Breaking news: tiger woods announces departure after declining contract extension proposal…..

Four takeaways from my first-ever up-close observation of Tiger Woods

Normally, a four a.m. alarm and six hours of travel would have been enough to make me unhappy, but that was how my week started. But not right now. I was ecstatic.

Not only is this week’s PGA Championship my first live coverage of a golf event for GOLF, but it’s also my first major championship attendance overall.

It was a rather uncomfortable early morning journey from Boise to Louisville (via Minneapolis), but at least I was getting paid to attend the PGA Championship. Greyhound would have been my choice.

I considered the possibilities from my window seat on the first leg of my Monday morning journey.

I’m embarrassed to say that I never gave thought to watching Tiger play live. Tiger had just won his 14th major championship at the 2008 U.S. Open when I began playing golf.

One of my favorite sports memories is seeing him win his 15th major at the Masters in 2019, but overall, I’ve seen him lose more often than succeed.

Tiger has generally remained in the background over the most of my time watching golf, but he sometimes makes an appearance to let everyone know that he is still the greatest to have ever done it.

Then it dawned on me on Tuesday as I watched him casually go into the press tent.

I’m a moron. I get to see the greatest of all time. The person who made my favorite sport reach heights no one ever imagined.

In life, nothing is certain. That’s demonstrated by Tiger and his extensive history of career-ending injuries. And forget about Tiger; for all I know, this may be my final major. Although I had to observe him, I didn’t want to.

To that end, I set out early on Wednesday morning to hike across the muddy slopes of Valhalla. From the trip, I learned a few things.