Sunday, June 7, 2009

Don't Take Him For Granted

He did it again. Nobody was surprised but how he did it showed why he is the best. With an audience of several thousand fans surrounding the 18th green at Memorial including Jack Nicklaus himself, Tiger Woods finished off the rest of the field with relative ease.
Trailing by four entering today's final round, Tiger set out to win his fourth Memorial title. I was paired two groups in front of Tiger's group so that meant on certain holes I could catch a couple of his shots.
As he teed off on the Par 5 11th my group was climbing the stairs to the Par 3 12th which over looks the 11th green.
It was pretty cool to watch the masses flock to down the fairway to the green after Tiger flew his 2nd shot in the back rough. In the meantime, we were waiting on the group in front of us to putt out so we all sat and watched Tiger. I stood there with with Matt Kuchar, Ernie Els, Bubba Watson and Luke Donald and watch Tiger mull over his difficult 3rd shot from behind the green.
That's when I realized that we were watching someone very special.
At this point Tiger was a four shots back and an miracle eagle would make a lot of people nervous in front of him. When he lined up the shot one of the players mumbled "Watch him make this."I agreed. With a player like Tiger you come to expect greatness every time.
As his ball rolled perfectly in line with the hole the crowd grew louder and so did the players around me. When the ball disappeared the arena of fans when nuts along with Tiger and his caddie. It was one of those moments that make him not only the best golfer but the most impressive athlete of this century.
There may never be another Tiger and I have to remind myself that every time I get the privilege to watch him in person.
As I finished the round I decided to sit along the rope line on the 18th green so that I could get a get chance to watch Tiger win. Sure enough the huge manual scoreboard behind us informed us that Tiger had birdied No.17 to take a one shot lead. All he needed to do was par the 18th to win his fourth Memorial title. His tee shot was perfect- right down the middle. As I listened on my radio I knew that he was taking aim at the pin with an 8-iron.
He just needed par but he wanted to leave no doubt about who was the best golfer that day. His shot was almost too perfect landing it two feet from the pin.
As he walked to the green and tapped in his birdie, the crowd rose to their feet and watched Tiger and Jack shake hands. I sat next to the 18th green 10 yards from the two greatest golfers of all-time. Man, I love my job.

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