If it did not quite end as his supporters began to dare to hope it might, Tiger Woods’ return to contention over this past week in Carnoustie has served as reminder of the importance of having a big beast at The Open Championship.

It was, after all, the emergence of the Golden Bear which took interest in this event to another level after Arnold Palmer had initially sparked a revival in global interest in the world’s oldest and greatest golf competition.

For those of us raised in the sixties and seventies, it became part of the narrative of summer to, at some stage in Open week, hear our fathers announce that “the bear is on the charge” as Jack Nicklaus strung together a run of birdies.

Between his second visit when he finished third in 1963 and tying fourth in 1980, he was to finish outside the top six only twice and even after finally looked fallible at Sandwich in 1981 – a certainty to miss the cut it seemed after an opening day 83 – there was a spectacular recovery as a 66 turned things around. 

Another decade and more would elapse before, at the age of 52, he was finally defeated over the links where he had claimed that first Open win.

Long before that there had been a significant change in how he was viewed by the golfing public. Initially regarded almost as a bullying presence as he challenged Arnie and his army, as well as the diminutive Gary Player, the Golden Bear was viewed with ever more fondness until his final tear-jerking farewell as he waved to the galleries from The Swilcan Bridge once last time in 2005.

Another who was to miss that cut at Muirfield in 1992 was the swashbuckling Spaniard who had replaced Nicklaus for an admittedly briefer period in the eighties. 

As big beasts go, though, Seve Ballesteros was more matador than bull, emerging as a fearless teenager in our last great British summer of 1976, claiming his first Major win via his detours to car parks at Lytham in 1979, fist-pumping his joy at the Old Course in 1984, before his last thrilling Major win on returning to Lytham in 1988, as he became the darling of the Open galleries.

By the mid-nineties the sport needed a new superstar then, and he duly arrived at St Andrews in 1995 when, in spite of finishing behind England’s Steve Webster and Scotland’s Gordon Sherry in the battle for the amateur silver medal that he would win at Lytham the following year, another teenager served notice of his imminent domination of the sport. 

In the ensuing 13 years it seemed ever more inevitable that the Tiger would surpass all that the Golden Bear had achieved as he raced to 14 Major wins by the age of 32, 14 years younger than Nicklaus had been when he won the last of his 18, until his car, his career and his life took a fateful wrong turn.

He has never been the same since, but over this weekend hope was rekindled, while a new level of affection was added to the adulation that has always been directed his way, largely attributable to the fallibility of more recent years and magnified by his absence from this event since 2015.

For 20 minutes on Saturday Woods’ name had topped the leaderboard which was more than enough to encourage the faithful and their belief was growing yesterday as he stepped on to the first tee in the final-day red shirt that had been taken out of mothballs.

A birdie chance having been created and spurned at the opening hole, as he headed down the second fairway a Geordie accent supportively shouted: “That’s one thing Jack couldn’t dee . . . hold ‘em all at once.”

It was rather random, but reflected a certain desperation among Tiger’s generation of supporters to ensure his place in the sport’s history is properly recognised. At one stage it looked as if he might even be set to strengthen the claim that he is golf’s greatest ever player as, 
evoking halcyon days, he made the first significant move.

Having started the day in a share of sixth place, when his 20-foot birdie putt at the fourth dropped in, only two names remained above his on the leaderboard and two holes later he took advantage of the long sixth, finding himself within a shot of the lead as joint leaders Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele both dropped shots at the fifth. 

Then, in spite of being in the midst of a run of visits to the dreaded Carnoustie bunkers on three successive holes, he found himself once more leading a Major with his back nine on the final day underway when Schauffele double bogeyed the seventh immediately after Spieth had done the same at the sixth. It was not to be, however, his challenge faltering after he struck a spectator with a wayward approach to the 11th on the way to a double bogey of his own.

“I’m a little ticked off at myself for sure,” he said afterwards. “I had a chance starting that back nine to do something and I didn’t do it.”
However, he revelled in the experience of being back in contention.

“Oh, it was a blast,” he continued, grinning broadly. “I need to try and keep it in perspective because, the beginning of the year, if they’d have said you’re playing The Open Championship, I would have said I’d be very lucky to do that.

“It didn’t feel any different to be next to the lead and knowing what I need to do. I’ve done it so many different ways, it didn’t feel any different. It felt great to be a part of the mix. 

“Today was a day that I had a great opportunity. Serena [Williams] and I are good friends. I’m sure she’ll probably call me and talk to me about it because you’ve got to put things in perspective. She just had a baby and lost the Wimbledon final. Just keep it in perspective and the same thing with me. I know that it’s going to sting for a little bit here, but given where I was to where I’m at now, I’m blessed.”

Blessed, too, to be able to share this experience with his children.

“I told them I tried and I said, ‘Hopefully you’re proud of your pops for trying as hard as I did,’” he said.“It’s pretty emotional because they gave me some pretty significant hugs there and squeezed. 

“I know that they know how much this championship means to me and how much it feels good to be back playing again. To me, it’s just so special to have them aware because I’ve won a lot of golf tournaments in my career, but they don’t remember any of them. The only thing they’ve seen is my struggles and the pain I was going through. So for them to understand what I was doing early in my career . . . Now they just want to go play soccer with me. Man, it’s just such a great feeling.”

That goes for those promoting the sport too, and while a Tiger attack clearly no longer petrifies the rest of a Major championship field as it once did, his return to contention was welcomed, but also placed in perspective by the most successful of the generation of golfers that has emerged since his dominant years.

“It was great, just to be a part of it and hear the roars. Tiger being back in the mix, you know, everything,” said Rory McIlroy. “For a while, I thought Tiger was going to win. My mindset was go and spoil the party here.”

Instead it was Woods’ playing partner Francesco Molinari who did so, defying Latin stereotypes in keeping his own emotions and adrenaline under control to par his way through 13 holes as his playing partner first drew level with him, then moved ahead of him, then fell behind once more, before he made his move with a birdie at the long 14th to move into a joint lead. 

He then sealed the victory as he did with his second at the last, perfectly illustrating McIlroy’s point that: “He’s not the Tiger that Phil [Mickelson] and Ernie [Els] and those guys had to deal with. It’s a different version, but he’s right there. He’s getting himself in the mix.

“He’s played a full schedule. He’s healthy. I wouldn’t say we’re worried about him, but he’s one of those guys that’s always in with a shot. You know, he does things that maybe he didn’t do 10 or 15 years ago, but it’s still great to have him back. It will be interesting to see going forward, but this was his first taste of major championship drama for quite a while. 

“Even though he’s won 14, you have to learn how to get back. I’m re-learning. I feel like I’ve won quite a few recently, but you still have to re-learn to deal with it.”

Since they are its two biggest draw cards, the sport’s dream scenario is the prospect of Tiger and Rory going head-to-head in future Majors. 

However, even if that never happens, we have, at least, witnessed one Open Championship in which Woods has done battle with the man who has looked likeliest to replace him as golf’s leading light and even if neither won in the end, Carnoustie has consequently played yet another vital part in enhancing this tournament’s glorious history.