© Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
On Monday, in the wake Tiger Woods’ historic Masters win this past weekend, legendary broadcaster Jim Nantz appeared on Murph & Mac to talk about the importance of Tiger’s win, as well as the special moment between the golfer and his son.
While the emotion of most fans hit a peak as Tiger sunk his final put on the 18th green to secure his first major victory in 11 years, Nantz says the most emotionally powerful moment came as he was walking into the clubhouse.
“Once he walked off the green and spotted his family,” Nantz said, “and he started to kind of bend down playfully, when he saw little Charlie, and Charlie starting running toward his dad… Look, I’m a parent, you guys are fathers; it just melted a lot of people… There was a final remark that if you’re a parent, and that did not bring a tear to your eye, you’re not human. I can report, and I think it was probably pretty obvious when I was on the air that my voice had a little quiver, that I was choked up.”
Nantz says the images of the green in Augusta on Sunday took him back to when Tiger and his father Earl shared a moment two decades ago.
“I was there in 1997,” Nantz said, “when there was the hug between Tiger and (his father) Earl, and I never thought there would be anything that could rival that, but I think this just did… To have that juxtaposition of seeing the hug with his dad, a father to a son, and then the son becomes a father and has that same moment with his son; it is powerful. This is something that transcends sport.”
Admittedly, Nantz says he’s seen a lot of great moments in sport over the years, but he says he isn’t sure he’s seen anything better than what happened on Sunday.
“I hate to try to make everything the best and the greatest of all time,” Nantz said, “but I’ve been there for 34 of them, including Jack (Nicklaus) in 1986; it’s hard to say anything was better than what I saw yesterday…This is just raw human emotion. The power of the human spirit. We all know that the journey for Tiger to get back to that point 22 years later – with injury and everything else – this was redemption, and him bringing his life back full circle.”
To hear the entire interview with Jim Nantz, click HERE: