Rooting for Tiger Woods

By Al S. Mendoza

 

IS Tiger Woods leading the Masters or not?

Or, is he out of the Top 10 and too far from the leader to contend for the crown?

Or, God forbid, did he get cut on Saturday, April 12?

I ask the above as this was written in advance.

Deadline torture had required us to submit this piece two days before the Masters tee off on April 10.

The Masters holds its fourth and final day tomorrow, Monday.

Of all the golf tournaments in the world held yearly, the Masters has a special spot in my heart.

In fact, it is my favorite tournament in the world.

I have already said it here but let me say it again to put things in their proper perspective.

In 1991, I was in the Masters, whose permanent home is the Augusta Golf National in Augusta, Georgia.

I covered the historic 1991 appearance there of Frankie Minoza, the third and last Filipino to play in the Masters after Luis “Golem” Silverio and Bantam Ben Arda.

Golem and Bantam have gone to the Great Beyond but I hold fond memories of them as I had the luck to cover their exploits—even if they happened in the tail end of their glorious careers.

Months before Golem succumbed to emphysema (Ben, like Golem, also smoked a lot, had died of lung cancer), we had dinner in his native Bacolod.

He was already fast slipping away at that time—but that is another story.

For his decent finish, Golem got re-invited in the Masters, which is the only major that does not allow its defending champion to come back unless invited.

The Masters, to those not in the know, is the first major golf tournament of the year.

The three other majors every year are the U.S. Open in June, the British Open in July and the PGA Championship in September.

Of the 99 or so players this year, Tiger Woods is definitely the top draw.

This, even as Woods has plummeted to a grisly low of 111th in the world for finishing winless in the 2014 season.

That is such a sorry development for the one-time No. 1 in the world for 683 consecutive weeks, whose 14 majors is second only behind the all-time best of 18 majors recorded by the now-retired Jack Nicklaus.

Even as the winner of the Masters will only be known tomorrow, I had prayed and next had hoped that Woods would win.

It’s obvious:  I am a Woods fan.

And that’s because I had followed, literally, his career since he was the 7-year-old wonder teeing off in the World Juniors in San Diego’s Torrey Pines in California.

More than two decades later, Woods owns four Green Jackets symbolic of victory in the Masters, the grandest stage of golf.

If he would not win tomorrow but had fought well, I’ll take that anytime–as Sen. Tito Sotto, my golf buddy, would, too.

After all, Woods was out of tournament play for eight weeks after quitting on the 12th hole at Torrey Pines due to back stiffness on February 5.

Thus, it’d be a bonus already if he had made the cut.

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