Yesterday once more.
Or deja vu all over again.
Or flashback, but in real time.
The phraseology matters not. What matters was the scene.
Tiger Woods, wearing red, standing in a fairway bunker on the 10th hole at Carnoustie after a strong 34 on the front nine, in sole possession of the lead of a major championship on the final day.
Maybe not the way it should be, necessarily. There’s too many great golfers in the world to say something that disrespectful.
But certainly something that was great to see, something that certainly helps the sport. You had young men like Jordan Spieth, just a toddler when Woods won his first major back in 1997, going into the final day of the 147th Open Championship saying they’d always dreamed of going head-to-head for a big tournament like this with Tiger.
And here it was.
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This latest Tiger comeback, and there have been a few, is certainly now the real deal. Nobody could argue it isn’t, or say it’s a waste of time, as some did. All the speculation about whether he could turn a decent effort in December into real results in January, and then into quality play at the game’s biggest events, suddenly no longer mattered. His erratic driver, his new putter, his health, they were now all side stories, not the main story.
This was competition. This was real. Man versus golf course, superstar versus fabled Carnoustie, battered 42-year-old champion versus the best and youngest in the game, and it was a heck of a battle to watch.
Out of that fairway bunker on the 10th hole, Woods launched a superb shot that soared over the notorious Barry Burn and on to the green. Magic. Victory seemed very possible. Likely even.
But Woods hadn’t been in that situation for years and years. And it showed. Where once he never would have been caught, this time, he came back to the pack on a day when Carnoustie, with wind, played harder than it had on Saturday.
On the 11th, his errant shot hit a spectator and instead of veering miles left of the green, ricocheted alongside a greenside bunker. A little safe play, a chip and a putt, and all would be fine. Be grateful for the good break. Instead, Woods got greedy. He tried a risky flop shot from a tricky lie, and the ball landed beside the bunker, and rolled back.
"Golf seduces you into trying shots you have no business trying," said commentator Johnny Miller.
Tiger’s bogey putt was far too strong, and he ended up with a double bogey; his first double of the entire tournament. No longer the leader.
On the next hole, he bogeyed again, and it was all over but for the mathematics. While Woods was wobbling, his playing partner Francesco Molinari was resolute and committed to making one strong, safe shot after another. Molinari jumped past Woods, and by the end of the day, he had jumped past everyone, winning his first major championship, and Italy’s, with a beautiful performance on the final day.
There were marquee challengers. Spieth. Xander Schauffele. Rory McIlroy. Justin Rose.
But Molinari, 35, refused to bend. He just kept making one par after another, daring the rest of the field to do the same, and they couldn’t. He shot 69 on the final day, a number that if it had been achieved by Spieth or Schauffele, would have carried them to victory.
That Molinari won’t end up being the biggest story of the weekend, well, that’s a shame, but that’s sports. The superstars, win or lose, get the ink, and that means Tiger’s performance in defeat will and should be the main story as we leave Scotland and head to the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey next weekend for the last time in July before the tournament moves to June (thankfully) next season.
Golf is richer with a competitive Tiger, and it’s clear that while he may not win another major, he could. He has the game, and he’s getting better.
Nobody talks about his problematic back anymore. The references to that famous fire hydrant, and all the surgeries, and all the times he was written off, are now fewer and fewer. Now, going forward, we really can just discuss his performances week by week, how well he played or didn’t play, how well he putted or played tee to green.
Whether he’s a sympathetic figure now, well, that’s up to you. To me, anybody who fights that hard to play the game they love deserves respect, and quite frankly, he’s still one of the most watchable four or five players on the PGA Tour.
He almost turned this year’s pursuit of the Claret Jug into a historic one. The television numbers, undoubtedly, will be massive. The presence of Tiger hovering near the lead on the final day made a good leaderboard into a superb one.
This was his best performance in a major in years, and all eyes will be on him next month at the PGA Championship in Missouri. Imagining Tiger winning one more major no longer seems a flight of fancy. It seems a distinct possibility.
And who would want to miss that?
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