Fan who met Tiger Woods at Masters thanks to social media dies

Shane Caldwell, the Tiger Woods fan who got to meet his hero at this year’s Masters thanks to the power of social media, died earlier this week due to complications from lung cancer.

Shane’s story was one of the more notable from this year’s Masters; his stepdaughter Jordan Miller managed to arrange a meeting between Caldwell and Woods on the Augusta National driving range in just four days.

“What are the chances these two are going to be in the same place at the same time again?” she told Yahoo Sports during the Masters. “It was such a crazy idea that I decided to go for it, and I started harassing people until I got my way.”

Miller’s Twitter plea reached Woods’ girlfriend Erica Herman, who arranged the meeting prior to Woods’ tee time on Thursday. Woods shook hands with Caldwell and signed a glove for him. Caldwell walked with Woods for two holes on Thursday until he became too ill to continue. He attended the Masters again on Sunday, however, and watched from Amen Corner as Patrick Reed won the Masters.

Shortly after that, however, doctors told Caldwell his cancer had become too aggressive to treat. He opted to end treatment, hoping to live another nine months. Doctors said he had perhaps two to three months, but he lived only another 13 days.

Even until his death on Monday, Caldwell was showing off his Tiger Woods glove. “It gave him hope,” Miller said, “to see the love that was shown to him.”

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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