Sunday was a busy day in the sports world. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are underway as is the NBA Playoffs. The Major League Baseball season is in full force, as well. Though every single game took a back seat to one event — and it wasn’t the season premiere of Game of Thrones, as big a deal as that was, too.
It was The Masters. But Augusta was different this year because Tiger Woods had a legitimate shot at another green jacket and his first major win since 2008.
While at the TD Garden for the Boston Celtics matchup against the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, I saw two things I never thought possible. One was Woods sitting back atop the golf world. The issues off of the course, health problems and the general stress a drought creates all made it seem impossible he would ever win again. Not to mention he’s getting up there in age (43).
But that wasn’t the most shocking part of it, not for me at least. While Woods made his charge to the finish, there were countless reporters and staff hooked on what was happening nearly 1000 miles south of the Garden.
While The Masters are a slightly bigger deal than the first game of the first round of the NBA Playoffs, I never would’ve expected to see a number of men and women watching basketball from the corner of their eye while focusing in on golf. One’s the second most popular sport in the world, the other is barely even fodder at proverbial water coolers — at least when Woods isn’t around.
For all the wins and championships Michael Jordan and Tom Brady have to their name, or the events Michael Phelps dominated in the Olympics, there is no story in sports that will ever top what happened on Sunday. A man who had it all, only to see it all crumble around him built himself back up to win the single most important event in the sport he devoted his life to.
Woods may win another major. Heck, the chase to knock off Jack Nicklaus might even be back on. But none will ever top this one.
