Tiger Woods arrived at Hoylake in the long, hot summer of 2006 on the back of chalking up his first ever missed cut in a major after shooting back-to-back 76s in the US Open. That hurt a man who back then, aged 31, felt that every major golf championship was his to lose – a belief that was drilled into him from boyhood by his father, Earl, who had passed away just two months earlier.
Determined to put his lacklustre performance at Winged Foot behind him, Woods stepped out onto the burnished links at Royal Liverpool with a clear game plan. Stay in the fairway and out of the bunkers. Nothing else mattered.
In 2000, when Woods won his first ever Claret Jug, he avoided every bunker at the Old Course at St Andrews. Could lightning strike twice, and enable him to do the same at Hoylake, another course famed for its treacherous hazards?
And while it was a plan that, before the off, seemed unlikely to yield a hatful of birdies and eagles, it also avoided the possibility of the card-wrecking 6s and 7s that can take you out of a tournament before it has properly started.
With the course baked as hard as the M1, and the ball rolling out on the fairways like a marble on ice, even keeping the ball in play with an iron off the tee was no mean feat. But once again, Tiger proved he’s doubters wrong. In a record first round of low scoring – 59 players shot under par – he opened up with a 5-under 67 to sit just one off the pace set by the course record-breaking Graeme McDowell, who fired a 66.
Using the driver just once – at the par-five 16th hole – Tiger put his trust in his 3-wood and 2-iron to get him within range of Hoylake’s well-guarded greens and let his mastery with the wedge and golden touch with the putter do the rest.
Friday’s second round saw Tiger in total control of his golf ball as he stormed into the lead with a near-faultless 65, which included an outrageous eagle on the par-4 14th hole from over 200 yards out. Sitting at -12 for 36 holes, Tiger was just
a shot in front of Ernie Els, who matched his 65, with Chris DiMarco two shots further back with a 65 of his own.
Saturday – Moving Day – saw Tiger maintain his one-shot lead with a steady 71, but Els, DiMarco and Sergio García, who fired a third round 65, were ready to pounce should Woods wobble.
Woods wobble? Not a chance. He barely batted an eye as he strode imperiously around Hoylake on Sunday’s final round, twirling his club after virtually every shot en route to a masterful 67, an 18-under-par total, and a two-shot win over DiMarco. Like a maestro conducting an orchestra, Woods never missed a beat, and never once found the sand. Indeed, such was the level of perfection, that Nick Faldo, who knows a thing or two about links golf, described it as ‘masterclass of tactitional golf’.
“Dad was always on my case about thinking my way around the golf course and not letting emotions get the better of you”
After sinking the winning putt, Woods slumped into the arms of his caddie, Steve Williams, and the tears flowed as he remembered the father who had inspired and driven him to this point in his career.
“I’m kind of the one who bottles things up a little bit and moves on, tries to deal with things in my own way,”Tiger
said during his championship press conference.“But at that moment it just came pouring out and of all the things that my father has meant to me and the game of golf, and I just wish he could have seen it one more time.”
For a man with 15 major wins – although only two since 2006 – and over 80 other tournament victories – Hoylake will always hold a special place in Tiger’s heart. It was a celebration and a memorial in a profound sense to his relationship with Earl, a man who successfully guided his son from a child prodigy to a full-blown global superstar that transformed the sport of golf.
“Dad was always on my case about thinking my way around the golf course and not letting emotions get the better of you, because it’s so very easy to do in this sport,”Woods recalled.“And just use your mind to plot your way around the golf course and if you had to deviate from the game plan, make sure it is the right decision to do that. Dad was very adamant I play like that my entire playing career.”
Sadly, Woods won’t be at Hoylake this year to try and recreate some of those spell-binding shots he pulled off in 2006, as he tries to recover from yet another career- threatening injury, but no-one who was lucky enough to witness those four magical days on the Wirral will ever forget what it is to be in the presence of greatness.