‘This one means the most’: a journey through Tiger Woods's travails

Brexit, Trump, the hot priest in Fleabag, Israel, Messi, Ronaldo: there are plenty of hot-button topics guaranteed to spark friendly debate among the reasonable and well-meaning folk travelling together peacefully on the information superhighway. But few subjects have quite the polarising effect of Tiger Woods.

On one side of this divide Woods is regarded as perhaps the greatest athlete of all time, a star whose genius and dedication redefined his sport and whose recovery from ill health and raging against the dying of the light is a redemption tale sure to resonate through the ages. On the other are bloviators who take disproportionate offence at indiscretions which are none of their goddamn business and would do well to dial back the pious indignation quicksmart. Not that you will catch me taking sides.

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Happy to report, the readers of our live hole-by-hole Masters coverage were in lockstep behind the great man this week, as it slowly became apparent that the thing we once blithely assumed to be a taxes-and-death certainty, then gave up on as a pipe dream, might in fact be unfolding before our startled faces after all. Number 15 was a real live prospect.

“Seeing Tiger up there, right in the mix, warms the cockles of my old, cynical heart,” oozed Matt Dony. “I’d love to see him win one more major. Just one more flash of absolute, mind-boggling genius. Go on, Tiger. One more time.”

Simon McMahon channelled his inner Sid Waddell. “Could the greatest comeback since Lazarus really be on? Henry Cotton, Open champion in 1937 and 1948. Julius Boros, US Open champion in 1952 and 1963. Hale Irwin, likewise in 1979 and 1990. Ben Crenshaw, two Masters titles 11 years apart. Now, who last won a major in 2008? Seems like 11 could be the magic number.”

Those 11 years since Tiger beat Rocco Mediate at the US Open on one paw were a slog, and not just for the man himself. It has been hard to follow Tiger during his barren spell, not least because much of the horror show could be viewed only through the fingers.

1997: Masters The famous 12-stroke win over Tom Kite

1999: PGA Championship Beats Sergio García by one stroke

2000: US Open Finishes 15 shots ahead of Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Ernie Els

2000: The Open Eight ahead of Thomas Bjoørn and Ernie Els at St Andrews

2000: PGA Championship Beats Bob May in a three-hole playoff

2001: Masters Finishes two ahead of David Duval

2002: Masters Wins by three over Retief Goosen

2002: US Open Beats Phil Mickelson by three

2005: Masters Beats Chris DiMarco on first hole of sudden-death playoff

2005: The Open Wins by five over Colin Montgomerie at St Andrews

2006: The Open Two ahead of Chris DiMarco at Royal Liverpool

2006: PGA Championship Wins by five over Shaun Micheel

2007: PGA Championship Beats Woody Austin by two shots

2008: US Open Beats Rocco Mediate on 19th hole of playoff

2019: Masters Finishes one ahead of Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele

The nadir came in 2015. During the opening round of the US Open at Chambers Bay the 14-times major champion managed to miss a 115-yard-wide fairway, the most generous in the tournament’s 120-year history, by a good 20 yards. He missed another fairway by 80 – which coincidentally was the number he ended up shooting that day.

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“We still believe, Tiger!” cried a fan. We did not all still believe. Attention shifted to St Andrews, where Woods had won the Open by eight shots in 2000 and six in 2005. He began the 2015 edition by flipping a wedge into the Swilcan Burn. By the 10th hole he was propping up the entire field, his top lip curling and twitching, the involuntary Elvis a micro-betrayal of his inner turmoil. At the 12th he chunked a chip that took up 30% of the historic county of Fife. The BBC cut, with uncanny timing, to pictures of a crow hopping around the links. Oh Crow! Oh universal symbol of impending doom! Oh Tiger!

A few weeks later at the PGA ... well, let us allow the hole-by-hole report to do the talking. “There’s nothing like a really exasperated hot sigh of ‘fucksake’ in professional sport. Uttered in angst more than anger. Here’s Tiger, the portmanteau whistling out of his mouth with perfect comic timing after he really puts the shoulder into a drive at the par-five 16th, sending his ball into a thicket of paying punters down the right.” He missed the cut for the third major in a row. Then there was the surgery, the aborted comeback, more surgery, the prescription tablets … it was all over, surely.

But that gloomy picture of the future, Brooks Koepka topping a leaderboard forever, proved spectacularly inaccurate. His back finally mended and fully rested, his competitive batteries recharged by near misses at last year’s Open and PGA, Tiger was ready to piece it all together at Augusta, just like the old days. Dialled-in approaches! Epic swinging 70-foot putts! Lucky breaks after devil-may-care teebox lunacy! There was also a narrative purity to the way he fought off both Francesco Molinari and Koepka, the men of the moment who bested him in the majors last year, and how his quest for 15 ended where it all began. No wonder the crowds went wild.

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“This one means the most,” wrote Sophie Mendez after it all died down. “This is a guy who publicly messed up, had it all and lost it all, but has come back to show us that our failures do not define us, they actually provide a platform for what is possible. There were genuine emotional scenes of real celebration among us who never stopped hearing the roar of the Tiger.”