‘It was a good week all around’ for Woods
Tough weekend is taken in stride
Perhaps it says a lot about Tiger Woods’s level of expectation that, upon completing his 26th trip to the Masters at a careerworst 16 over par for four rounds, the five-time champion summed up his performance positively.
“It was a good week all around,” Woods said. “I think that coming in here, not having played a full tournament in a very long time, it was a good fight on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, (Saturday) didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to.”
That’s for sure. Saturday’s 10-over 82 was the worst score he’s ever carded in 100 tournament rounds at Augusta National. Then he registered a 77 on Sunday, when the 48-year-old Woods went through his pre-round paces on the driving range with 15-year-old son Charlie by his side but couldn’t summon a performance resembling his younger self.
Still, there were undoubtable positives. Woods went a combined 1over in the opening two rounds, both played in relatively difficult conditions, which ensured he set a Masters record by making the cut for a 24th consecutive time. It didn’t help that a weather delay Thursday meant Woods’s Friday turned into a 23-hole marathon — not the ideal setup for success for an athlete whose list of career injuries and surgeries far surpasses his list of 15 major championships and 82 PGA Tour wins.
In the lead-up to the tournament, Woods spoke of grappling with the chronic pain of an athlete growing old, and acknowledged the state of his battered body has severely curbed an appetite for practice that was once insatiable.
“Just keep lifting, keep the motor going, keep the body moving, keep getting stronger, keep progressing,” he said. “Hopefully the practice sessions will keep getting longer.”
On Sunday, Woods spoke of being eager to “do my homework” on this year’s remaining three major championships. Kentucky’s Valhalla Golf Club, site of next month’s PGA Championship, will be his next project. Woods won the PGA there in 2000. But in most of a quarter-century, unsurprisingly, golf courses change.
“I heard there’s some changes at the next couple sites,” Woods said, speaking of Valhalla and Pinehurst No. 2, home of June’s U.S. Open. “So got to get up there early and check them out … I’m going to do my homework going forward at Pinehurst, Valhalla and Troon, but that’s kind of the game plan.”
As for the state of the game at large, Woods characterized his meeting in the Bahamas last month with Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan as a positive step along the road to bringing an end to the money fight that has divided the golf world. Though the PGA Tour and breakaway LIV Golf announced a “merger” in June, they have yet to come to an agreement. And in the interim, LIV Golf has continued to plunder top players, most notably 2023 Masters champion Jon Rahm.
“I don’t know if we’re closer (to an agreement), but certainly we’re headed in the right direction,” Woods said. “That was a very positive meeting, and I think both sides came away from the meeting feeling positive.”
In other words, Sunday’s positivity, around Woods’s game and golf’s greater good, were mostly of the theoretical variety. Woods pointed to the fantastic final round put up by Tom Kim, who shot 66, and said he figured a similar number might have ended up on his scorecard.
“The way that Tom is playing, I thought I had in my system,” Woods said.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t produce it.”