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The Importance of Resilience
A lesson in how to face obstacles and overcome them
On 16 June 2008, Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open, the 14th major title of his career. He was closing in on Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 titles, with no obstacle in his way.
It was a question of when not if, Woods would break the record.
He achieved this victory despite competing with a broken leg. If Woods could beat the world’s best golfers on one leg, what hope did they have when he was fully fit? There seemed to be no stopping him. Only there was.
Woods did not win another major until the Masters in 2019. A period of eleven years without a victory for the man considered the greatest to ever play the game would have been unthinkable in 2008.
During those eleven years, Woods body failed him, his marriage fell apart and it appeared as though he would struggle to play golf again, never mind compete at the highest level.
There have been many great comebacks in sport, but perhaps none as great as this. Not only was Woods’s turmoil physical, but psychological too. His life hit rock bottom more than once, but each time he was able to pick himself off the floor, literally in one case, to return to the pinnacle of his sport.
