Masters dream comes true: Columbia man with stage 4 cancer meets Tiger Woods
The Twitterverse came through for a Columbia man with stage four cancer.
Shane Caldwell's dream to meet Tiger Woods came true Thursday morning at the Masters as the golf legend walked over from the driving range to shake hands and present Caldwell with an autographed glove.
The meeting was made possible after Caldwell's stepdaughter Jordan Miller took to social media on Monday, asking for help to make her stepdad's dream come true.
Miller posted on Facebook and Twitter that Caldwell "is very sick" with Stage 4 lung cancer, and has long held a dream of meeting Woods. Caldwell has survived two bouts of colon cancer.
"I’m going to be greedy for him and ask for your help. His 2 biggest dreams are to go to the Master’s and to meet Tiger Woods, who he has followed throughout his entire career. We’ve been very blessed in that someone donated their tickets so that he is able to attend the first day of the tournament, this coming Thursday."
Miller kept an eye on her Facebook and Twitter accounts and noticed when her tweet went viral. Ben Higgins, of ABC's "The Bachelor" re-tweeted the post. It was seen and re-tweeted by his fans 1.6 million times.
Miller said she was "friended" by Erica Herman, Woods' girlfriend, shortly thereafter. Woods' team was made aware of Miller's request and a plan to bring the two men together was put in motion.
Miller said she was told to give Woods' team a description of Caldwell and have her stepdad at a certain location on the course. Herman would stand near him so that Tiger would be able to pick him out of the crowd.
So early Thursday morning, Caldwell's dream came true.
Caldwell shook Woods' hand and, according to Miller, said, "knock 'em dead Tiger!"
Miller said her stepdad is "over the moon," and amazed that he's gotten so much attention and support from people on social media. "There are not enough words," she said, to express her family's joy. According to her, Caldwell still has tears in his eyes from meeting his hero.
She believes that everything fell in to place mainly because both Woods' and Herman's fathers died of cancer.
But Caldwell's dream week at Augusta is far from over. Miller said she was notified that her stepdad will be able to attend the Masters on Sunday as well.
"He doesn't know just yet," she said.
This story was originally published April 5, 2018 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Masters dream comes true: Columbia man with stage 4 cancer meets Tiger Woods."