For Tiger, after 'Everest' it's the Hills

TULSA, Okla. — So here at a golf course called Southern Hills, Tiger Woods reflected on making a successful figurative ascent of a more testing piece of property, Augusta National, where stunningly a month ago he made it through four rounds of the Masters.

The right leg severely damaged in the 2021 car accident was swollen and painful the day after the Masters. But following treatment, Woods said, “We kept going from there. Let's go. Figured you climbed Everest. That’s the steepest course you’re going to play.

“You climbed it. It gets flatter and better.”

And so Woods, who never ignored a challenge, will enter the 104th PGA Championship, the second major of the year, adding a personality and some memories at a place where in 2007 he added to his total of major wins, now at 15.

Before the Masters in April, the question was whether Woods, now 46 and having undergone months of rehabilitation and therapy, could make it walking Augusta. He — and we — learned.

We also learned once again that Woods, healthy or ailing, is not going to forego any opportunity to enter a major championship, those events that Jack Nicklaus established as a standard of greatness. Jack won 18 before retiring.

Golf and tennis are sports of individuality and reputation. We watch the players we know, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams. Nicklaus, even the missing man, Phil Mickelson, and how they performed in the majors, the grand slams. That’s how you add to your legacy. To your own satisfaction.

Naturally Woods was asked how he felt immediately after the Masters.

“It was was hurting,” he admitted, “but I pushed through it. It was more in the mind than body. I said, I've won with a broken leg before (at Torrey Pines in the 2008 U.S. Open). Keep on going out there, keep pushing. I know how to play the golf course. If I can just putt well, you never know. Unfortunately Saturday, I think I had like 15 three-putts.

“The thing that I was frustrated with is it deteriorated as the week went on. I got more and more tired and more fatigued. I didn't have the endurance that I wanted. I mean, I shouldn't expect it because I didn't earn it.” 

We’re all competing against Father Time. It’s been 15 long years since his triumph at Southern Hills.

The issue doesn’t have to do with that misunderstood line about not going home again. We, including Tiger Woods, might return to the place we knew, but if it still is the same — and Southern Hills has been altered — the ones who come here to play or watch are changed.

His best days are in that infamous rearview mirror, yet that doesn’t mean there aren’t some fine ones up ahead. He has designed a golf course at Pebble Beach. He has created an academy to assist and encourage young people with their education.

But most of all, Woods is a golfer.

A golfer who has survived and will never concede.

A golfer who during the media session on Tuesday that lasted a half hour was asked, “How close are you physically now to being as good as it's going to get, based on your injuries?”

A golfer who’s response might have been predictable: “It sure is a lot better than it was 12 months ago.”

Who could be disappointed in that?