WHO’S STILL IN?
AUGUSTA, GA. — When Tiger Woods knocked one into the water at Amen Corner for the second day in a row, he headed off toward the Nelson Bridge while his two playing partners took a more familiar route to the 12th green over the Hogan Bridge.
In a sense, those divergent paths were the perfect analogy for where Woods is at this stage of his career.
He might add another major title to his amazing record. Maybe even two.
But he’s not catching Jack Nicklaus, and his days of dominating on the PGA Tour are done. He’s going one way. The kids are going another. Golf, like all sports, belongs to the youth.
With an exception or two, they’ll be the ones battling for the green jacket at Augusta National this weekend. Patrick Reed. Rory McIlroy. Jordan Spieth. Justin Thomas. Rickie Fowler. All members of the 20-something club.
As Stephen Colbert once joked in his previous job as a fake talk show host, “I don’t trust children. They’re here to replace us.”
Indeed, they are.
For all the warranted excitement over Woods’ remarkable comeback from back fusion surgery — and make no mistake, no one gets the patrons going like Tiger — he’ll head to Saturday a daunting 13 shots behind the front-running Reed.
The largest 36-hole comeback at the Masters was Jack Burke Jr. rallying from eight shots down to beat Ken Venturi in 1956, and only because the amateur soared to an 80 on the final day.
Woods has no shot of chasing down a star-packed leaderboard that includes eight major winners among the top 14 players, not to mention the guy considered the best without a major title (Fowler) and another potential star in the making (Reed).
The average age of the top 14 players is 32 years old — a decade younger than Woods.
Six of them are under 30. Sure, there are a few outliers in the group, including a pair of 41-year-olds, Henrik Stenson and Charley Hoffman. There will always be a place for those with experience — especially at a course such as Augusta National.
Sixty-year-old Bernhard Langer made the cut. Ditto for 58-yearold Fred Couples.
While it hasn’t shown this week, the Masters will likely be Woods’ best shot at winning another major championship, something he hasn’t done since hobbling to a playoff victory at the 2008 U.S. Open.
But even on a course that he clearly knows so well, winning four green jackets, finishing in the top 10 nine other times and never missing the cut at a professional, Woods looked largely overmatched in the first two rounds. After opening with a 73 — and boldly proclaiming that he was right in the mix of things — he struggled to a 3-over 75 Friday.
That matched the secondworst score on his Masters record. The only other time he went higher was a 76 in the opening round of the 2003 tournament. The bravado was all gone. “I need help. I’m not in control of my own destiny,” he moaned. “I’m so far back.”