Tiger Woods turns 50

Talk to any golfer who played against Tiger Woods and there is sure to be at least one story about one shot so sublime they were certain it could not be hit by them or anyone else.

He was just different. Better.

The 2-iron Woods hit into the par-5 10th hole at the TPC Sugarloaf led Stewart Cink to say: "This is a skill set I don't have." Padraig Harrington once saw Woods hit an 8-iron so majestic at Firestone that it got in his head and led to the Irishman making triple bogey.

Nick Price played the opening two rounds with Woods at St Andrews in the 2000 British Open and felt the tournament was already over. Mark O'Meara played a practice round with him at Pebble Beach before the 2000 US Open and told his wife before the championship started:"Tiger is going to win. And not only is he going to win, he's going to blow away the field." Woods won by 15.

For all those years, so many greats in the game could never relate to Woods. And now, finally, they can.

Not even Woods can beat time. He turned 50 on Dec 30.

It's a milestone for anyone, but it's different in golf because the sport can be played well after the age when athletes have long retired in other sports. Phil Mickelson won a major at 50. Jack Nicklaus made an early Sunday charge at the Masters when he was 58.

With Woods, it's complicated.

He now is eligible for the 50-and-older PGA Tour Champions. He's also had more surgeries than the 15 majors he won. Last year was the first in which he didn't play a single tournament, the result of a ruptured Achilles tendon in March and a seventh back surgery in September.

"I'm probably going to play 25 events on both tours and I think that should cover most of the year, right?" Woods quipped in the Bahamas when asked about turning 50.

He won the US Open just eight days before reconstructive surgery on his left knee. He won the Masters two years after surgery to fuse his lower back, but he hasn't been the same since that 2021 car crash in Los Angeles. Woods has played 11 times the last five seasons, finished only four of those tournaments and hasn't been closer than 16 shots to the winner.

"Come back to what point?"Woods said. "I'd like to come back to just playing golf again."

And, so, this celebration is more about looking back than forward.