One of the first fans to arrive for Monday’s river walk event was David Ku, a local pharmacist who showed up 90 minutes before the scheduled start wearing a long-sleeved hoodie in the 90-degree heat. The front featured an altered Masters logo; the outline of the United States, from which the pin flag sticks out in the spot that is roughly Georgia, had morphed into the form of a goat. The back listed the dates of Woods’s five Masters victories: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019.
“The short-sleeved shirts haven’t arrived yet,” Ku said, shrugging.
He also wore a baseball cap with the TW emblem and a tiger driver-head cover on his hand like a puppet. In his other hand he held a vinyl figurine of a miniature Woods.
“This is probably the only opportunity I’ll ever have to see him,” said Ku, who explained why his respect for Woods, perhaps the sport’s all-time best performer, had recently grown into full-blown fandom.
“He seems to be having more fun,” said Ku, who also was moved by Woods’s embrace of his two children after his Masters victory in April. “He’s just a father now playing for his kids.”
By the time the event started, Ku’s unobstructed view of the stage had been despoiled by a phalanx of photographers. Ku’s vantage point was better on Tuesday when he walked the course with Woods’s group and managed to stake out spots just behind the gallery ropes. Despite the cold, drizzly, windy weather, a crowd of several thousand turned out to watch Woods.
On a par-3 on the front nine, Woods was setting up to hit from off the green when a spectator standing behind him cried out, “We love you, Tiger.”
Woods stopped what he was doing. “I love you, too,” he said. His words set off giggles from his besotted fans, whose rooting interest this week may be with the International team but whose hearts are clearly elsewhere.
Source : NYtimes
