Tiger hopes magic is back
Woods out to prove once again that he’s not all washed up
Tiger Woods has gotten to spend some extra time with his green jacket.
Maybe that’s just what he needs to rekindle a spark in his magnificent game, to prove again that he’s not all washed up.
Nineteen months removed from that magical Sunday at Augusta National — and a quarter-century since he first played the Masters as an amateur — Woods looks very much like an aging golfer whose best days are behind him.
But this hallowed course has always been the place where he shines the brightest, no matter the personal tribulations, no matter the injuries, no matter the inevitable march of time.
Will the 44-year-old be able to muster those mystical forces one more time?
“Do I expect to contend? Yes, I do,” Woods said Tuesday, not hesitating in the least. “This is a golf course in which having an understanding how to play and where to miss it and how to hit the shots around here, it helps. The golf course keeps getting longer. It gets a little bit more difficult as I’ve gotten older and I don’t quite hit it as far. When I first came here, it was a lot of drivers and a lot of wedges. Now it’s a
little bit different and a little bit longer clubs into the holes, but still understanding how to play it definitely helps.”
It certainly helped the last time he was here. Having battled through debilitating injuries that threatened to cut short his career, Woods pulled off an electrifying comeback in the final round to capture his fifth Masters title and 15th major championship.
The magnitude of the achievement still resonates.
“I thought that it was one of the greatest feats in the history of sports,” threetime Masters champion Phil Mickelson said.
That was way back in April 2019, nearly a full year before the coronavirus pandemic struck and the sports world was thrown
upside down.
Usually a rite of spring, the Masters was pushed back all the way to November, where it will be played on an eerie, largely empty course — patrons are not allowed — with the leaves falling rather than the azaleas blooming.
“It’s not how I wanted to retain the jacket for this long,” Woods said. “Obviously this has been an unprecedented circumstance we’re all dealing with. It’s been incredible to have the jacket and to have it around the house and to share it with people, but to have it this long, it’s not the way I wanted to have it. I wanted to earn it back in April.”
He has one victory since his Masters triumph, the 82nd of his PGA Tour career to tie Sam Snead for
the most ever. But that was more than a year ago, and there’s been little zip in Woods’ game since he returned from a five-month layoff. His highest finish in six post-shutdown events was a tie for 37th at the PGA Championship.
He failed to qualify for the Tour Championship. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open. He arrives in Augusta coming off a tie for 72nd — he only beat three players — in the Zozo Championship at Sherwood, a course that has always been one of his strongest.
Clearly, this is not the level that Woods expects of himself. But, as is often the case with any great athlete in the twilight of his career, he is quick to push back at any suggestion that it’s beyond repair.