What Tiger Woods said after winning the Tour Championship
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PGA Tour win No. 80: Find out what Tiger Woods said after ending his sensational comeback season with victory at the Tour Championship
About what the win means to him/ where it ranks…
It means a lot. It really does. You know, the people who are close to me saw the struggles and what I was going through, and some of the players that I’m pretty close to, they’ve really helped throughout this process and the last few years. Their support and some of those things that they said coming off that last green meant a lot to me.
It’s certainly up there with obviously all the major championships I’ve won, Players, World Golf Championships. But this is under different circumstances. You know, I’ve explained throughout the year that I just didn’t know whether — when this would ever happen again. If I could somehow piece together a golf swing this year, I felt like I could do it. My hands are good enough, and I just didn’t know if I could piece together a golf swing.
But somehow I’ve been able to do that, and here we are.
Being emotional over the final putt…
I’m having a hard time not crying the last hole. I said, hey, you know what, I can still blade this thing out of bounds. Just suck it up and let’s hit some shots. Here, and once I got the ball on the green, I gave Joey a high five because it was done. I could handle that from there.
I was pretty emotional when Rory was tapping out, he was finishing out. I looked around, and it was — the tournament was over because I’d already put the bunker shot on the green, and I’d won 80. 80 is a big number. I’ve been sitting on 79 for about five years now, and to get 80 is a pretty damned good feeling.
On grinding out that final round to win…
The game plan was to shoot under par, and I birdied the first hole right out of the gate. Now, play the next 17 in even par, and we’re good to go. I was just grinding out there, and I was telling Joey, it felt like more of a grind today because of where I kept leaving myself. I had downhill putts virtually every single hole. The only two putts I made today — well, three putts I made today at 1 and 4, the par putt, and 13 — those were all uphill. It seemed like I was downhill, downgrain every single hole, and I was putting very defensive and conservatively all day.
About getting to PGA Tour win number 80…
I just think any time you can get to change the decade number, it’s a pretty damned good feeling.
To kind of get to the 80 mark is a big number. Sam is still ahead of me. I’ve still got, I feel like, a chance to play some more golf and maybe I’ll keep chipping away at that number and maybe surpass it. But I just think that what I’ve gone through and what I’ve dealt with, I’ve gotten lucky, to be honest with you. I’ve gotten very lucky. I’m not playing a full contact sport or I’ve got to move people around in that regard. At 42 years old with a fused lower spine; that’s not going to happen.
But in this sport, it can. I’m lucky to have the opportunity to have the people around me to have supported me and worked through this process with me, and I’ve ground out a chance to win golf tournaments again.
His comeback…
Just to be able to compete and play again this year, that’s a hell of a comeback. Just be able to play golf again and enjoy being with my kids and living that life. And then lo and behold, I’m able to do this and win a golf tournament.
About his arms-up celebration…
You know, celebrations aren’t planned. They just come out. They’re spontaneous. I don’t know, my arms went up. I can’t describe it more than that.
Whether he’d ever experienced crowds and commotion like that before…
The fans and the commotion, no. It was similar to, if you guys remember, in ’97 at the Western coming down the last hole. That was a little bit like that. But not to this fevered pitch. This was different. I guess it’s different now because the art of clapping is gone, right? You can’t clap when you’ve got a cell phone in your hand. So people yell, and they were yelling — they’re going to be hoarse.
What he thinks it will mean to his kids
I think they understand a little bit of what Dad does now. I hadn’t won any tournaments in which they can remember, so I think this will be a little bit different for them. To be able to have shared what I did with them at the British Open this year, I had a chance, I had the lead. They felt it, that atmosphere. They felt it, and they know what their dad can do on a golf course now. It’s not what I used to be able to do. A lot of times they equated golf to pain because every time I did it, I would hurt, and it would cause me more pain. And so now they’re seeing a little bit of joy and seeing how much fun it is for me to be able to do this again.
