Nataniel Welch
In 2019, a massive 11 years after winning his last major, Tiger Woods took part in the Masters.
No-one expected him to win of course, he was old, he hadn’t won anything other than the FedEx Championship in the 5 years previous, and nothing significant since 2008.
The odds on Woods winning the Master in 2019 were 14/1, and this attracted the attention of a certain Wisconsin man named James Adducci.
Mr Adducci was a construction worker, he did not earn a fortune and was not a sports genius, in fact, his bet on the Masters was the first sports wager he ever placed – and his stake was $85,000.
He got the money by selling stock in Amazon that he had been building up over a long period of time, and which had grown in value. Incidentally, Amazon was the first and only company he had ever invested money in as well.
He took the money to Las Vegas in a $32 Walmart bag, and attempted to place the bet in a few different sports books who all turned him down because of the size of the wager, before William Hill US agreed to take the bet.
Of course, Tiger Woods would go on the win the Masters that year, to everyone’s amazement, securing a $1.275 million (£992,810) payout for Adducci – the largest golf payout is William Hill US’s history at the time.
How Tiger Woods Won the 2019 Masters
Augusta would witness one of the greatest ever golfing comebacks in history in 2019.
Woods was a 4 time champion of the competition, his last victory coming back in 2005, and after the first round he looked unlikely to be able to add another to his tally.
He finished the day on a score or 70, so two under par, but this was only good enough for 11th place where he was tied with ten other players. For context, Bryson De Chambeau and Brooks Koepka tied in first had both finished on 66 points and 6 under par.
Woods made better progress in round two, despite 2 front-nine bogeys. Five players, all ex-champions themselves, were tied in first, with Woods slotting into the group one back tied in 6th, achieving a score of 68 in the round and 138 combined.
Round 3 wasn’t looking great for Tiger after the first 5 holes, but successive birdies on holes 6, 7 and 8 put some fire in his belly, and he achieved three more birdies in the back nine, finishing on a score of 67 for the round and sling shotting himself tied for 2nd place.
The weather was not forecast to be good for the final day, but round 4 went ahead nonetheless.
A couple of double bogeys caused setbacks for Brooks Koepka and Ian Poulter, both players who had been nipping at Woods’ heels, and by midday Woods has moved up to be tied in 1st place with Molinari and Schauffele.
A birdie on the 16th and hitting par on the 17th left Woods on his own in first after Molinari hit the trees in the 15th and Schauffele fell behind, so he went into the 18th hole knowing that a bogey would be enough to win him the competition.
He bogeys it, winning the Masters by a single point.