With the 2020 Masters delayed until November, CBS has decided to air features on three of the most incredible Masters tournaments over the weekend. The final round of Phil Mickelson's 2004 victory be shown on Saturday (2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET), as will Tiger Woods' fourth round of 2019 on Sunday (12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.).
Woods did not play magnificent during his 2019 Masters win. It was not the tour de force seen in 1997. It did not feel inevitable like 2001 and 2002. It was not dramatic like 2005. No, it was wise, disciplined mechanical golf that led to one of the most surreal final hours of a major championship since they started being played in the late 1800s.
You all know the story, which means I don't need to retell it in great detail. Tiger trailed by four after Round 1, one after Round 2 and a pair going into Sunday's rescheduled final round. At a time when he should have been getting his stretching started and body ready, Woods was already teeing off alongside Francesco Molinari and Tony Finau in the final grouping at Augusta National on Sunday morning because of late-afternoon weather concerns.
He played the first 11 holes in even par. Then the discipline kicked in. Woods made par at the par-3 12th as his partners -- Finau and Molinari -- both made double. He trailed by two going to that tee and was tied for the lead leaving that green. One arm in the green jacket.
"As we all know, the wind swirls down there a little bit, and when I hit that shot on 11 and I turned it back into the fan ... it played probably two to three yards longer than what I had thought," said Woods. "And to see the guys ahead of me, whether it was [Ian Poulter] or [Brooks Koepka]; when I got to that 12 tee, the feeling was that 11 played a little bit longer, and that shot is so inviting to hit it over there. It was warm out. I know that I don't quite hit the ball as far as Brooksy does, and I had 9-iron out, and I figured that his flight is more penetrating and he can get it back there, and he didn't quite get it back there.
"Tony hit the best shot to all of us and he got stood up at the very end. It was a good shot. He hit it flush, but it stalled out at the top. If I had gone at the flag, my ball would have been the same thing. I played left, and it stalled out at its apex, ended up short left, and I had a putt."
Not a majestic "I've never seen this before" golf like we saw in 1997, but it was brilliant golf even if it wasn't overt. Obviously, Woods went on to birdie Nos. 15 and 16 as Molinari made another mistake at the former hole.
Woods led by two leaving the 16th. Two arms in the jacket. A par at No. 17 before needing just bogey at the last to secure the win. The only thing left was to flip the coat onto his still-lean shoulders and straighten the arms.
This weekend, CBS Sports will show that final round in its entirety. On Sunday from 12:30-6 p.m., Woods will talk Jim Nantz through what he was thinking and feeling down the stretch, a conversation that will be aired alongside the year-old broadcast.
There were (and are) plenty of high points, but maybe the most surreal of them all was the tunnel of fans he walked through after hugging his kids and his girlfriend and his mom behind the 18th green. Tiger's name being chanted into a sky that was starting to match the fading hairs on his balding head.
"Tiger did tell me he's watched the broadcast many, many times," Nantz told me this week. "I had to circle back and talk about the scene behind the 72nd green and what that was like for him. There's a tremendous amount of emotion, much more emotion for him expressing it now than there was last year at Butler Cabin.
"Last year, it was all so new and there was a little bit of still shock what has just happened, you're still processing it. Even Tiger says, 'I'm emotional just even looking at it now and talking about it.' You can hear him. You can hear a little catch in his voice. It's not tears, it's not bawling, but for Tiger, he doesn't usually take us there, but he was really struck."
As was I. As were all of us. It was a sports moment -- to steal a line from Nantz's 1997 call of Tiger's first Masters win -- for the ages. A true passage-of-time moment that made you think a billion thoughts and nothing all at the same time.
I've never watched that final round, at least not on TV. I went all 18 with Big Cat that day at Augusta, so I'm looking forward on Sunday to hearing what he thought, seeing what he saw and reliving the entire thing alongside him as we all look back (even if it's only a year old!) on one of the great and iconic sporting events of any of our adult lives.
Masters Rewind schedule
TV: CBS | Free live stream: CBSSports.com, CBS Sports app
| Date | Time (ET) | Event | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Saturday, April 11 | 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. | 1975 Masters | Hour-long special on Jack Nicklaus' fifth of six career Masters victories. |
Saturday, April 11 | 2:30 to 6 p.m. | 2004 Masters | Phil Mickelson joins Jim Nantz to analyze the final round of his first green jacket. |
Sunday, April 12 | 12:30 to 6 p.m. | 2019 Masters | Tiger Woods joins Jim Nantz to recount the emotions and significance of his fifth Masters win. |
For more #MastersRewind content, including exclusive archival photos and videos from the 2019 Masters, visit Masters.com and @Masters on social media.
