The old lion roars again and the golf world celebrates the return of its king. Tiger Woods won the 83rd edition of the Augusta Masters on Sunday afternoon after a close duel with Francesco Molinari and wore, for the fifth time in his life, the green jacket of a member of the most exclusive club in the United States. Thus he adds a major to the 14 that he already has on his bulletin board and can start again in pursuit of the record of 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus. 11 years have passed since his last success in a grand slam tournament, 22 years have passed since his first success in Georgia, 14 since his last. It is his 81st victory on the PGA tour and is worth two million dollars. But above all it is a sporting resurrection like few others see, which comes after a long series of problems, from knee to back surgeries, from red light scandals to police custody, on the street, where he was found asleep in his car and filled with painkillers.
“Only 12 months ago I considered myself lucky to play again – comments the champion hotly – and now I'm here to celebrate this victory. It's unreal, I couldn't be happier, I even lack the words to say it."
Eldrick Tont Woods returns to success in a major at 43 years played and at the end of 72 holes full of ups and downs, emotions and fears kept at bay by great concentration. At the end, the 40 spectators at the Augusta National and his family, the elderly mother, whom Tiger embraces for a long time, as she does with his two children, applaud him standing up. “My father was here in '97 – Tiger recalls – now I am the father of two children. They are the point of my new departure”.
The former world number one doesn't dominate the match from start to finish as he used to (it's the first time he's won a major coming from behind), but he keeps his nerve and knows how to wait without making irreparable mistakes. His putt is no longer so relentless, his charisma is no longer so scary, but the tiger still smells blood when the prey feels hunted.
Too bad that this time his meal is called Francesco Molinari and leads the ranking up to the 11th hole of the fourth round. Molinari has already beaten Tiger on other occasions, but this is Woods' territory, the club that once wanted only black caddies and only white members and which has been going crazy for him for more than twenty years, the track he knows and loves best . It all happens at 12. It's strange that a short par three, with a water corset in front of the green, claims so many victims. Yet it is so. The haunted 12th hole was the rock against which Jordan Spieth's dream crashed in 2016 (he had already won in 2015), and yesterday it was the black hole that swallowed Molinari. The Turinese points the flag, instead he goes into the water and scores a double bogey. Nothing is lost yet, because Tiger has only caught him at the top of the chart. But everything is actually already lost, because the spell has been broken. Molinari turned out to be vulnerable and Tiger knows it's time to sink his claws, in fact in the next hole he scores a biridie.
In these cases bad luck also plays its part: the blue loses two more shots in the 15th minute and finishes fifth in the end. This is golf, you can be perfect for the whole game (Chicco played 50 holes without a bogey) and lose everything in an instant. As some commentators have said, champions dare and sometimes they lose. Even Tiger has had to learn this lesson over the past decade. And as he himself admitted, this was his most beautiful victory, because it was the most painful. fffff
