Tiger Woods explains viral Masters tree meme on Jimmy Fallon

On Tuesday night, Tiger Woods made a rare appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the 2024 Masters was one of the first topics of discussion.

But it wasn’t the fact that Woods broke the record for most consecutive Masters cuts (24) that sparked Fallon’s interest in this year’s event. Instead, it was a viral moment involving Tiger and a tree at Augusta National that got the late-night host going.

But first Fallon had a more serious question about the Masters, asking if Tiger still got excited arriving at Augusta each year.

“Yea, I do, and there’s nothing else like it. I’ve been playing there since I was a teenager,” Tiger explained, “so there’s nothing like driving down Magnolia Lane and seeing that and just seeing the topography and then the history of it.”

Then Fallon got to the heart of the matter, asking Woods about the viral tree picture that burned through the internet after the Masters. In case you missed it, Tiger was photographed during the final round shaking hands with someone who was hidden behind a tree, with only their forearm and hand visible.

“What was this, do you remember this?” Fallon asked the 15-time major champion.

“Yes I do. It’s the great Verne Lundquist, and he was there,” Woods replied smiling, drawing laughs from Fallon and the studio audience.

Lundquist, who worked for CBS Golf helping call the Masters for decades, retired following the 2024 Masters. It being his last Masters, Woods ran into him on the course during the final round and shook his hand to congratulate him on a historic TV career.

“It’s the best picture I’ve ever seen, I love this so much,” Fallon continued. “It went all over the internet, I don’t know if you saw this,” Fallon said.

“No, I…what… what happened?” Tiger said nervously.

Fallon then presented Tiger with a sample of the memes shooting around the internet after the Masters.

“When I asked for my receipt to be emailed instead of printed”

“How it feels to go on a good hike”

“‘These edibles ain’t s—‘. 30 minutes later“

Check out the clip below.

Fallon also shared a story about sharing a golf-cart ride with Tiger at a past charity event. Fallon had just had his first child, and asked Tiger if he could show him a video of her. As he struggled to find the video on his phone, Tiger took out his own video to show Fallon, one of a toddler-aged Charlie Woods making a perfect golf swing with a toy.

For that full story, the tale of his first hole-in-one as an eight-year-old, a first look at his Sun Day Red golf apparel brand and much more, check out Tiger’s full appearance on The Tonight Show below.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.