Why Tiger’s Masters win was AP’s ‘Sports Story of the Year’ (and who it beat!)

If it felt like Tiger Woods’ Masters win was a particularly big story in the sports world, well, you’re not alone. The Associated Press voted Woods’ April triumph its 2019 Sports Story of the Year, choosing the redemption arc over several other nominees from across the world of sports.

The AP’s Eddie Pells effectively laid out what the honor meant.

“In choosing Tiger Woods’ victory at the Masters as The Associated Press sports story of the year, voters went with the uplifting escape of a great comeback over options that were as much about sports as the issues that enveloped them in 2019: politics, money and the growing push for equal pay and equal rights for women.”

Pells wrote that the runner-up for the award was the U.S. Women’s National Team’s World Cup run. The team’s rousing title quest sparked plenty of off-field conversation because of their push for pay equality and a back-and-forth between star player Megan Rapinoe and President Donald Trump.

Other stories that attracted votes included the Toronto Raptors’ NBA title, the Washington Nationals’ World Series title and the University of Virginia’s men’s basketball title, as well as Simone Biles’ dominant performance at the World Championships. Other candidates, like the blown call that kept the New Orleans Saints from the Super Bowl or the shifting NCAA rules on amateurism, reflected the way sports’ biggest moments often involve larger conversations.

Woods’ Masters win fit that description; it had plenty of important context. It was a story of this era’s dominant golfer completing a climb back from the depths of scandal and injury to reclaim the game’s top prize. It was an effective bookend to a career spent in the spotlight, notably his first Masters win 22 years before. This time, instead of Tiger hugging his father Earl after the final putt dropped he was hugging his children, Sam and Charlie, after his first major title in more than a decade.

In the end, it was that satisfying conclusion that the AP’s voters — a mix of AP member sports editors and AP beat writers — deemed the best of the year.

“In a sports year dominated by weightier topics, Woods at the Masters stood out – a comeback story that left people smiling at the end,” Pells concluded.