Tiger's Emotions Catch Up To Him

Tiger Woods took home his fourth Masters green jacket, beating tenacious Chris DiMarco in a one-hole playoff to cap a dramatic, tense duel.

The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm notes that the highs and lows along the way included an almost unbelievable chip-in for a birdie on the 16th hole in the final round. It was a shot for the ages -- or so it seemed at the time.

"I felt like it had enough speed to get down past the hole," Woods told The Early Show...and I'm like, 'Well, please go, get down there past the hole so I can putt it back up the hill.' …I'm thinking, 'Well, it might go in.' All of a sudden it stopped. How could you stop? And all the sudden, it fell, and I went nuts."

Woods admits he thought the shot had won the tournament for him -- but that wasn't the case.

On the next hole, his tee shot strayed far to the left and he wound up with a bogey.

At the 18th hole, Woods landed in the sand, leading to another bogey.

He says the way he played those last two holes was "pitiful."

DiMarco, paired with Woods, made it toe-toe-toe on the back nine. He nearly won the tournament in regulation, but when his long putt on the 18th just missed, DiMarco was happy to come away with a par, and force a sudden death playoff with Woods.

But that playoff was to last only one hole.

There were plenty of hugs to go around, but it wasn't long before Woods remembered there was one more hug that would have to wait, telling reporters as his eyes welled up: "My dad hasn't been feeling very well this year. …This is for dad," he sniffled, to loud applause. …Every year I've been lucky enough to win, my dad's been there to give me a hug, and he wasn't there today. I can't wait to get home to see him and give him a big bear hug."
The display of emotion was startling -- even to Woods, who remarked to The Early Show, "I was surprised, yes…because I never let my emotions get out of control. You know, it felt different. It felt really different. I'm not normally like that, I don't cry.

"It kind of shocked me. But also, I understand how much he meant, how much he's meant to me my entire life. Forget golf, just life. It was pretty cool."
Green jackets seem to bring out Woods' emotions. His fourth pulled him even with Arnold Palmer. Only Jack Nicklaus, with six, has more.

Woods becomes the youngest man ever to win four Masters, and the first to do it before turning 30.

He also tied two other golf legends by winning his ninth major championship: Ben Hogan and Gary Player. Nicklaus set the standard, with 18 majors.

"Well, those are two of the biggest legends to ever play our sport," Woods went on. "I mean, any golfer, you say 'Arnold,' you automatically think of Arnold Palmer; you say 'Jackie,' you automatically think of Jack Nicklaus. You don't need to mention their last names."

Since June 2002, Woods had played in 10 majors -- the Masters, the U.S. and British opens and the PGA -- without winning. It appears the wait was worthwhile.

"I feel great about it," he says, "because all the contradictions that I've got over the past year or so about how, you know, my game, why would you change, how could you change. Um, getting married…how its gonna affect my game, I was gonna play terrible after I got married, and, um, things have turned out exactly the way I wanted them to."