For Tiger before the Open, apologies and memories

HOYLAKE, England — For the guests, it was a time for memories. For the man speaking, Tiger Woods, it was a time for appreciation, along with those memories.

A return to Royal Liverpool Golf Club, where 17 years ago, in 2006, Woods made his presence felt by again winning the Open Championship-the British Open.

And where Tuesday night in a video presentation, Tiger spun back the years, offering thanks and even a few apologies to journalists he had offended in his abrasive say of unequaled success.

Which made some sense because he was receiving an award from the Association of Golf Writers for Outstanding Services to Golf.

Like what wonders one cynic, winning 83 tournaments?

Sorry, Tiger or videos are always welcome everywhere in the sport that he very much helped make popular in the extreme.

We kept hearing there would be another Tiger. But as he approaches his 48th birthday and continues to recover from that rollover crash of March 2021, we realize he was one of a kind. 

Not a Unicorn, a Tiger.

The Golf Channel, the internet sites and newspaper headlines offer a wide variety of those who would fit the description of a star with Rory McIlroy, Bruce Koepka, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler — each of whom is in the 151st Open, starting Thursday — and each of whom has won no less than one major.

Yet when the Open comes back to Royal Liverpool, the thoughts inevitably turn in Tiger’s direction. How a month after the death of his father, Earl, he plotted and played his way to a championship, and figured the way to win was to not lose.

It’s almost hard to imagine it this week, with storms forecast, but the summer of ’06 was hot and dry. The course was brown, not green, and the fairways were fast.

Tiger, battling Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Chris DiMarco, was adept rather than aggressive, using his driver off the tee only once, missing the fairway on the par-5 16th hole in the first round but still making the birdie. The idea was to stay out of the many, huge bunkers, and Woods did that to perfection. Not once in 72 holes did Tiger need to hit a ball from the sand.

He closed with a 67 to end up two strokes ahead of DiMarco, with Els in third. Tiger, also winning in 2005 at St. Andrews, became the first back-to-back Open winner since Tom Watson in 1982-83.

With the passing of his father, who had been his mentor, on his mind during the competition, Woods later called the Open the most difficult event mentally he ever had played.

After the last putt fell, so did tears.