osjouno16 CGOLPLIVE Apt hes Quales stare Meters review Hovrto Win Agusta National Without Tiger Woods, Whos Stee: The Masters Coverage, psf golf. comtourand- new happened tiger-woods-e-ensiny-most-verin-quetion-sports page= Iau, source=pocketat ‘Tiger Woods: What Happened? The Most Vering Question in Sports 1 Golf.com iger with then-coach Seon Foley in 2017, Foley si calls Woods his favorite player January 2015 When Jordan Spieth was 11, one shot changed his lif, butt wasr't one he suck. Back then Spieth was a pitcher witha filthy curveball and a shooting guard ‘who could fil up a stat sheet. "I was just starting Io pick gol as my No. 1 sport ‘and fallin love with it Spieth says. "That really cemented i” That was Woods's chip-in on the 70th hole ofthe 2005 Masters, which he played toa slope well past the pin and fed back into the cup, pretty much stealing @ {grean jacket from Chris DiMarco. It took perfect execution ~ Woods was aiming {or an old pitch mark and landed it bang on ~ but the shot was a distillation of his Imagination. Watching at home in Dallas, Spioth was thunderstruck. "It made me ‘want to go out that day, that evening, and work on my short game,” he says. ‘Ton years later at the Phoenix Open, Spieth was paired with Woods and another young gun, Patrick Reed, who also grew up idolizing Tiger. As late as May 2014, Woods had been the world No. 1, but he last most ofthe rest ofthat year to his first back surgery. In Phoenix for his 15 season debut, he was working with the fourth swing instructor of his pro carver, Chris Como. In front of Spieth and Reed land all ofthe golfing world, the damnedest thing happened: Woods chunked, bladed, scooped, childipped and skanked chip after chip. It was a horror show. Golf Channel analyst Brande! Chamblee calls it “one ofthe most shocking things In got history." [ter his second-round 82, Woods obfuscated with technical mumbo jumbo about the gtind on his wedges and the “release pattern” in a chipping mation that Como had altered. Reed, ke averybody else, saw through it. “It was hard to watch,” he says. "Some holes he was just barely off the green and couldn't even hit the sgreen with a chip. You know, [fot realy bad, because going nto the wok he seemed to be enthusiastic about Dsing back" August 1995 The dawn of the Tiger Woods era came at the '85 U.S. Amateur. Woods was 1 up ‘on Buddy Marucel playing the 36th and last hole ofthe mateh-play final. With Maruec! on the green, Tigor stood aver a 140-yard approach at Newport (R.L) Country Club. On the ESPN telecast Johnny Millar murmured, with zealotry of the recently converted, “I wouldn't be surprised if he knocks it afoot from the hole." In fact, Woods put it to 18 inches. Game over.osjouno16 ‘Tiger Woods: What Happened? The Most Vering Question in Sports 1 Golf.com bp: gol. com/tourand-newlwha-happened-ipr-woodsit-emains-nostvexng-guetion-spors pap our, source=pockeuusm mediom-emaiiain campy’ 22