Tiger Woods caps off greatest comeback in sports at the Masters

A little more than a year ago Tiger Woods could barely walk. Now he’s the Masters champion for the fifth time, a stunning turnaround nearly unparalleled in the history of sports.

Sport is an endeavor that tests athletes’ physical and mental capabilities, that forces them to do things no normal human could do. Sometimes, though, the ability to do these things is taken away by debilitating injury. But that only makes the comeback even sweeter.

Tiger Woods orchestrated his own comeback story on Sunday, winning his fifth Masters title at Augusta National. That Woods, arguably the most dominant player the game has ever known, won at a place he’s had so much success at in the past isn’t a surprise. What is surprising is he managed to do so despite all he’s gone through in the 14 years since he last slipped on the green jacket.

Just a year ago, Woods was just hoping to make it back to the PGA Tour. Four back surgeries, the last in April 2017, had robbed him of several years of his career. Woods didn’t play a single event in 2016. He came back to play the Farmers Insurance Open in 2017, his first PGA Tour event in 16 months, but missed the cut. Three months later he underwent another back surgery and didn’t play again that year. By the end of 2017, Woods, who had spent more than 600 weeks as the No. 1 player in the world, had fallen to 1,199th in the world rankings.

In 2018, though, Woods didn’t just start playing again; he started playing well. He finished runner-up at the Valspar Championship in March, his first top-10 finish on tour in nearly three years. He took the lead on Sunday at the Open Championship before falling back to sixth, then was runner-up at the PGA Championship. Finally, the comeback was complete when he won the Tour Championship in September, his first win on tour in five years.

Woods’ win on Sunday, 14 years after his last Masters title and 11 since his last Major, will be remembered as one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history. In little more than a year he went from doubting he would play again to being presented his green jacket in Butler Cabin.

Seven decades ago, another of golf’s all-time greats had his own comeback story, one that nearly cost him his life. Ben Hogan was driving on the morning of Feb. 2, 1949, when a Greyhound bus coming from the other direction crossed over the road and collided head-on with his car. Hogan threw himself in front of his wife Valerie to protect her, a move that likely saved his life. Had he not, he would’ve been crushed by the steering wheel. Hogan fractured his pelvis, collarbone and ankle. Some newspapers reported that he died.

Early in 1950, though, Hogan made his return to the tour. Sixteen months after being reported dead, he won the U.S. Open at Merion, hitting a 1-iron shot to the 18th green that’s become one of the most iconic images in golf. Three years later he was the game’s most dominant player, winning the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship in 1953.

Despite the wins, Hogan never fully recovered. He would have trouble walking a full 18 holes for the rest of his career and skipped the PGA Championship for a decade because of the tournament’s demand of playing 36-hole matches every day.

Woods didn’t nearly die, but his career was left for dead even by himself. His comeback is just as admirable as Hogan’s because of the stunning image of the once-powerful Woods suddenly barely able to move. That player was nowhere in sight on Sunday at Augusta National, and Woods hopes he’s never seen again.

More recently than Hogan, Woods’s comeback is similar to those of Peyton Manning and Serena Williams. Manning had neck surgery that cost him the entire 2011 season and the ability to throw a football. He came back with the Denver Broncos to set NFL records in passing yards and touchdowns and won the Super Bowl in his final season. Like Hogan, Williams nearly died, she in childbirth in September 2017. She also came back to make the final of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open the next year. She congratulated Woods on Twitter after his win, knowing firsthand what he’s gone through to get back to this point.

The sporting world was nearly robbed of each of these athletes performing at their best. But it turns out their comebacks were their most heroic deeds. After all, that’s why we watch sports.