For Tiger Woods and deceased mother, Tida, tells two memories a story

In moments after Tiger Woods won Masters 2019, The first person who greeted him behind the 18th green was his son Charlie. He was 10 years old at the time and ran down his father’s outstretched arms, where their embrace repeated another Augusta National Hug between father and son when Tiger’s father Earl had given him an iconic bear hug behind the same green at the end of it quit 1997 Masters. It was two decades before. More than a dozen majors before. More lifetime before.

But the next hug? It belonged to his mother, Kuldida, just as it had by her first masters, the harsh, loving matriarch of their family, has some Tiger said “does not get enough credit” her own, “by announcing her death on Tuesday. She was there in her son’s return to glory, just as she had been with her first big victory and as she had been before, between and since.

I wasn’t there in ’97, but I remember that scene in 2019, the biggest day in modern professional golf history, by the culmination of Tiger’s impossible comeback to the top of the game. On Saturday night, Tida had helped arrange for her grandchildren Charlie and Sam to fly up to the final round; They had arrived on Sunday morning and went ahead of nine, but withdrew to the clubhouse on the back. (It is hard to get a good view if, after all, you are a 10-year-old child or even if you are Tiger Woods’ mother.) And this is where they kept right, quietly in excited moments, screaming after birdies, especially Tida eagerly to shout to his son on screen.

When Woods’ Ball landed safely on the 18th fairway, a two-shot lead, his family walked out of the clubhouse, past the large oak and down the hill to behind the 18th green. From there they could see when he finished a two-foot to seal the deal. Then came the round with hugs, one after the next.

“She still said she’s so proud of me,” Tiger remembered later. “That my dad would be so proud if he was here.” He added that for everything that had happened between his first and last Masters -winner, she had been constant.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s 22 years old. Life continues. There’s a continuity: My mother was there. I said, ‘We did. I love you so much, mom. ” ‘

At that moment, decades of gratitude and recall for Tida’s son thought of their days in Plymouth Duster and unfolded the timetable to get them for a 7 am Peewee Tournament tee time.

“She’s always there. She is always present in every round I play, ”he said.

In 2022, when Tiger was introduced In the Hall of Fame on PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., He gave a 15-minute speech where he hardly mentioned his professional career at all. He read on his early days instead, all the way back to the beginning, back to when he was six years old, and Tida would take him to play a par-3 course, Heartwell Golf Park in Long Beach, California, where he ‘D developed his game and learned how to look up much older competition. She promised with pro to let him practice there for free. Tiger took it from there.

He remembered his mother as his first backman, albeit unconscious; At the age of 8, she would drop him on the course by 75 cents – 25 for a hot dog, 25 to use the payment phone to call her and another 25 for backup.

“Well, that backup then turned into putting competitions, which I ended up pocketing a few more quarters,” Tiger said.

He also quoted her as his first Co-Conspirator; As he began to grow out of Heartwell, she would drop him at the entrance to the Navy Golf Course nearby, where he would sneak on the field, search for lost golf balls and finally meet with her father to play as many holes as they could in the dark.

When Tiger spoke through his childhood that night in Ponte Vedra he choked up and thought about how his parents had given him everything they had.

“My family made a tough decision, and at the age of 14 and a half we took another mortgage loan so I could go out and play the AJGA tour,” Tiger remembered. “Mom stayed home. Dad traveled. And I went out and played the Ajga Tour on our second mortgage loan.

“So without victims of Mom who took me to all these Junior Golf tournaments, and Dad who’s not here, but who introduced me this work ethic to fight for what I believe, chase after my dreams, is never there Something is given to you, everything will be earned. If you do not go out there and put in the work, you do not go out and put into an effort, one, you will not get the results, but two, and more importantly, you do not deserve it. You have to earn it. “

This mentality defined Woods’ persecution of greatness, even as a teenager. And when it came out of Stanford, Nike and Titleist made him wealthy overnight.

“The first thing I was able to do was that I was able to pay that mortgage loan,” he said.

There are layers To the relationship between Tiger-Tida, stories that will emerge in the coming days and weeks and years. From her role as “The Enforcer” to inspiration behind Red, his “Power Color” in Sunday’s last rounds to the way she would get him to a new tiger -headcover every year and sew “Rak Jak Mea” – Thai for “Love From Mother ” – inside each one.

She was even there at Woods’ latest competitive venture, TGL, where he just last week saw her in the stands and flashed a laugh and a wave in her direction.

“Hi Mom,” he cried.

It was the latest example of Tida showing up. There is that line again, one Woods fell after Masters in 2019.

“She’s always there. She is always present in every round I play. “

Mounted that he was using the current time. May it remain true long after her passing.

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at [email protected].