PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA | The arc of 31 years can’t be fully captured in two moments. But the essence of Tiger Woods’ golf life has come into focus again here at Riviera Country Club where it felt like it began all those years ago and where it has begun yet again this week.
It was 1992 when Woods, a skinny 16-year-old amateur from nearby Cypress wearing a hat too big for his head and staring into a future too big to imagine, played his first PGA Tour event. Wearing pleated pants that billowed in the breeze and a red, white and gray shirt, Woods birdied his first hole and the rest, as the saying goes, is, well, you know.
Tiger Woods makes his first PGA Tour appearance as a 16-year-old amateur at Riviera Country Club in 1992. Photo: Gary Newkirk, Allsport via Getty Images
When Woods arrived at Riviera’s first tee near the stroke of noon Thursday, he limped slightly and, even with Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas beside him, owned the tiny tee box that sits perched on a hillside and seems barely large enough to hold a dinin...
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