladly give up his 10th USGA title if his son could compete in a USGA novice event. Just fight! Because that alone is an accomplishment. When Woods was young and shy and crying, he used to talk all the time about “getting the W.” That was a long time ago. Or a different life for him, anyway.
Tiger’s work in providing education is amazing. He can write a true book called Back or What is required whatever, about the cost of greatness and leading such an exposed life, but it would be difficult for him. Why he doesn’t commit to being the next Ryder Cup captain is puzzling. How he really feels about the major issues facing the game is actually unknown. He can find a meaningful way into the game, from here on out, surpassing the medal score over 72 holes. For now, we know this. He grew up in a small house in Southern California. Golf took him out of the house and into the world and onto the slopes Tuesday night at the Pinehurst ballpark.
Tiger Woods arrives at the US Open with a new coach – and one thing to prove
Dylan Dethier
“I wanted to be a USGA champion,” Tiger said Tuesday night. He talked about his third and final US Amateur win, the one at Pumpkin Ridge, in 1996, over Steve Scott. As golf gets right. Tiger said he never felt any pressure. His future — the size of the Nike check, the chance to return to Stanford — depended on that result. Maybe a 20-year-old golfer shouldn’t be under so much pressure, but as Tiger would say himself, It is what it is, or what it was. His mother was in that Mfundamakhwela, the first one he attended. He was wearing a Stanford sweatshirt on a cool Oregon summer afternoon. On Tuesday night, she wore a black polka-dot dress, a silver and diamond necklace, colorful glasses with gold frames full of filigree.
“My mother has been there my whole life, she has been there, through thick and thin,” said Woods. “I accept this award humbly, and with incredible respect for those who have won it in the past. But I also accept my mother. He allowed me to come here, to chase my dreams.”
The son is finished. My mother stopped. Glasses, gown, necklace. Pride.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
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