Tiger Woods Wins the 2019 Masters to claim first major in 11 years

AUGUSTA: Tiger Woods captured his fifth Masters title and his 15th major tournament on Sunday, snapping a championship drought of nearly 11 years. 

Woods’s comeback from personal and professional adversity is complete. The triumph also renewed talks of Woods making a run at Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 majors.

A gritty two-under 70 clinched a one-shot victory over Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele and earned the 43-year-old a 15th major title that many thought would never come.

Not since the 2008 US Open had Woods hoisted a major trophy and the last of his four Augusta titles came in 2005.

But after a beaming Woods slipped on his fifth Green Jacket, he will be aware that Sunday’s win has brought him tantalizingly close to another Nicklaus record - that of six Augusta titles.

Woods, who at 43 became the second-oldest winner of the Masters at Augusta National, after the then 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus in 1986, last achieved major success in one of golf’s four major tournaments at the 2008 United States Open.

Woods’s girlfriend Erica Herman, mother Kultida and two children Sam and Charlie watched while a massive gallery roared as he marched up to the 18th green to put the finishing touches on a milestone victory.

“It’s overwhelming just because of what has transpired,” Woods said in a television interview after it was over. “To now be the champion — 22 years between wins is a long time — it’s unreal for me to experience this. It was one of the hardest I’ve ever had to win just because of what’s transpired the last couple of years.”

“I was just trying to plod my way along the golf course all day,” said Woods. “When I tapped the putt in, I don’t know what I did but I know I screamed.

“To have my kids there – it’s come full circle. My dad was here in 97 (when he won his first Masters) and now I’m the dad with two kids there.”

He ended last season by winning the Tour Championship and showed signs of a breakthrough at the majors by being a title contender at last year’s British Open, where he led in the final round, and PGA Championship, where he finished runner-up.