Augusta: Iconic batsman Sachin Tendulkar completed his 100 international century last month and now its time for legendary golfer Tiger Woods to fill his cabinet with his hundredth title as he tees off at the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club here.
There is probably not a soul in India, who is not aware of Tendulkar’s celebrated 100 hundreds, and now on the eve of the 76th Masters at the other end of the globe, the golfing fraternity begins to await Tiger’s century.
Indians know all about the crawl and the 370 days it took Tendulkar to move from 99 to 100. Impeccable as he is, Tendulkar had no problems on the personal front, but on the cricket field a century seemed to elude him.
He came close on many times, but was thwarted when in sight of it more than a few times over a period of a little more than a year.
Well it’s not been easy for Tiger either. In the golf world, where tournaments are held every week, Tiger, who won almost as a matter of right, too, has had his crawl.
His title No. 97 came in November 2009 and then title No. 98 came in December 2011. Win no. 99 happened last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay hill and today he will tee off for the first time in his quest for Title No. 100.
While lot of golf’s titles are co-sanctioned by different or more than one tour, golf’s number crunchers have come up with the figure 99 following his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill last week.
Tiger’s last win in a Major came in the 2008 US Open and his last win on the World Golf Championships came in 2009 at WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
When he reached No. 97 at JBWere Masters in Australia in November, a century seemed to be only a formality. Alas, sport is not so simple. Tiger was winless in 2010 and it was almost at the fag end of 2011 that he achieved his win No. 99 at the Chevron Challenge, an event that is not part of any of the official Tours. (PTI)