Injured Tiger Woods put on clock at Masters, says Jon Rahm
JONRAHMwas in disbelief. It was Masters Sunday and Rahm was playing alongside a hobbled Tiger Woods. Their morning pairing had little bearing on who would take home the green jacket — they were in the 10: 50 a. m. tee time, just the fifth of the day — but drew plenty of attention anyway. This was the first real tournament Woods had played since his 2021 car crash and he’d made an inspired run to make the cut. By Sunday, though, he was limping towards the finish line. And on the seventh hole, to Rahm’s great surprise, their twosome got put on the clock.
“We all looked at the official, like, ‘ he can’t walk any faster, let’s be honest,’” he remem‐ bered on Wednesday ahead of this week’s Hero World Challenge. “Like, he was already doing an amazing job trying to move up and down those hills.”
Woods is this week’s tourna‐ ment host in the Bahamas. He was scheduled to be a player‐ host, too, before he withdrew on Monday with plantar fasci‐ itis, an injury directly related to his ongoing recovery from the crash. Most of the ques‐ tions about playing with Woods are in the past tense, at least for now. But Rahm was glad to have been alongside him for one of his nine com‐ petitive rounds in 2022.
He had some disdain for the official who’d decided to put them on the clock — “I’m not going to mention how much we had to wait on the second shot on 8,” he remembered — but his larger point was one about Woods.
“We all joked around with the official, and then when he turned around, Tiger takes off,” he said. “And I’m looking at my caddie, like, well, this is incredible.”
Rahm was impressed with Woods’ eagerness to keep pace despite the fact that he was struggling to put weight on his right foot for much of the round. He used his driver as a walking stick, propelling himself forward. And while his day had begun in promis‐ ing fashion with par at No. 1 and birdie at No. 2, he ran out of gas down the stretch, mak‐ ing five bogeys plus a double at No. 17 en route to a closing 78. He finished 47th.
After the round, Rahm said, Woods was hurting even worse.
“We saw the reality after‐ wards that the cameras don’t see,” he said. “He puts on a bit of a show for the camera, like, he’s not going to show how much he’s really hurting. But when we finished scoring, just seeing him stand up and move around that room when there’s nobody watching, there was a difference. Especially after playing 18 holes and after sitting down when your legs cool off a little bit, it changes.”
Rahm’s round went far bet‐ ter. It was a challenging morn‐ ing at Augusta but he finished with a five‐ birdie 69 to ascend to T27. And, to his sur‐ prise, his partner was an open book. In the lead‐ up to the Masters, Rahm had joked that Woods only ever lent his secrets to good friend Justin Thomas. But this round was different.
“Maybe because of my com‐ ments in the past he was a lot more talkative in that round,” Rahm said. “I don’t know if he was just trying to prove a point to me or not, but he was a little bit more talkative and he shared a lot of great sto‐ ries, a lot of personal stories. I asked a little bit about golf and parenting … He was very open about it and very respectful about. It was great, it was great. It will be a round I remember for a long time.”
Despite his WD, Woods was on property on Wednesday, serving as tournament host. He gave a lesson in the morn‐ ing to a pro‐ am participant. In the afternoon he cruised around the course in a golf cart, his two dogs sprinting alongside him, greeting the field. The crash took a toll, and trying to push through recovery has taken a toll, too. Woods said on Tuesday that he’d had additional proce‐ dures after playing this sea‐ son, though he declined to specify.
Clock annoyance aside, Rahm was moved by that final round.
“It’s really inspiring,” he said. “How many surgeries has he had where he was written off? He’s done, he’s not playing again. He’s not only come back, he’s won tournaments, right? It seems right now that we might be reaching that point, but I don’t put anything past him. He surprised me before and he surprised a lot of people before. I’m hoping that he can keep playing, he can contend again, especially major championships. “That Sunday’s going to be a fun one to remember.”
The 42- year- old missed the deadline to enter October’s Mallorca Open and to qualify for the biennial competition, players must tee it up in a minimum of four events, including one in their homeland and with the Mallorca Open clashing with LIV Golf’s final event in Doral, Garcia failed to register.
“I honestly don’t know,” Garcia told Marca regarding if Ryder Cup options are still zero. “First, because I didn’t play the minimum number of tournaments last year and I don’t think I can qualify. But as I said at the time, I don’t know if I want to be part of the team.”
His decision might have been swayed by Rory Mcilroy – who was a good friend of Garcia’s – saying he feels that the golfers who have joined LIV shouldn’t play at the Ryder Cup and the former Masters winner doesn’t want to play in the team if he can’t be himself.
“Because if there are three or four who if I’m there will be looking at me badly and do not want me there ... What do I bring to the team?” said Garcia. “I really want to be there to be me, to be the Sergio who plays the Ryder, who loves and who puts an arm over everyone’s shoulder to help.
“And if then you have people there who because you have decided to go to another Tour, you are no longer their friend, you are the bad one, you are the one that has disappointed me and has taught me that those people who thought they were friends of mine are not.
“Jon [ Rahm] is not one of them, but there are others who have shown very little class.”
Garcia also defended LIV Golf CEO, Greg Norman, amid recent comments from Mcilroy and Tiger Woods, saying he should resign from the position.
“Greg Norman is our CEO, and we support him. We would all like to be able to reach an agreement. There are people who have been able to do poorly in both places, but it seems that there are only bad guys on one side.”
The Spaniard is currently recovering from a meniscus operation, and he will be eyeing a return to action at the LIV opener on February 24 at El Camaleon Golf Club in Mexico.