Did one shot change Tiger’s world this season? B2

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Imagine how different it might have been for Tiger Woods if not for one perfect shot.

Major championships always have a signature moment. The 20-foot birdie putt by Adam Scott on the 18th hole at Augusta National that led to a green jacket. The pure 4-iron that Justin Rose hit into the 18th at Merion. Phil Mickelson’s 3-wood onto the 17th green at Muirfield. Jason Dufner’s wedge to a dangerous pin on the fifth hole at Oak Hill that stopped a foot from the cup.

The defining moment in another major-less season for Woods was his wedge on the 15th hole in the second round of the Masters.

It hit the pin and shattered his calm.

One inch to the right or to the left and he most likely would have had an easy birdie and the outright lead. Instead, the ball caromed off the green and into the water, setting off a wild chain of events that put Woods into the middle of a controversy that wasn’t his doing except for inadvertently taking the wrong drop.

Information leaked to ESPN and Golf Channel didn’t help. For two hours, all anyone knew was that Woods was being penalized two shots for the incorrect drop, and thus signed an incorrect scorecard, but he would not be disqualified.

There was outrage, and rightly so. Some of that lingered even after Augusta National offered a reasonable explanation that its decision was based on Rule 33-7, which gives a committee discretion to waive disqualification.

But can one shot really make that much of a difference?

There’s no way to know how the Masters or the rest of his season would have unfolded. But this much was clear. Those who have spent years around Woods at golf tournaments noticed a sharp change in his outlook in the month leading to the first major of the year.

When he won at Doral, there was an undeniable sense of peace about Woods that had been missing since the scandal in his personal life at the end of 2009. That serenity was evident again at Bay Hill and he went on to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Woods never looked the same after the Masters, despite winning his next start at The Players Championship.

None of this can be proved, of course. He did have an elbow injury that kept him out of two tournaments this summer. And it’s impossible to say what’s going on inside someone’s head, especially a golfer, and especially someone like Woods.

Even so, few other sports rely so heavily on inner calm. Woods talked about that after his two biggest majors — his 12-shot win at the Masters and 15-shot win at the U.S. Open.

“There comes a point in time when you feel tranquil, when you feel calm. You feel at ease with yourself. And those weeks, I felt that way,” he said.