Where does Tiger Woods' comeback at Masters rank among sports history's greatest rallies?
A confession: I am obsessed with watching Tiger Woods’ right leg. Call it creepy. Call it ordinary human fascination. Call it being amazed that an inch of bone held together by titanium can handle the rolling terrain of Augusta National Golf Club.
Whatever. I can’t stop staring at it. How does it compare to Woods’ healthy left leg? Maybe a little thinner? It definitely is not 100% and probably never will be, which means Tiger will have that limp for the rest of his days. Join the club, though most of us hobbling on concrete hips and petrified cartilage don't do so because we nearly lost our leg in an SUV accident. Woods’ tibia was left resembling a plastic-covered peppermint stick dropped onto a tile floor, shattered inside its skin wrapper.
Woods walks gingerly now, with less authority. His gait lacks giddy-up but also is endearing, because it makes him seem more mortal, even if by golf standards he is not. His comeback from the horrific crash that happened in February 2021, when he lost control of his vehicle while driving 87 mph on a twisty road near Los Angeles, adds to his legend as not only a (lucky) survivor but an overcomer.
The Masters 2022: Tiger Woods is back in Augusta, and it already felt like a victory
Whether winning the 2008 U.S. Open on a broken left leg or recovering from public shaming after ruining his marriage and sullying his reputation, Woods has rebounded again and again. It was thought that winning the 2019 Masters after undergoing back surgery would be his ultimate rallying cry, but just teeing it up in the Masters this week, when it wasn’t clear a year ago whether he would even walk again, is a comeback for the ages.
The question is, which ages? How does Woods’ journey from injury to recovery to remarkable performance rank among different generations of fans? The older crowd will recall Ben Hogan winning five major championships after recovering from serious injuries suffered in a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus. Hogan threw himself across the front seat of his Cadillac sedan to protect his wife Valerie, a loving act of chivalry that likely saved them both.
Younger fans will more easily recall that quarterback Alex Smith suffered a compound fracture of his right leg in 2018 while playing for Kansas City against Houston. The injury was similar to Woods,’ and became life threatening when Smith developed an infection and sepsis. Counted out, he returned to the NFL two years and 17 surgeries later.
Hogan and Smith are extreme cases, but where do they rank among all-time “rallies?” Rating comebacks is challenging because they cover a lot of ground. Not every comeback involves injury or illness. Nor were all necessarily inspirational. Some were even rather obscure. A sampling:
• In 2001, the Cleveland Indians trailed the Seattle Mariners 12-0 after three innings and 14-2 after six before rallying with seven runs over the next two innings and six more in the ninth to win 15-14. John Elway is not impressed, much to the disgust of Cleveland fans.
• Muhammad Ali was convicted of draft evasion in 1967 and went three years without stepping in the ring after losing his boxing license. He returned in 1970 and eventually regained his heavyweight title.
• Interest in baseball increased in 1946 when All-Star players like Ted Williams, Bob Feller and Stan Musial returned from serving in World War II. Williams, who missed three MLB seasons while flying Navy military aircraft, was voted American League MVP in 1946 after collecting 38 home runs, 123 RBIs and batting .342 with a .497 OBP. The Splendid Splinter reached base in nearly half his at-bats.
• Several NBA comebacks come to mind, including Michael Jordan “unretiring” in 1996 after sitting out three seasons, then winning three consecutive championships to go with the three straight titles he collected with Chicago from 1991-93. There also was LeBron James “coming back” to Cleveland and leading the Cavaliers to the city’s first title since 1964, after the Cavs came back from a 3-1 deficit to Golden State.
• But the most famous single-moment NBA comeback, choreographed for effect, remains Willis Reed taking the floor before Game 7 of the 1970 Finals between Reed’s New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers. Uncertain whether Reed would be able to play through a muscle tear in his right thigh suffered in Game 5, the Knicks received an emotional boost when their captain hobbled onto the floor during warm-ups and played the first half before taking a seat in New York’s clinching win.
• It’s not every day that sports medicine names a procedure after you, but Tommy John’s return from elbow surgery in 1974 extended a career that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander win 164 games. John was the first pitcher to successfully return to baseball following “Tommy John surgery.”
There are many others, including Lance Armstrong returning from cancer to win the Tour de France seven times (before tarnishing the feel-good story by admitting the use of PEDs) and Buffalo Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk returning to the ice 10 days after nearly dying in 1989 when a player’s skate sliced his carotid artery and part of his jugular vein.
Where does Tiger’s comeback rank? Too soon to tell, but visually, it is right up there. Coming back, on that leg, is a thing of beauty.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Tiger Woods' Masters 2022 return at Augusta is remarkable
