ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Rarely in sports is history revealed so strikingly in the moment. In most cases, time contextualizes what we witnessed. Looking back helps us discern how it fits with everything else that happened.
And then there’s what happened in the widest fairway in golf on Friday afternoon in St. Andrews: Tiger Woods limps to an uncertain future in the majors, Rory McIlroy bounces back from his frustrating recent past at the same event. Woods and McIlroy met in the middle — one person suggested Rory made his tee shot on No. 1 while Tiger came to No. 18 to create the moment (funny but untrue) — and the most romantic place in golf, during the 150 Open Championship, delivered a moment that could never be described.
As Woods raised his left hand to acknowledge the legion he was going to, McIlroy also raised his own. Rory lightly grabbed his blue Nike cap just as Tiger grabbed his white one. As golf gestures go, it was understated; but it meant the world to Tiger Woods.
“As I was walking down the fairway, I saw Rory right there,” Woods said. “He gave me a tip of the cap. It was pretty cool — the nods I was getting from the guys as they were coming out and I was coming in, just respect, that was pretty cool. And from the brotherhood of the players, it’s nice to see and feel that.”
Woods continued, “Just the amount of understanding and respect from all the people involved in this event, supporting the players. The nods I was getting as the players were coming out [were touching moments].”
It obviously made sense to McIlroy. He was saddened that Woods missed the part where Rory had reason to think Tiger could compete.
“I’m just hoping – everybody’s hoping it’s not the end of his career on the Old Course,” McIlroy said after the round. “I think he deserves, we deserve, to play one more time.
“Hopefully The Open will come back here in four or five years and he’ll get another chance because with how good he’s been throughout his career and how good he’s been on the Old Course, I don’t think that’s the way for him get out. It’s better in there.”
For McIlroy, though the act of spending time with Woods became rote; they played a game together last week in Ballybunion, Ireland. But there’s a part of him that can’t believe his life turned out this way.
The substance of the 33-year-old Rory is still bits and pieces of the 7-year-old Rory, and the 7-year-old Rory would have roared at the thought of tipping his hat to Tiger — at the Old Course in St. Louis. .. Andrews as peers playing the Open — it would be more meaningful to Tiger than to him.
“I’ve gotten pretty close to Tiger over these last few years,” McIlroy added. “Especially after the accident, and I think we’ve all kind of rallied around him down there on Jupiter. And we all want to see him do well.
“He was our hero growing up, even though I’m maybe a little bit older than some of the other guys. But we want to see him do well. We want to see him keep competing. And this week was obviously a tough week for him. But everybody we are behind him; we are all fighting for him.”
The moment they briefly shared Friday is a chameleon. It will take on a different meaning if, for example, McIlroy wins on Sunday or Woods returns to the Old Course in a few years.
But on Saturday morning at the 150th Open Championship, the tip of Rory’s hat stands as an ode.
An ode to the old and to the magic that overflows the sands beneath this earth. Ode to this tournament which is the biggest in the world. Ode to St. Andrews, who looked like two of the most important players of the past three decades, seemed to have the entire tournament in his collective sights.
An ode to McIlroy, his reverence for history and his enduring love for important moments.
“I’ve always been a big, ‘What does this mean? What’s the meaning behind the thing?'” McIlroy told CBS Sports. “Sometimes, maybe I do it too much. It’s hard for me not to put what I’m about to do in context with everything else.”
Most of all, it was an ode to Woods. A nod from the present and the future that golf takes a backseat to its past. An ode to perhaps the most perfect golf ever played on the most perfect golf course ever built. It’s an ode to the fact that what Tiger did mattered to more people than he realizes. An ode to the reality that even the most powerful, celebrated player in today’s game is still at least partially in awe of what Tiger constructed and how he transformed the sport.
It was a moment that could have happened in a thousand different places, but it wouldn’t have meant as much as it did on that square course that hosts the most stunning opening tee shot in golf’s major championship with the most picturesque closing action.
Often in golf, nuance is the essence. Such is the case with the Old Course, which you could play every day for the rest of your life and never fully understand. Several players have commented this week that they still know little about this place even after playing it all week.
It was fitting that, during the first two days of the Open, the smallest gesture — a nod and cap grab that lasted no more than 2 seconds and barely caught on air — served as the most powerful thing said all week.
