Some called it the greatest comeback in the history of sports. Tiger Woods was reluctant to claim it was even the best comeback in his own sport. He points to Ben Hogan, who won the US Open a year and a half after he nearly died in a car crash. Hogan was hit by an oncoming bus. He threw himself across his wife’s lap to protect her from the impact and, while she was uninjured, he suffered a broken pelvis, collarbone, ankle and ribs. They mended again but he suffered with blood clots for the rest of his life and had to have emergency surgery. He was told he would never walk again and then he went on to win another six majors.
And yet, for all that, one can say this much: Woods’s story is unique in one important way, unlike all those others, in that he did not suffer physically or personally but physically and personally. He has been tormented in body and soul, his body broken, his back shattered and fused back together again, his reputation shredded and the bits and pieces strewn out for the rest of us to pick over. And here he was, walking off that 18th green, Masters champion, with his family around him, having put it all back together again.
“You never give up,” says Woods. “That’s a given. You always fight. Just giving up’s never in the equation.”
To commend this comeback Johnny Cupcakes dropped the Tiger Cupcakes tee.
