Tiger Woods had a heartfelt moment with retiring legend Verne Lundquist during his final round.
Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Tiger Woods did not have the weekend at the Masters he wanted.
After making his record-breaking 24th-straight cut, the five-time green jacket winner ballooned to his worst-ever Masters Saturday with an 82. He wasn’t much better on Sunday, coming home with a 77 to finish at 16 over, last place among the 60 players who made the cut. It’s Woods’ worst finish at the Masters aside from his lone missed cut as an amateur in 1996 and his WD a year ago.
His four-round total of 304 is also his worst score at the Masters — or any other major — three strokes higher than his finish here in 2022.
It’s just the third time Woods has completed 72 holes at an official event since his comeback from a devastating car crash began at the 2022 Masters. Two of those came at the Masters, while the third was at last year’s Genesis Invitational.
That achievement was not lost on Woods despite his finish.
“It was a good week. It was a good week all around,” he said. “I think that coming in here, not having played a full tournament in a very long time, it was a good fight on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately yesterday it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to.”
Woods mentioned doing homework on “Pinehurst, Valhalla and Troon,” the sites of the year’s other three majors but stopped short on committing to next month’s PGA Championship.
“Just keep lifting, keep the motor going, keep the body moving, keep getting stronger, keep progressing,” he said. “Hopefully the practice sessions will keep getting longer.”
While his score was unspectacular, Woods did share a special moment with another Augusta National legend as he walked off the 16th gren.
As the five-time Masters winner played the sight of one of his most famous shots, Verne Lundquist, the man who called them on TV, was spotted behind the green. Lundquist is calling his final Masters for CBS this week, and you have to wonder if he hoped to make one more lasting call for Woods — even if he was the only one who was going to hear it.
Woods nearly gave him that opportunity.
After dumping his tee shot in the front bunker, Woods blasted his second past the flag and used the slope behind the hole to pull the ball back toward the cup. The ball slowly gathered speed as it rolled back to the flag before just sliding by the right side.
“Oh my goodness” indeed.
Featured group coverage caught a shot of Woods standing with Lundquist the only person watching him in the background.
“A man with magic in his hands, looked on by a man with magic in his voice,” Shane Bacon said on the broadcast. “Those two, over the last 25 years, the definition of the Masters.”
Before Woods walked up to the 17th tee, he stopped to shake hands with the broadcasting icon. Woods did not reveal what was exchanged between the two, but one thing is for certain: in our lives, we have never seen another player and broadcaster duo like them.
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