Tiger Woods shockingly shot a septuple bogey during his final round of the 2020 Masters but his reaction to the horror hole proves why he is golf’s greatest of all time, his fellow professionals have claimed in a new book about the legend.
The 48-year-old, who was looking to defend his title after his 2019 triumph, put his ball in the water three times at Augusta National’s iconic par-three 12th to card a 10 -the highest score on any hole in his professional career.
Woods wasn’t truly in contention on the final day of the pandemic-postponed edition of major championship, which was ultimately won by Dustin Johnson, but his implosion saw him drop from three-under to four-over for the tournament.
The 15-time major winner was furious but, instead of throwing in the towel, he went on a tear with birdies on five of his final six holes. Something which his fellow professionals have found inspirational, a new book, which provides an incredible deep-dive into Woods’ legendary career, has revealed.
‘Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods’ by longtime golf writer Bob Harig, which is released on March 26, shares the recollections of Scottie Scheffler and Shane Lowry, who played alongside Woods in that final round.
The pair open up on Woods’ furious reaction, even revealing it still haunts him years on, but also claim the icon’s rebound on his last six holes should act as a lesson to his peers.
Mail Sport had an exclusive peek at the extract detailing the events of the rare Fall Masters below…
Tiger Woods shockingly shot a septuple bogey during his final round of the 2020 Masters
‘Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods’ provides insight from his final round playing partners Shane Lowry (second left) and no-World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler
‘Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods’ by Bob Harig is released on March 26
At the time, Woods was 9 over par for his round and in danger of shooting his worst score ever at Augusta National. And this was the point in time when mere mortals simply play it out. For Woods, this was to be his last tournament of a long, frustrating 2020. Did his final score really matter?
[…] Few would have cared at this point. Six more holes, take in the scenery, get to the clubhouse, say a few words to the media, handle the green jacket duties with the winner, and head home to Florida.
Not Woods. He played those final six holes like the tournament was on the line. Perhaps this was a subtle example of his drive, that instead of cruising in Woods stepped on the gas for one last push.
It won’t be found in the record books anywhere, but Woods’ finish was a small, simple reminder of his resiliency, his determination. Why bother? That just wasn’t Tiger Woods’ manner. He rarely, if ever, quit on a round, and he wasn’t going to do it here.
Woods stepped to the 13th tee and blasted a tee shot into the fairway and proceeded to birdie the par- 5 hole. After a par at the 14th, he birdied the final four holes, including the 17th and 18th, only his second and third birdies he made all week on par- 4s.
Looking like he might shoot 80 or worse, Woods finished with a 76, one better than his then- worst score of 77, shot during the third round of the 1995 Masters, when he was 19 years old and playing the event for the first time.
Woods showed enormous pride in finishing off the round as he did. He wanted no slaps on the back, nor did he revel in it. Ultimately it moved him up only a few places in the final standings, but to him, that always mattered.
‘That’s part of our sport,’ he said. ‘This sport is awfully lonely sometimes. You have to fight it. No one is going to bring you off the mound or call in a sub. You have to fight through it. That’s what makes this game so unique and so difficult mentally. We’ve all been there, unfortunately. I’ve been there, and you just have to figure out the next shot, and I was able to do that coming home.’
Instead of throwing in the towel, Woods went on to shoot birdies in five of his last six holes
Woods shot scores of 68– 71– 72 and 76 to finish in a tie for 38th, one spot off his best in seven starts since returning from the pandemic shutdown.
‘It definitely struck me,’ says Scottie Scheffler, who played with Woods in that final round and would go on to win the Masters two years later. ‘That was my first time really spending time with Tiger. I had never played with him before. He struggled the first twelve holes. He didn’t have his best stuff. And then he made that big number on 12 and kind of flipped the switch.
‘He hit some of the best iron shots I think I’ve ever seen, still to this day. It was really cool for me to see him just kind of flip the switch. He hit one really nice shot into 13 and all of a sudden it’s “game on.” I knew he was frustrated. I didn’t know him well enough at the time to kind of rib him about it.
‘I was actually joking with him [at a tournament in 2022] about that round. And he was like, “Yeah that really p****d me off.” No. 12. That’s one of those special things that makes Tiger Tiger. A lot of guys would have thrown in the towel there for sure.’
During his fifth Masters victory, Woods had hit one of his most iconic shots to the par- 3 16th, an 8- iron that hit on the right side of the green and trickled ever so slowly toward the pin as the roar of the crowd grew louder and louder. It eventually stopped 3 feet past the hole, and when Woods knocked in the birdie putt, he led the 2019 Masters by two strokes.
Now, there was nothing at stake but pride when he got to the 16th tee.
Scheffler claimed the 15-time major winner ‘flipped a switch’ after his horror on the 12th
The Texan 27-year-old went on to win The Masters two years later in 2022
‘The shot he hit into 16 was probably the best iron shot I’ve ever seen,’ Scheffler says. ‘The wind was blowing hard. Pin was on top right. Greens were soft. He hit this no- spinning cut 7- iron. No matter what direction the wind was going to go, I felt he was going to hit that ball to a foot. It was just so purely struck. Not a lot of spin. Fading toward the pin. It was pretty amazing.’
Shane Lowry also played with Woods during that final round. The Irishman had won The Open at Royal Portrush in 2019 and could say he won a major title in the same year as Woods. Now, they were hopelessly out of contention, but Woods’ finish taught him something. The way his drive did not cease stuck with Lowry.
‘I’ve talked to other people about this,’ Lowry says. ‘When I see him now and then, he mentions it. It still gets to him that he did that. He was so mad that day, and then he played the last six holes like Tiger Woods.
‘We played week in and week out on tour, we go out on Sundays lying in 50th or 60th spot, and you see lads giving up. I don’t give up. I don’t think I’ve ever given up. Always try to shoot the best score I possibly can. I think I learned even more about it that day from him. He made a 10 and went to like 50th in the tournament and was obviously really p****d off. And then he went and tried his nuts off for the last six holes. When the greatest of all time to do it doesn’t give up, the rest of us should follow suit.’
Lowry revealed that the golfing legend still mentions the septuple bogey to this day
Woods is pictured with the Irishman during the third round of the major championship
Woods’ comeback crossed Lowry’s mind when playing the Dunhill Links Championship in October of 2022. It was a chilly, fall Scottish day, and the pro- am- style event contested over three courses saw foul weather for round two. Playing the Kingsbarn course a few miles up the road from St. Andrews, players faced gusty winds, rain, and cold temperatures. It was the kind of day when nobody wanted to be on a golf course.
Lowry found himself 7 over par through eight holes. ‘I was standing on the ninth tee going I could actually shoot the worst score I’ve ever shot today,’ Lowry says.
And then he thought of that Woods comeback at Augusta. ‘Stuff like that keeps me going,’ he says. ‘I was one under for my last six holes to break eighty. And I was actually quite proud of myself. You take stuff like that. We’re proud golfers. You look at your score after a round and you want it to be good. Tiger provided a great lesson.’