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TERPSTRA – Tiger Woods’ road to redemption a true comeback story

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

The roar from the gallery at Augusta National could have drowned out any jet engine.

The celebration was 14 years in the making, but it seemed like the wait of a lifetime.

All the years of pain, frustration, doubt and embarrassment melted away for the world’s best golfer with one two-foot putt early Sunday afternoon.

Tiger was back and the green jacket still fit.

TERPSTRA – Tiger Woods’ road to redemption a true comeback story
Kelly Terpstra

Woods strolled up to Hole No. 18 at the famed Masters sporting his familiar red Nike shirt. It’s like the old Tiger never left us.

But this was different. This was the new and improved Tiger.

The 43-year old legend sensed victory was imminent — his fifth Masters title and a green jacket he had worn so often before would soon be placed over his shoulders.

When the crowd finally erupted and Tiger pumped his fist, the comeback was complete.

This was one for the ages.

This was no fairy tale story that happened overnight for Woods. He didn’t just suddenly revert to his winning form.

Small, positive glimpses of his old self started to manifest over a year ago with a top-five finish in Florida.

That was the same state in which he was arrested for driving under the influence less than a year prior. The booking mugshot and video of Woods during his arrest was not a good look.

Fast forward to a sixth-place finish at the Open Championship last summer in Scotland — a major tournament that at one point saw him tied atop the leaderboard.

Then there was his first PGA Tour win in over five years at the season-ending Tour Championship last September.

That was a far cry from 2015 when he missed multiple majors and countless cuts. The truth hurt then — Woods was a shell of himself.

Pundits were actually using the “R” word in reference to his shoddy and sporadic play. Could the greatest golfer RETIRE before 45?

Woods was left for dead by many in a sport that he helped transform. He could barely walk, let alone swing a golf club.

It was one back surgery after another – one more roadblock and pitfall impeding his path to succeed.

The road to redemption can be a rocky climb.

Woods – now balding and far removed from the physically gifted world-wide phenom that captivated millions – is back at it and in the winner’s circle.

It feels like 1999 all over. Goosebumps shot up my arm early Sunday afternoon as the crowd’s roar turned into chants of Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!

He hugged his mom, his kids, then his girlfriend.

I’m thinking Tiger would have hugged everyone standing around the clubhouse if he could – even that security guard that earlier in the week that tried to “take him out.”

Social media soon blew up with well-wishers thanking Woods for the legend coming full circle and again capturing glory out on a golf course. The Twittersphere was on fire.

It was an unbelievable moment in sports history.

The game’s greatest golfer spoke to the media after the historic major victory – his 15th overall, now three shy of the “Golden Bear” Jack Nicklaus’ 18.

“Luckily I had the procedure on my back, which gave me a chance at having a normal life. But then all of a sudden, I realized I could actually swing a golf club again. I felt if I could somehow piece this together that I still had the hands to do it. The body’s not the same as it was a long time ago, but I still have good hands,” Woods said.

Like another legend in his own time once said, “it’s all in the reflexes.”

That was Jack Burton, played by Kurt Russell in the John Carpenter movie “Big Trouble in Little China.”

A 1986 cinematic cult classic.

What does that movie have to do with comebacks and golf? Not much, but the Pork Chop Express keeps rolling along and doesn’t have time to slow down.

If you’ve seen the movie, you understand the reference.

“Have you paid your dues, Jack?”

“Yes sir, the check is in the mail,” Jack would reply on his CB radio rolling down the highway in his 18-wheeler.

Broken down, it’s a simple concept. Life will pass you by and swallow you up whole if you let it.

I remember hearing people talk about another legend who sadly never recovered from his struggles — Elvis Presley.

Presley’s fall from grace (no pun intended to Graceland) was shocking.

But it was gradual, so people learned to live with fat Elvis. I was only 3 years old when he died, but people would often mention how the main thing that remained constant in Elvis’ life was his beautiful voice.

It never went away.

Through all the drugs, turmoil and insanity, his one special gift remained true.

But like so many that have come before and after him – the “King” succumbed to those demons.

Woods kept plugging away and reinvented himself.

All the great ones have one defining trait and in the case of Woods, it may have well been his hands.

But his most important characteristic in my mind is his perseverance — his ability to overcome in the face of tremendous doubt, guilt and shame.

What do you do when the chips are down?

Do you cave in, hide or duck and run?

Or do you stand up to adversity and fight?

It’s easy to give up, but it’s extremely difficult to do things that don’t feel natural or normal in order to reclaim your life and succeed at a level that you know you can.

I always remember Michael Jordan talking about what made him so successful.

It wasn’t his God-given talent.

It was losing.

It drove him to extreme lengths to be the world’s best basketball player.

“’I went out and worked harder, and it changed who I was. When you hate losing more than you love winning, you take excuses off the table,’” a magazine editor once recalled Jordan saying. “’A loss is not a failure until you make an excuse.’”

No amount of alleged dalliances with strippers, alleged drug abuse or perceived egomaniacal behavior was going to stop Tiger from his ultimate goal — to win.

Woods is no saint and I’ve heard countless stories about him that don’t exactly paint him in a positive light.

None of us is perfect.

But this win was for all of us on Sunday.

We reveled in it.

So did Tiger.

I missed his smile – that winning grin.

Tiger’s back, baby. Yes indeed, he’s back.

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