This week has been among the stranger golf weeks in the last few years. Tiger Woods was badly injured in a career-threatening car crash on Tuesday, and has undergone multiple procedures in the days that have followed as athletes from all over the world offered up their well wishes.
On Sunday at the Cologuard Classic, a PGA Tour Champions event, Phil Mickelson paid tribute to his longtime rival and recent pal by going full red and black with his scripting -- a nod to Tiger's Sunday threads. Loads of players playing the WGC-Workday Championship on the PGA Tour also paid tribute to the guy who has changed their sport.
Phil in Sunday red for Tiger. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/G4gk5Qe7Qb
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) February 28, 2021
Rory McIlroy, Cameron Champ, Patrick Reed, Tony Finau, Jason Day, Justin Thomas and several other golfers playing in the first WGC event of 2021 at The Concession wore some form of a red top and black pants to let know Tiger they were thinking about him.
Finau even went full "Tiger at the 2018 PGA Championship" look with the backwards hat.
Sunday red. 🔴
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 28, 2021
Black pants. ⚫
Backwards hat. 🧢@TonyFinauGolf is showing his support for Tiger. https://t.co/2PjHduPxdn pic.twitter.com/i3YWbR5Yew
One of the fascinating parts of Tiger's career is this late-stage turn with him playing the role of mentor and friend to so many of the best players in the world who are in their 20s or 30s. Thomas was near tears on Tuesday when being asked about Woods' accident, and everyone throughout the week has been poignant in their effusive praise for the best to ever do it.
"He means a lot to the game of golf," said Finau early in the week. "I can only speak from my experience, he means a lot to my career. I've said it I think time after time, the 1997 Masters changed the course of my life, course of my career. Without that event, I probably wouldn't be here, I wouldn't be playing golf. So he definitely changed the course of my life, my career.
"I think I'm one of hundreds of guys out here probably that would say the same thing. He means a lot to the game, but individually, I think he means a lot to us just individually, especially for me."
Later in the day on Sunday as the plethora of tributes were making the rounds, Woods took to time to express his gratitude on Twitter.
"It is hard to explain how touching today was when I turned on the TV and saw all the red shirts," Woods said. "To every golfer and every fan, you are truly helping me get through this tough time."
