Tiger Woods wins the Masters
5 Masters wins, 3 US Open wins, 4 PGA Championship wins, 11 PGA Tour Player of the Year awards, 2nd in all-time PGA Tour wins (81), and 3rd in all-time European Tour wins (41). All of these accolades belong to 43-year-old golf veteran Tiger Woods. Woods began golfing professionally in 1996, joining his first PGA Tour. This was the beginning of a legendary career. However, due to consistent injuries starting in 2012, his career took a nosedive. Woods was very discouraged, even considering retirement at one point, but his love and passion for the sport made him persist and he completed his comeback seven years later. On April 14, Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters Tournament, 14 years since he last won the Masters Tournament. This also his first major win in six years, the last one being the 2009 US Open.
After the 1st round on Thursday, Woods was tied in 11th plae with -2 points, 4 strokes behind leader Brooks Koepka. Woods was better in the second round, gaining -4 points to get a total of -6, but five other players had -7 strokes, so Woods was tied in 6th place. Woods’ best round came in the 3rd round, totalling -11 points to be joint-second on the scoreboard, only two strokes behind Francesco Molinari. In the last round, Woods scored -2 points, going on to win the tournament by one stroke.
Tiger Woods was almost injured by a security guard on the 14th hole of the 2nd round. After he hit a difficult birdie, the fans were really excited and pushed forward to see what had happened. The security guards ran towards the crowd in order to control them. Due to the rainy weather, the ground was really slippery, and one of the guards slid and hit Woods’ ankle. Woods could have been injured again, but the guard’s foot didn’t strike his ankle directly.
A few days before the tournament, a gambler betted $85,000 on Tiger Woods winning the Masters, who had a 14-1 odds of winning. He received $119,000 and broke the record for the highest income earned by an individual for a golfing tournament.Featured Image – Tiger Woods celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the 2019 Masters. Courtesy of Lucy Nicholson
by Andy Kim