HOYLAKE, England – This was a Tiger Woods we had never seen before.
Sure, we’ve seen him win major championships – as he did yesterday in methodical, surgical form en route to winning the British Open at Royal Liverpool.
Sure, we’ve seen him stave off game challengers – as he did with Chris DiMarco yesterday.
And sure we’ve seen him show some emotion after some significant victories.
But as the scene that unfolded yesterday on No. 18 with the afternoon sun baking the already cooked links of Liverpool, the world witnessed an extended outpouring of raw emotion from Woods it’s never seen before.
As soon as Woods tapped in for par on 18 to secure defense of his Open reign, he raised both arms violently to the sky, pumped the air with his right fist and screamed, “Yes,” before collapsing into the arms of his caddie, Steve Williams, and bawling his eyes out.
For some 15 to 20 seconds, Woods leaned into Williams, his face buried in Williams’ right shoulder as he cried so intensely his chest was heaving.
Williams clenched Woods and when the two separated, a teary-eyed Woods went right to his wife, Elin, for an embrace and then hugged his swing coach, Hank Haney, and Haney’s wife, along with his trainer, Keith Klevin. In the end, no one could stop Woods’ pursuit of his 11th major title, nor could anyone stop him from sobbing.
The outpouring of emotion was, of course, heavily tied to the May 3 death of his father and best friend, Earl.
This was Woods’ first major championship victory – or win of any sort – since Earl died and thoughts of Earl, so much a part of Woods’ makeup, were too much for him to keep inside. “I couldn’t stop it; I miss my dad so much,” he said.
“After the last putt, I realized my dad’s never going to see this again, and I wish he could have seen this one last time,” Woods told the crowd at the trophy presentation.
“He was out there today keeping me calm.” Haney was even taken aback at Woods’ intensity of emotion.
“I’ve never seen him so emotional like that,” he said. “He got through speaking at his dad’s funeral easier than he got through this. It’s a culmination of everything he’s been through this year. I think he really let it all out.” Woods later conceded that he surprised himself with his outpouring.
“I’ve never done that,” he said.
“With all the things my father meant to me and the game of golf, I just wish he could have seen it one more time. I was really bummed out after not winning the Masters, because I knew that was the last major he was ever going to see. So that one hurt.” The man left hurting most by Woods’ closing round of 5-under-par 67 to finish 18-under for the week was DiMarco, who was the only player on the leaderboard to show enough guts to make a run at Woods, finishing second in 16-under.
DiMarco, himself on an emotional ride since the death of his mother, Norma, two weeks ago, put a charge into the Royal Liverpool galleries with a back-nine run.
When he drained a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 13 and Woods bogeyed No. 12 (his only mistake all day), Woods’ lead was suddenly only one shot – Woods at 15under and DiMarco 14-under.
DiMarco then drained a 45-foot bomb for a par save on 14 to ignite the crowd as he stayed close.
Woods, of course, answered with birdies on Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to stave off DiMarco and secure victory.
“He’s a hard guy to catch,” DiMarco said. “He’s got an uncanny ability to, when somebody gets close to him, he just turns it up another level.” Said Woods, “For some reason, in my past, I’ve seemed to pull things out at the end. I think that’s due to feeling comfortable being there.” To back those words up, consider these remarkable numbers.
Woods has taken a 54-hole lead into the final round of a major 11 times and won all 11. He’s led or shared the lead 38 times in PGA Tour-sanctioned events and won 35. In worldwide events, that closing record is 42-5.
“There’s a certain calmness that comes from being able to say, ‘I’ve done this before,’ ” Woods said.
“That’s the calmness I felt coming down the stretch.” That calmness, of course, lasted only until that final putt disappeared into the cup.
That’s when Woods’ steel-trap mind finally allowed him to become unglued – if only for mere moments.
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Final results
PLAYER — SCORES — PAR
Tiger Woods 67-65-71-67-270 -18
Chris DiMarco 70-65-69-68-272 -16
Ernie Els 68-65-71-71-275 -13
Jim Furyk 68-71-66-71-276 -12
Hideto Tanihara 72-68-66-71-277 -11
Sergio Garcia 68-71-65-73-277 -11
Angel Cabrera 71-68-66-73-278 -10
Carl Pettersson 68-72-70-69-279 -9
Andres Romero 70-70-68-71-279 -9
Adam Scott 68-69-70-72-279 -9
NOTABLES
Retief Goosen 70-66-72-73-281 -7
Phil Mickelson 69-71-73-70-283 -5
David Duval 70-70-78-71-289 +1