Masters Monday magical moment

Watching Woods at Augusta brought to light many truths

Let’s start with an educated guess: If there’s an item on my list of Most Memorable Sporting Moments of 2015 that isn’t on yours, it’s probably the late afternoon of April 6.

No championship was on the line. It was an otherwise nondescript Masters Monday. But it was my first time at Augusta National, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

For me, it was a bit of bucket-list business. After decades as a devoted golf watcher and occasional golf writer I was experiencing Augusta as a rookie. The grounds are a wee bit hillier than you perceive on TV, the atmosphere a tad boozier than the reverent hush of the broadcast ever lets on. (The course’s commitment to throwback beer prices —$3 for a domestic cup — will do that). But for all its authentic charm and Disney-perfect veneer, it ultimately delivers what you expect, an institution committed to preserving its history with a knack for ringing in the future.

Certainly Augusta once did the latter with the tidal wave known as Tiger Woods who, back in 1997, shot to global prominence with the moon-shot drives that eventually re-designed the National’s layout and a 12-shot Masters victory that changed the sporting landscape. But in the 18 years between that seminal moment and this past spring, time had rushed by. Scandal and injury had ravaged the longtime world No. 1.

Still, I walked along with the throng as Woods, playing his first viewable practice round at the course since he missed the 2014 Masters recovering from back surgery, enjoyed a reunion with his old pal Mark O’Meara. If we were all hoping we’d witness the beginnings of the rebirth of Woods as a world beater, what we learned that afternoon, and what we would later come to understand months later as 2015 came to its close, is that Woods’ competitive renaissance isn’t in the imminent offing.

As the new year turned, Woods stood 416th in the world rankings. And thanks to insights gleaned from a revealing interview with GTA-based golf writer Lorne Rubenstein published in December by Time magazine, we know Woods has at least pondered aloud the idea that his career as a contender might be over.

“It’s not what I want to have happen, and it’s not what I’m planning on having happen. But if it does, it does,” Woods told Rubenstein. “I’ve reconciled myself to it. It’s more important for me to be with my kids.”

It was a startlingly human admission from an athlete previously known as an impenetrable robot of a competitor.

But maybe it wasn’t surprising: 2015, after all, was a sporting year in which Father Time’s ominous pendulum seemed to tick-tock a little louder than it normally does for more than one former great.

As Woods turned 40 earlier this week, he wasn’t the only uber-athlete on the wane.

Kobe Bryant, another global superstar who, like Woods, made his pro debut in 1996, announced his impending retirement back in November. After a series of seasons in which he’s been racked by health issues, Bryant’s decline reminded us that the passing of years eventually unleashes its beating on even the most committed of workaholics. Maybe it can happen sooner than we expect: How else does one explain the fact that the year we’re leaving behind also saw Sidney Crosby, once hockey’s best player by a long-shot, reduced at times to an offensively challenged grinder at age 28?

Certainly the most exciting athletes of 2015 were mostly youngsters, even if you don’t count American Pharoah, the mere three-yearold who ran to horse racing’s first Triple Crown since 1978. Jordan Spieth was 21 when he won the Masters and the U.S. Open to set up a run at the Grand Slam that ended only after a near-miss at St. Andrews. Even the late bloomer of the year, an NBA MVP named Steph Curry, was only 27 when he led the Golden State Warriors to a championship and a breathtaking undefeated beginning to the 2015-16 season.

It can seem as though Serena Williams has been great forever. But when you win the first of your 21 major titles at age 17, as Williams did in 1999, you can find yourself at the top of your game half a lifetime later, coming within a few sets of a Grand Slam at age 34, as Williams did in September.

Williams is that rarest of phenomenons — a competitor whose dominance feels so entrenched as to seem eternal, even if we know it’ll end one day. Tom Brady is in that class, too, aiming at a sixth Super Bowl title at age 38.

But the prime of most athletes, even world-class ones, are framed through windows far more fleeting.

Witness a pair of local cases. In the span of a few months, this past year Raptors guard Kyle Lowry went from a storybook all-star starter to a playoff flameout with loads to prove in 2016. In the span of a few weeks, the Blue Jays went from a nation-uniting, euphoria-inducing public trust to a public-relations disaster. All the while, with Jose Bautista aged 35 and Edwin Encarnacion turning 33 next week, we all hear the tick-tock on Toronto’s reign as home of baseball’s most potent offence.

As for Woods — well, such was the enormity of his one-time skill that a temporary return to prominence can’t be considered totally out of the question for many years to come. More than a few golfers have won majors in their 40s; Jack Nicklaus won three. But Woods is suffering from a kind of injury that’s particularly difficult to overcome — nerve damage. Nerve damage in the leg ultimately undid the tail end of Steve Nash’s career. Nerve damage in the neck played havoc on the career of Peyton Manning, who at age 39 spent the latter days of 2015 batting back accusations he tried to overcome his ailments by drinking from a fountain of youth labelled HGH.

As Woods said in that Time magazine interview, speaking of the nerve damage that saw him endure two more back surgeries in 2015: “With a joint, you know. With a nerve, you just don’t know. I’ve talked to Peyton about his neck and what he’s going through. It’s tough as athletes, when you just don’t know. The most important thing, though, is that I get to have a life with my kids. That’s more important than golf. I’ve come to realize that now.”

Coming from Woods, that was a groundbreaking realization. His singular focus on dominance was once a sporting-world given, in the class of vintage Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky. Now it’s the stuff of a past life. That was the sense you got on that Masters Monday.

As we watched Woods yank drive after drive into Augusta’s pine straw, cursing himself in his wayward chase, we looked into a future with somebody else sitting prettier in the green grass.