In a Stirring Return to the Top, Tiger Woods Captures the Masters at 43

At Augusta, his children arrived on Saturday night, providing extra motivation for Woods to prevail. Parenthood has imbued Woods with extra patience, which came in handy on the front nine on Sunday, when he made back-to-back bogeys while elsewhere on the course players were leapfrogging over one another and into contention with birdies and eagles. Indeed, late in Sunday’s round, 10 players, including Woods, were within two strokes of the lead.

But amid that intense grouping, it was Woods who found a way to finish first.

Woods’s first Masters title, in 1997, by an astounding 12 strokes, left an indelible mark on the sport. He became the first African-American — Woods is also half Thai — to win golf’s most exalted championship. He reshaped the game, making it more athletic and more popular — especially outside the United States.

In 1997, the first person at Augusta to greet Woods as he came off the final hole in triumph was his father, whose grand plan Woods had realized with his victory. His mother was there, too. She was also on hand Sunday, but after her embrace, Woods took a few steps forward and was smothered by his second family — the other players, some of whom were almost young enough to be his children.

Sunday’s final round was moved up five hours to avoid an ominous forecast for later in the day. Players were grouped in threesomes to speed play. Woods took the lead for good on the par 5 15th hole with a birdie putt. And when he then arrived at the 16th tee, a familiar face and friend — the record-setting swimmer Michael Phelps — was standing close enough to touch him.

It was Phelps who had spent two months in a treatment center in 2014 after trying to self-medicate with alcohol. It was Phelps who became an informal counselor to Woods after the 2017 painkiller episode. And it was Phelps who was on hand as Woods closed out his comeback with his final putt.

“When I tapped the putt in — I don’t know what I did,’’ Woods said. “I know I screamed.”

And as he then put on the winner’s green jacket for a fifth time, he said something everyone knew but might have forgotten: “It fits.”