This Article is From May 15, 2015

I played golf with Tiger Woods

It's hard not to greet someone's version of a once-in-a-lifetime experience with an internal eye-roll. Most people seem to clock these with such routine regularity that one wonders exactly how off-the-charts their lives are lived.  

And yet, there is no other way to describe playing golf - or at least two holes - with the sporting phenomenon that is Tiger Woods.

I was among five members of the Delhi Golf Club chosen to play with Tiger. 

Despite hyper-restricted entry, the crowd was larger than at any other golf event in India. It didn't bother the main draw.

He was friendly, really warm and seemed to want conversation. The no-camera rule was interpreted to mean photos-on-phones-only. Insatiable cell-phones dispatched Tiger to Facebook. He shook hands with school children. He had questions about India.

You don't get this by looking at him on television, or in photos, but he is ripped, an alpha-athlete. He's also much taller than he appears.

"Arjun Atwal used to advise me to travel to India. For years, he said I should check it out. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner," he said to me. 

I asked him what golf means to him. "I love competing," he said, before asking me about television news in India. "In 10 years from now, there will be no TV," he forecast, leaving me hoping that he is a less intuitive media analyst than he is a golfer. "The future is the internet," he said. "I was in the last generation of college students that used micro-fiches, or went to libraries for information," he said.

At one point, the ball was so close to the crowd that I said I was worried I would hit someone. He picked up the ball, and placed it in a much safer spot for me. Tiger Woods is helpful.

I asked him later to sum up his day. "I love India," he said. "I will be back."
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