When talking about iconic moments in golf, we can’t forget about the time Tiger Woods won the 2018 TOUR Championship. After all, it marked his 80th win on the Tour, a feat so beautiful, that everyone wanted to experience it up close. So what happens when golf fans want something? They make it happen.
The field was full of spectators that day and to say that Woods won the title in all his glory is an understatement. With the 2024 TOUR Championship right around the corner with a $100 million purse, it is only fair to reminisce about the blissful moment again.
Did Tiger Woods love seeing fans at East Lake?
So, when the 15x-time major winner won the last tournament of the FedEx Cup Playoffs with an overall score of 11 under par after carding 1 over on Sunday, a swarm of fans ran towards him on the green in hopes of getting only a glimpse of the legend. Even Woods was in awe of how everything went down. “I’ve never seen anything like the fans and the commotion,” he said, according to Golf Digest. Comparing his win to the first major he won in 1997, Woods said, “It was similar to the 1997 Western coming down the last hole. That was a little bit like that. But not to this fevered pitch.”
As amazing as this experience was, Woods could not help but notice the difference in how fans were cheering for him. Woods said people don’t clap like they used to. Now, they yell. He thinks it’s because everyone’s holding their cell phones. “You can’t clap when you’ve got a cellphone in your hand. So people yell, and they were yelling.”
Woods vividly recalled the unforgettable crowd noise at the 72nd hole of that year’s TOUR Championship at East Lake, in an interview with the PGA Tour in 2019. “All of a sudden it gets really loud behind us, and I look back and there are people coming under the ropes and the cops are trying to organize people so they don’t rush us”. Yes, the GOAT said that, so you can imagine how many people were there.
After waiting for almost 5 years for a win, the moment was surreal, and Woods also thought so; “I’ve been sitting on 79 for about five years now, and to get 80 is a pretty damned good feeling.” He is now the golfer with the highest number of wins, that is 82.
Even though Woods was pretty stoked about his win, he couldn’t help but notice that Rory McIlroy was falling off slowly. “I was pretty emotional when Rory was tapping out,” he said. And to this day, McIlroy considers his 2018 TOUR Championship loss to be the most gut-wrenching.
Rory McIlroy’s 2018 loss to Tiger Woods
Rory McIlroy still thinks about the 2018 TOUR Championship, but not for the reason you think. He was paired with his hero, Tiger Woods, in the final round of the tournament. And well, let’s just say, it didn’t go well for him. Woods had a three-shot lead, and McIlroy failed to live up to the challenge. He shot a 74, one of the worst scores that day, and finished six shots behind Woods.
McIlroy described the feeling when he was walking up the 18th fairway with Woods, surrounded by thousands of fans, as ‘hurting a little’. Well, we don’t blame McIlroy for feeling gutted about his performance, as the TOUR Championship is one of the most competitive tournaments out there. Although he was sad about his loss, he was happy for his fellow golfer.
Talking about the fans who came out to support Woods, McIlroy said, “We’re walking down and the Tiger chant started, right? They hadn’t broken the ropes at this point. But I said to him, ‘This reminds me of Jack in 1980 at Baltusrol.’ Like, ‘Jack is back, Jack is back.’ And he said something like, ‘Yeah, but I’m not wearing yellow pants,’ or something like that.”
