TIGER WOODS and Jack Nicklaus were both 46 years old when they gunned for their sixth majors. The commonality ends there.
Woods did not win the just-ended 2022 Masters to remain with five green jackets won. Nicklaus nabbed the 1986 Masters for his sixth green jacket.
Unlike Nicklaus in 1986, Woods wasn’t supposed to win this year.
Nicklaus was fit as a fiddle when he teed off in 1986.
Woods wasn’t 100 percent healthy this year as he was competing competitively for the first time just 14 months after he suffered a single car-crash accident that saw him miraculously emerge alive from the wreckage of a brand-new SUV he was test-driving.
But his right leg was a total mess, escaping amputation by a hair as doctors rebuilt it with a rod, plates and screws in an exhaustive knee-to-foot operation that lasted hours.
Woods wasn’t made of Ben Hogan stuff, though.
Hogan, after emerging from a car-truck head-on collision in 1949, suffered a broken collarbone, dislocated hip, fractured rib and leg injuries so severe doctors were so sure that Hogan could kiss his golf career goodbye.
But miracle of miracles, Hogan, like Woods, came back a year later and—unlike Woods—won the US Open. Hogan would proceed to amass 64 career wins to stay fourth in the all-time winners list—behind Sam Snead and, yes, Woods with 82 victories each. Nicklaus is third with 73 titles.
While a healthy 46-year-old Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters for his dramatic all-time high of 18 majors, an unhealthy Woods terribly missed winning the 2022 Masters to stay stuck at 15 majors—his last Masters win coming only in 2019 after surviving five fuse-laden, back surgeries.
Woods was warmly applauded for his opening one-under-par 71 this year, and got more cheers when he made the cut with his 74 in Round 2. That alone was victory for Woods, considering Woods’s walk on the up-and-down Augusta National at the start started to show signs of fading, if not weakening, heading into the homestretch.
Woods grimaced, winced and gritted his teeth in painstakingly limping to a third-round 78—his worst Masters round since he first won his Masters 25 years ago as a 21-year-old sensation.
And with a final-round 78, Woods settled for a 13-over-par total and finished tied for 47th—his worst Masters finish in 24 tournament appearances since his 1996 stint as an amateur. His previous low was 40th in 2012.
But still, Woods, for his gargantuan effort, almost received as much applause that was accorded Scottie Scheffler, the 25-year-old from New Jersey, who won this year’s Masters running away with a 10-under total and a three-shot victory over four-time majors champion Rory McIlroy.
Woods will forever be the crowd darling that he has always been since he changed the face of golf with his multiple records-shattering victory in the 1997 Masters.
THAT’S IT If Ginebra wishes to level at 2-2 today, it must forget its measly 26 second-half points in Game 3 that gave Meralco a 2-1 edge in their race-to-four affair for the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup at Smart Araneta Coliseum. Meralco’s asphyxiating defense choked Ginebra’s offense that saw the Gin Kings misfire nine of their 10 triples on Sunday.