Tiger Woods on Friday removed his cap a few strides from Swilcan Bridge, knowing it might be the last time he crossed over in The Open at St Andrews.
This is where the legends paused, posed and waved goodbye.
“Stop, stop,” a few photographers cried out as they positioned themselves for another historic moment at the home of golf.
Photo: Reuters
Woods kept on walking, even as tears began to form in his eyes.
“That’s when I started to realize — that’s when I started thinking about — the next time it comes around here, I might not be around,” Woods said.
Woods said he does not know if his 46-year-old body, battered by multiple surgeries on both legs and his back, would be fit enough to compete when it returns to the home of golf. Woods mentioned 2030. The R&A has not announced the rotation that far out.
Still, the moment was not lost on him.
Woods saluted the thousands of fans in the grandstands on the left, and thousands more who watched from hotel balconies and rooftops on the perimeter of the Old Course, some peering through windows, others without a ticket hanging from the top of the fence on the road down the right side of the 18th fairway.
Rory McIlroy looked over at him from the first fairway — he was starting his second round as Woods was finishing a 75 to miss the cut — and tipped his cap. Justin Thomas was on the first tee and nodded to Woods.
“As I got closer to the green, the ovation got louder,” Woods said. “You could feel the warmth and you could feel the people from both sides. Felt like the whole tournament was right there.”
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