Welcome back, @TigerWoods. πpic.twitter.com/qeMHOmpmEG
— ESPN (@espn) September 23, 2018
Tiger Woods gets first win in five years at Tour Championship https://t.co/QcGcsB8Dnu pic.twitter.com/8Y7t7b1AIR
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 24, 2018
Yes. I woke up this morning and immediately looked at my phone to make sure that happened yesterday. Tiger Woods won a golf tournament in the year 2018. He looked great wire to wire and honestly he has looked good for months. He won comfortably and just coasted to the most anticlimactic tournament finish of the season and yet, the ENTIRE world tuned into CBS to watch Tiger stroll down the 18th fairway with that classic Tiger toothy smile and saw the absolute circus happening on the golf course behind him. The Tiger Effect is real… and it is spectacular.
This… happened in real life.
Tiger Woods walking to the 18 like heβs Goldberg in the 90βs ππ₯π pic.twitter.com/Espy0Y5Viz
— Randy Cruz (@randyjcruz) September 24, 2018
That looks like a scene that people dream of. That looks like a scene out of Happy Gilmore. That looks like a scene that real golf fans watch from Happy Gilmore and turn to their non-golf fan friends in the room and say, “That never happens’. In the world of golf, that was complete pandemonium. And my favorite part about it? The calm and cool vibe Tiger was sending out into the world. He could’ve been frowning because “it ain’t over till its over”, or even just been an ass about it and said something like, “Oh well this isn’t a major so this will only be a footnote on my career”. No. Tiger was enjoying every step of that walk as much as his fans around him. He knew how improbable this was. He understood how insane this sounded one year ago. That smile and swagger that he had was one of the coolest things I’ve ever watched as a sports fan.
I watched his final holes on Sunday at work. And folks, I have to be honest with you, I ran to the bathroom and cried when he made his final putt, turned to the crowd, and lifted his arms in the air. To me, that felt like a, “I can’t believe this is happening” moment for Tiger and the fact that he showed emotion and connected with his fans was so cool. Those are the kinds of things that make golf so special.
Now onto Justin Rose. He wins the FedEx Cup and a FAT payday. $10 MIL to be exact.. It keeps solidifying Rose as one of the best to play the game in our era. And in my eyes, this type of FedEx Cup victory could not be more Justin Rose. EVERY golf fan will tell you that Rose is incredible. He lurks around the top of the leaderboard in every major and is a constant threat. But he is never one of the very first guys I think of when I think “Who is the best golfer in the world?” Names like DJ, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rory immediately pop into my head, but never Rose. And now, his first FedEx Cup victory will also not pop into people’s heads. He will be a trivia question at your bar’s trivia night for the sports section for years and years to come. “Even though Tiger Woods won the 2018 Tour Championship, who won the 2018 FedEx Cup?” Nobody will know.
Now onto the Ryder Cup and guys, my gut is telling me that the US is going to ROLL. This may be the bloodiest massacre between the US and Europe in history. I can’t even think of another example at this moment to be honest. The boys flew with Tiger to Paris after his win and Tiger made it clear that they were going to crack open a cold beverage or two.
USA BABY. No chance we don’t bring that Cup home. America by 100.