Tiger Woods leads Class of 2022 into World Golf Hall of Fame

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — He had nerves of steel while winning 82 PGA Tour victories and 15 major championships, but Tiger Woods was overcome by emotion when he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Wednesday night.

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Woods, the greatest player of his generation, entered golf’s pantheon with Susie Maxwell Berning, an 11-time winner on the LPGA Tour who won rookie of the year honors in 1964 and later won four major titles; former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem; and Marion Hollins, who won the 1921 U.S. Women’s Amateur title and later became a golf course architect and developer. Hollins was inducted posthumously.

During his acceptance speech, Woods did not speak about his achievements on the golf course or the eight surgeries he had as he attempted several comebacks, Golfweek reported. Instead, he spoke about his parents’ commitment to his game and choked up when he talked about his late father, Earl Woods, who told him he would have to earn his way to the top.

“If you don’t go out there and put in the work, you don’t go out and put in the effort, one, you’re not going to get the results,” Woods said. “But two, and more importantly, you don’t deserve it. You need to earn it. So that defined my upbringing. That defined my career.”

Woods was the first golfer since 1930 to hold the titles of golf’s four majors at the same time. He also made the cut in 142 consecutive PGA Tour events and was ranked No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for a record 683 weeks, Golfweek reported.

He also was named the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year a record 11 times.

Woods was inducted by his 14-year-old daughter, Sam Woods, and his 13-year-old son, Charlie Woods, according to The Associated Press.

“Train hard, fight easy,’’ were the words they both used to describe the mantra their father passed along to them, advice that Earl Woods, who died in 2006, imparted upon his son.

Sam Woods chose to pick a different competitive moment to honor her father. Woods lost the 2007 U.S. Open by one shot to Angel Cabrera, failing to birdie the final hole, Sports Illustrated reported.

“In 2007, my dad found himself in a position to make an 18-foot putt to force a U.S. Open playoff, which he missed by a foot,’’ Sam Woods told the audience. “He then had to rush to the airport, fly from Pittsburgh to Orlando, and drive to the Winnie Palmer Hospital.

“Within five minutes of walking into the hospital room, still wearing his red golf shirt, on June 18, I was born. He may have lost that day, but he won the greatest gift of all.’’

The four new inductees brought the total number of Hall of Fame members to 164.

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