Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter were rookies in their respective sports 20 years ago -- Woods in golf and Jeter in baseball.
Monday at Nassau, Bahamas, they got their first chance to play golf together at Albany Golf Club, where Woods is preparing to end a 15-month hiatus in this week's 18-man Hero World Challenge, an event that benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation and holds more significant because Woods is coming back after 15 months, the longest hiatus of his career.
Jeter, the celebrated shortstop of the New York Yankees and a sure-fire Hall of Famer, has just started playing golf, but Woods says he jumped in head first.
"He never played golf when he played baseball," Woods said after going nine holes with Jeter . "Now that he's out of baseball, he's addicted to playing golf. ... He likes to practice. He likes to play. He does his fitting, tries to get better. You can tell he's analyzing, he's watching, he's asking questions."
The group included Jeter's ex-teammate, Tino Martinez, and Olympic gold medalist Justin Rose.
Jeter already is down to a 10 handicap and hits it plenty far for someone who started playing less than two years ago.
"He asked me a bunch of technical questions about the game, and I could hear him pick the brain over there with Rosie," Woods said. "He wants to know. He's one of the best athletes who ever lived. He wants to learn. He asks the right questions."
Jeter ended his career two years ago with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth in his final at-bat. Woods can only dream of finishing a career like that; he knows that never happens in golf.
"You would think that win a major and you're done," he said of the perfect end to a golf career. "But if you win a major, you're going to want to come back and play."
Woods, who has won 14 major championships, four short of Jack Nicklaus' all-time mark, returns to competitive golf with a new endorsement on his golf bag (Monster Energy) and a few new pieces of equipment, mainly a Bridgestone golf ball, a TaylorMade driver and the old Scotty Cameron putter he used to win his 14 major championships.
Catching his breath
Even the most fit, able-bodied runner can attest to gasping for air at some point while competing and completing a marathon race.
Running 26.2 miles with two clear lungs and a normal-working heart is a challenge in itself, so consider the feat accomplished by Evans Wilson, a man with a terminal lung disease, who walked the entire 26.2-mile race of the Seattle Marathon on Sunday and finished in just under 11 hours with an oxygen tank in tow.
Local TV station KOMO reported that the former competitive runner has pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension.
Wilson told the station he was competing in the hopes of raising $50,000 for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. He said the "disease is incredibly underfunded."
KOMO reported Wilson has been living with both conditions for five years. The station said the median survival time is about three years.
QUIZ
When and where did Tiger Woods win his 14th major championship?
ANSWER
Woods won the U.S. Open in June 2008 at Torrey Pines Golf Course.
Sports on 11/29/2016