Location: St Andrews, Scotland Dates: 14-17 July Coverage: BBC TV, radio and online, on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport mobile application. Complete coverage details.
They were sitting on the balconies and hanging from the windows, they were crumpled behind fences and barriers and 10 deep behind the ropes.
The mass of humanity to the right and left of hole 18 was something to see a little after 3pm BST on Friday.
Veteran observers say they haven’t experienced a standing ovation like this since Jack Nicklaus left St Andrews in 2005. Now it was Tiger Woods ’turn.
Later, in a candid speech, he said he hoped to play at The Open again, but that we will probably never see him play at a St Andrews Open. However, we didn’t have that clarity on the field, as he stood on the tee at 18 years old.
Everyone around him was looking for emotion in his face, looking for clues that retirement was near and that the history of golf – and the sport – was being played out before his eyes.
While he waited for the green 18 to lighten, what was going on in his head? Did it drift in a tide of nostalgia and excitement? No. A fighter to the last, he was thinking of 5 sticks or 3 sticks. He thought about the wind and what it was doing, the humidity of the ground and its likely impact on the ball. He was nine years above parity and still grinding.
Sentimentalism had to come, though. It has a heart, though its years as a winning machine sometimes suggested it wasn’t out of this world.
“When I got off my shirt, I heard the boys [playing partners Matt Fitzpatrick and Max Homa] I stopped and looked around. ‘Where the hell is Joey [LaCava, his caddie]? ‘”
They had all been held back so Woods could get them up 18. Respect. “That’s when I started to realize, ‘Hey, next time you come over here I might not be there.’
‘I had a few tears; it’s very emotional for me ‘
The galleries were trapped by what they would do on the Swilcan Bridge, the traditional place where heroes bid farewell to golf.
Would it stop or move forward? Would he stop and take off his cap and shake it like Jack did and like Arnold Palmer did before him, a sure sign that this was the swan song, or would he just keep walking?
In the end, he did both. He slowed down, but did not stop. He took off his cap and saluted, but did not stop at once to drink the acclaim. As one fan said behind a barrier when the big man had walked, “What does that mean? Is that it or not?”
“As I walked further down the street, I saw Rory [McIlroy] right there, “said Woods of the Northern Irishman, who was making his by the first hole.” He gave me the tip of the lid. JT [Justin Thomas] he did the same. It was really cool. The nods I got from the guys as they were leaving and I was coming in, it was pretty clean.
“Then I got closer to the green and the ovation got louder and you could feel the warmth. I felt like the whole tournament was right there. Everyone appreciated what I’ve done here over the years I’ve played. it only got to a point right there as I was walking towards my golf ball. “
Woods had a chance to birdie on the 18th, but his putt fell just right
Woods rarely speaks like that. At its peak, it would rather jump into a lake than give you the slightest glimpse of what was going on inside its head. Visual display of emotion? Forget about it. For so many years the walls were raised, but now the walls were coming down.
“I had a few tears,” he continued. “I’m not one of those people who cries very often for nothing, but when it comes to the game and the transition … I was lucky to see in 1995 Arnold hit his first starting shot in the second round. [of his final Open]. And I could hear Jack playing his last; He was probably about four holes behind him [10 years later] and he could hear the cheers getting louder and louder.
“I felt it when I came in. People knew I wasn’t going to make the cut. I put my heart and soul into this event over the years. It’s very emotional for me. The ovation I received at 18 is something I will always remember.
“I have been selling here since 1995 and I think the next one [St Andrews Open] it comes in 2030 and I don’t know if I will be able to play physically by then. Not in jubilation. I will be able to play future Opens. But in eight years’ time … I doubt if I will be competitive at this level. “
The old open courses usually take place every five years, so maybe we’ll be back here in 2027, although nothing has been confirmed.
Will Tiger ever return to St Andrews?
So this one was goodbye to St Andrews, where his Open story began.
Golf has presented epic stories over many eras, life journeys that are fascinating, from Bobby Jones to Ben Hogan and beyond. It’s easy to make a case because the peaks and lows of Woods ’tale are the most extraordinary of all.
A Tiger Slam in 2000-01, a US Open won in 2008 with an ACL fracture and two stress fractures in his left tibia, a crashed SUV in 2009 that caused misfortune and divorce, a back surgery on 2014, an 82 in the Phoenix. Open to his passage, an 85 at the Memorial shortly after and, with it, firm predictions of the end.
A second back surgery in September 2015, a third a month later, a fourth 18 months later. Then, in 2017, he was arrested and briefly imprisoned in Florida when police found him asleep and then became disoriented behind the wheel of his car with the engine running.
The legend that is Woods is not only based on his major championships, but focuses on the ridiculous improbability of his recovery. Going through all of this and then winning the Master in 2019, his 15th major title, was one of the sport’s most outrageous renaissance songs.
Since then he has had another surgery and another car accident, a serious one that could have cost him everything. It may not move like it did, but every time you put one foot in front of the other on a golf course it’s a reminder that it’s a miracle to walk.
“Life goes on,” he said Friday. “People have no idea what I have to go through or the hours of body work every day to do what I just did. That’s what people don’t understand. They don’t see.”
Will he ever return here, even as a recreational golfer? “I don’t know. I’m sure my son will probably want it. I was lucky to have been an honorary member of R&A. I have my closet here and that’s why I can get a T-shirt. Time. So that could happen. “.
The Open is still without him, but no matter how good this ranking is, there is an unmistakable sense of loss now that Woods is gone.
Whether he’s shooting 68 or 78, in the lives of most, if not all, of the Old Course, there’s never been a show like a Tiger.