Edmonton Journal

Older Woods seeks first major win in five years

Woods looks to take his fifth green jacket

- CAM COLE edmontonjo­urnal. com edmontonjo­urnal.com/sports/golf/masters201­3/index.html

AUGUSTA, GA. — It isn’t just Tiger Woods who has changed. It is the nature of the questions he is asked. The careful phrasing, the respectful distance, signalling a return to normalcy — or whatever is the closest planet to it, in the universe he inhabits — now that he has emerged from the darkness and entered Phase 4 of what may yet be the greatest career in golf history.

He is, for one thing, older now. At 37, he feels it in his body. “Well, I’m not what I was when I was 19 as far as flexibilit­y,” he said Tuesday. “I’m far stronger and far more explosive than I was then. Just don’t have the elasticity, and that’s a function of age. It’s MJ (Michael Jordan) jumping over everybody, and then the next thing you know, he’s got a fadeaway.

“You have to adapt and you have to play and you have to adjust. That’s what we do as players, as we mature through the game.”

And perhaps through life, too, though that may always be an open-ended discussion with Woods, given his history, given his high-profile squeeze of the moment, ski superstar Lindsey Vonn.

He feels his years, too, when he looks at the field gathered here for the 2013 Masters, and sees his presumptiv­e rival, 23-year-old Rory McIlroy, and further down the list, 14-yearold Chinese newbie Tianlang Guan, who wasn’t even a gleam in his daddy’s eye in 1997, when Woods won his first of four green jackets at the Augusta National Golf Club.

He feels it when he realizes it has been eight years since he last won here, something no one could have foreseen when he was beating Chris DiMarco in a playoff for his fourth Masters title in his ninth attempt as a profession­al. He feels it when he realizes it has been five years since he put down his last instalment — No. 14 — on the holy grail, Jack Nicklaus’s record being 18 major championsh­ips.

McIlroy, wisely, steers the conversati­on well away from any discussion of himself in Tiger terms.

“I don’t see myself a rival to Tiger or to anyone,” said the kid from Holywood, Northern Ireland, who held the world No. 1 ranking until Tiger took it back last month with his third victory of the season, at the Arnold Palmer Invitation­al.

“His record ... when you speak of rivals, you tend to put (players) who have had similar success. He’s got 77 PGA Tour wins; I’ve got six. He’s got 14 majors; I’ve got two,” McIlroy said, laughing along with his audience.

“If I saw myself a rival to Tiger, I wouldn’t really be doing him much justice.”

Woods seemed to think that was about right. And so it is.

“I think that over the course of my career, I’ve had a few (rivals),” he said. “You know, I’ve had Phil and Vijay and Ernie and David (Duval) for a number of years, and now Rory’s the leader of this new, younger generation.”

But at the moment, no more than that.

Woods, smiling frequently, looking utterly at peace and relaxed — both in the interview room, where so many sessions have been confrontat­ional these last three years, and on the practice range, where he laughs and jokes with other players — seems supremely ready to win a major again.

And this one has always been the most likely of the four. Even at his worst, in the midst of injuries or the sex scandal, he has almost always contended here.

“I’ve put myself in the mix every year but last year, and that’s the misleading part. It’s not like I’ve been out of there with no chance of winning. I’ve been there, and unfortunat­ely just haven’t got it done,” he said. “I’ve made runs to get myself in it. I’ve been there in the mix on the back nine, either not executed, not made enough putts or didn’t take care of the par 5s, or whatever it may be.”

But right now, he said, he feels in perfect balance in his life, and on the course.

“I feel comfortabl­e with every aspect of my game. I feel that I’ve improved and I’ve got more consistent, and I think the wins (six in the last 13 months) show that,” he said.

If someone had told him at that green jacket ceremony in 2005, when Phil Mickelson was holding the blazer for him, that he would still be looking for his next one eight years later ...

“I wouldn’t have been happy with that,” Woods said.

Bettering Nicklaus’s six Masters titles looked like a gimme back then.

But the desire to pass Nicklaus’s majors record still burns in him. It has since childhood, long before he ever played in a Masters, though Augusta was a much shorter test then.

“First year I played here in competitio­n, it was kind of a drizzly day, and I hit a driver and a 60-degree sand wedge into the first hole. What bunker?” he said, of the fairway pit that now catches many a tee shot.

“No. 5, carry it over the top of the bunker and have another little sand wedge in there. It was nice having sand wedges in. But the golf course is so different. It’s mostly angles, and them trying to make us play from virtually the same spots that the guys from yesteryear played.

“I think the difference is that the golf balls don’t spin as much, so if you want us to hit 5-irons and 6-irons, well, we are not hitting with as much spin, so it’s coming at a different angle. That’s obviously one of the challenges. But also a 5-iron now for most guys is about 220-ish. I think Jack hit 5-iron on (170-yard) No. 16 when he won in ’86, and you know, we are hitting mostly 8-irons and 9-irons now to the same number. It’s a different game.”

This much, at least, hasn’t changed: Woods is still most comfortabl­e talking about golf shots.

An inveterate tinkerer, ever working on his swing — now, by all appearance­s, settled in for the long haul with his fourth mechanic, Canadian Sean Foley — it only remains for him to add the exclamatio­n point.

Getting back the No. 1 ranking he has owned, other than an odd stretch here and there, for his entire career was but a small step to where he wants to be.

“There are a lot of players who try to get there and have never been able to do it,” he said.

“And to battle the injuries that I’ve come through and to get through all that and to win consistent­ly enough to get to that point is something I’m very proud of. I’m excited that at this point in my career that I’ve been able to get healthy and to be able to give myself another chance.”

Another chance at life, perhaps. The one he had — call it Phase 2, before the fall — is not forgotten, but it’s mostly gone. Only the golf lives on. As great as ever? By week’s end, we will have a pretty good idea.

 ?? CHARLIE RIEDEL/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Tiger Woods waits to tee off on the first hole during a practice round for the Masters golf tournament Tuesday in Augusta, Ga.
CHARLIE RIEDEL/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tiger Woods waits to tee off on the first hole during a practice round for the Masters golf tournament Tuesday in Augusta, Ga.
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada