Faldo: I’m in awe of the tough cat Tiger
TIGER WOODS is showing “incredible mental fortitude” by returning to play The Masters through “24/7” pain, Sir Nick Faldo has revealed.
The three-time winner presented the American superstar with his first-ever Green Jacket in 1997 as the defending champion.
Now, 25 years later, Faldo is commentating for US TV as Woods makes his latest remarkable comeback 14 months after his car accident.
Woods, now 46, nearly lost his right leg and spent three months in hospital.
And Faldo, who attended the Champions’ Dinner in the Augusta National clubhouse with Woods, said: “I have chatted to him this week. He said he is in pain constantly, 24/7.
“In his own words, he said, ‘It is just pain. I can deal with it.’ It is incredible mental fortitude this man has. He battles on. It is all he knows.
“It is absolutely incredible. He is pushing through the mental and physical barriers very few can comprehend.
“Somewhere during this recovery, he has said to himself, ‘I am Tiger Woods. It is not going to end this way. I am going to end my career being a golfer.’ He battles on. You do know that anything is possible with this man.”
Woods first flew up to Augusta last week to play a practice round and then rationed himself to nine holes on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday in the build-up to the 86th Masters.
“It’s been years since I have played this much,” he said. The world No.973 started with rounds of oneunder-par 71 and a battling 74 to make his 22nd consecutive Masters cut.
The only time Woods failed to play the weekend as an amateur in 1996, world No.1 Scottie Scheffler had not even been born.
But Woods admitted: “I don’t feel as good as I would like to feel. That’s OK. I expected to be sore and not feel my best for sure.
“It’s the combination. I can walk this course. I can put on tennis shoes and go for a walk. That’s not a problem, but going ballistically at shots and hitting shot shapes off of uneven lies, that puts a whole new challenge to it.”
Woods was 21 when he won his first Major here with a long, powerful swing which he developed with coaches Butch Harmon, Hank Haney and Sean Foley.
He was forced to adapt again under Chris Como after his first major back surgery in 2017 and won the 2019 Masters. But now, playing with plates and screws in the lower right leg, Woods admits he has had to change his swing “a lot” to compensate.
“I can’t do much,” said the former world No.1. “The ankle is not going to move. I’ve got rods and plates and pins and screws and a bunch of different things in there.
“It’s never going to move like it used to. The ankle is always going to be an issue, but more importantly, if I play golf ballistically, it’s going to be the back.
“So it’s the levels above and below that are going to take the brunt of it.”