Tough year for Tiger

For many of us, 2020 has seen plenty of great plans go out the window, plenty of hopeful goals pushed back as we look toward better days ahead.

Tiger Woods has endured more than a few lost years throughout his career, but at 44 years old, better days are far from promised for the man who has been chasing history since his shoulders could barely hold up a golf shirt.

Woods has played seven tournaments in 2020, finishing tied for ninth at the first, but nothing better than a tie for 37th since. Two of the year’s three majors are done without a sniff of contention from the 15- time champion, whose world ranking has dropped from sixth to 28th. The Open Championship in England was cancelled, and the rescheduled Masters is three weeks away.

“This whole year’s been different for all of us,” Woods said on Tuesday. “The fact that the Masters will be held in November, it’s unprecedented, never been done before. I can’t simulate the normal ramp up that I normally have, and I don’t think anyone else can, either. It will be different for all of us.”

Woods is back this week, defending his title at the ZOZO Championship, moved from Japan to Sherwood Country Club in California in this COVID-19- interrupted year. It was at this tournament last year that Tiger turned back the clock and delivered the type of dominant victory that made him an worldwide icon, coasting to a wire- to- wire three- shot win that easily could have been more.

Yes, there is a chance for history this weekend if Woods can repeat at ZOZO and claim his 83rd PGA Tour win to break a tie with Sam Snead, but with just three weeks until the first pumpkin-spiced Masters, Augusta National will cast its large shadow over every event until players drive up Magnolia Lane.

“The whole idea is to be ready in a few weeks and whether or not that’s playing one more event, whether that’s Houston or just playing here at ZOZO, just making sure that I’m ready for Augusta,” Woods said.

Tiger has always treated his schedule as a state secret, even more so now that his creaky body dictates when he is able to play more than anything else. On Tuesday, he left the door open to play the Houston Open in two weeks, but it’s just as likely this will be his only tournament between the last month’s U. S. Open, where he missed the cut, and next month’s Masters.

“My game’s definitely better than it was at the U. S. Open,” Woods said. “I feel a little bit more prepared, a little bit better.”

After ending an 11- year major drought and winning the Masters in April 2019, there was renewed hope in the golf world for a final act from Woods that would see the chase for Jack Nicklaus’s major record narrow and the golf industry reignited along the way. Turns out a world pandemic offered an even more unlikely boost to the game.

For Woods, 2020 is looking more and more like a lost year.