The Last Putt by Neil Hayes Brian Murphy

Author:Neil Hayes, Brian Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-20T16:00:00+00:00

2

The Freshman

Albuquerque, New Mexico

September 16–17, 1994

THREE WEEKS LATER , the next superstar in golf was a bellhop.

Tiger Woods may have been the youngest U.S. Amateur champion in history, he may have just executed the greatest comeback in U.S. Amateur history, and he may have received a personal letter from President Bill Clinton congratulating him, but to the Stanford golf team, who were riding high from their national championship win just three months earlier at the close of the 1994 season, Tiger Woods was a freshman. He needed to be hazed. Notah Begay, the charismatic Native American senior who was Stanford’s most mischievous and talented player, and its leader, approached Tiger during the team’s first week of practice on campus, in mid-September.

Stanford’s season was set to start on September 16 at the Tucker Invitational, in Notah’s hometown of Albuquerque. Notah threw his arm around Tiger in front of the team.

“Tiger,” he said, “you’re going to be the strongest freshman in the country.”

Tiger knew he was making history as a player, but he was still embarrassed by the praise. After all, a freshman is a freshman, and he knew to respect the seniors. He looked at the ground a bit sheepishly and thanked Begay for the compliment.

“Because,” Begay continued, flashing his devilish grin, “you’re going to carry all of our bags this year on road trips. Congratulations, freshman.”

As the team laughed a razzing laugh, Tiger realized Notah wasn’t kidding. He laid out the ground rules. From clubhouse to van, from van to airline check-in, from baggage claim to van, from van to hotel, from hotel to van, and from van to golf course—Tiger Woods would be the national champion of bag schlepping. He knew he couldn’t fight it. He was the new guy. And there were four seniors who weren’t going to let him forget it.

Begay’s brash show in front of the team served two purposes, by his estimation: One, it kept alive the age-old tradition of hazing a newcomer, in any sport. Two, it was meant to remind Tiger that, as big as he was on the national stage ( New York Times front page, Good Morning America, the Today show), he was still just a baby around the Stanford team. That the Cardinal surprised everyone by winning the ’94 team title added ballast to Notah’s power play. The best Tiger could do as a Stanford freshman was simply match what the ’94 team had done months earlier. Already, the map was laid out.

In truth, Notah and the rest of the seniors knew that if Tiger fought back and rejected the assignment, they might not have much leverage. Tiger Woods, after all, was considered by most to be the most famous recruit in the history of high school sports. He had a little leverage himself. Already there was a different air around the Stanford team with Tiger arriving only that week. The media requests were piling in, and even Stanford’s seniors felt the kid’s aura. They were impressed by his combination of quiet humility off the course and the utter devastation of his competitive streak on the course.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.