Legends recognize legends.
On a Masters Sunday in which Tiger Woods hadn’t played his best round of golf at Augusta National Golf Club, the five-time Masters champion still paid his respect to legendary and retiring broadcaster Verne Lundquist.
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Look: Tiger Woods acknowledges Verne Lundquist on Hole 16
As Woods was walking off the greens on Hole 16 at Augusta National, Woods stopped and shook hands with Lundquist. The CBS broadcaster watched Woods play the hole from behind the bunker in a lawn chair before he got set and ready for his call of the Masters.
As noted on the Masters.com broadcast, Woods rarely takes breaks away from the game itself when he is playing, so to break from action — however briefly — and acknowledge Lundquist was a pure class move from Woods.
During a news conference this week at Augusta National, Woods spoke about Lundquist’s iconic call his historic chip on Hole 16 in 2005 and what he has meant to the Masters Tournament throughout the years.
“I’ve heard that call a couple of times,” Woods said, laughing. “He has an amazing ability to bring in the audience, describe a situation and narrate in a way that is poetic but also described with emotionality. He just draws the audience in.
“It’s amazing. It is his 40th year now to call the Masters. That is what I grew up watching, that is what I grew up listening to Verne. He made a nice call there at No. 16. … I will have that memory with Verne for the rest of my life.”
Lundquist will be on the call alongside Jim Nantz on CBS starting at 2 p.m. ET for the final round of the 2024 Masters Tournament.
First appeared on www.augustachronicle.com