The sports world stood still on Sunday, April 14, as Tiger Woods — arguably the greatest golfer to ever walk the face of the Earth — won the 2019 Masters Tournament, his first major tournament win in 11 years.
With this latest win, Woods, 43-years-old, became the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament since Jack Nicklaus in the year 1986.
Woods, who was robbed of a majority of his twilight years due to personal and physical issues, had not won a major golf tournament since the U.S. Open in 2008.
Similarly, the 14 years between his Masters Tournament wins is the longest space of time between victories in the history of the illustrious Augusta-based golf tournament.
With this most recent triumph, Woods as now won the Masters Tournament five times — 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, and 2019 — second only to the legendary Jack Nicklaus, who has won the tournament a record-setting six times.
To commemorate Tiger’s long-awaited return to the mountaintop of the sport, Sports Illustrated did something they only reserve for truly iconic and generational moments: a wordless cover.
To earn his fifth and likely sweetest Masters Tournament win, Tiger came from behind after the final day to shoot a final score of 13-under par 275, beating competitors Xander Schauffele, Dustin Johnson, and Brooks Koepka by just one stroke.
Following the dramatic victory, the scenes of Tiger emotionally embracing his family mirrored the iconic moment of Woods embracing his late father when won his first Masters Tournament in 1997.
Woods’ victory at the 2019 Masters Tournament wraps up a decade-long comeback story that will go down as one of the greatest in the history of American sports.
While opinions about Tiger’s personality differ, there’s no doubting his on-the-course ability, which has long put him in the discussion of the greatest golfer of all-time.
And now that Woods finally has that elusive fifteenth major tournament win under his belt, the only question that remains is not if, but *when* will he win his sixteenth.
