With what the world has learned about Tiger Woods these past few years, it’s amazing anyone cheers for the guy.
Yet there he was in the final round of the world’s most famous golf tournament, the obvious favourite to win the Masters – proof that you don’t have to be a great person to be a great story.
Returning from serious back surgeries, being able to walk and play golf again at such a phenomenal level, evidently overrides his shortcomings as a role model. Woods’ social and physical problems never diminished the fact he — even more so than Arnold Palmer – turned golf into a worldwide phenomenon.
While he fought his way back to some level of respectability, the debates raged about whether he would win a fifth Masters or his 15th major tournament to trail only peerless Jack Nicklaus. It looks like the chase has resumed.
Watching the drama unfold Sunday, then seeing him hug his children and mother in jubilation where he hugged his now-late father 22 years earlier, Woods may have become the best kind of story: A redemption story.