Despite the subplots, Masters is about Tiger
Crowds swarm Augusta to watch him work
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The gates to Augusta National opened a little after 7 a.m. Monday. It didn’t feel as though Masters week started until just before 3 p.m.
Tiger Woods was on the first tee, and this was no time to be shopping for shirts and caps or standing in line for pimento cheese sandwiches. That much was evident by the biggest golf crowd this year on one hole except for the circus par-3 16th at the Phoenix Open.
Woods consumes attention at every Masters he plays. It’s been that way since the first of his five green jackets he won 25 years ago.
Now it’s even greater. He hasn’t played against the best in 17 months, while recovering from a car crash that once looked as though it might end his career. And still to be determined is whether he plays this one.
Woods has said it would be a “game-time” decision whether his battered right leg and ankle can handle walking and competing over 18 holes at Augusta National.
“There’s always buzz around this place,” Billy
Patrons followed Tiger Woods’ every move as he played a practice round Monday at Augusta National.
Horschel said. “But there’s just another level of buzz to see him and see him play.”
It’s not as though this Masters was devoid of drama.
Rory Mcilroy gets another crack at the career Grand Slam. He spent Monday in an Irish fourball alongside Shane Lowry, Padraig Harrington and Seamus Power.
Bryson Dechambeau is back, even though he says his doctors don’t recommend it.
Dechambeau said he first hurt his left hip two years ago while speed training and slipping on concrete.
Then, he didn’t work on finger strength, and that led to a popping sound in his wrist before his TV match against Brooks Koepka in
Las Vegas in November. That led to a hairline fracture of his hamate bone in his left hand. And then he slipped on marble while playing table tennis in early February and landed on his hand and his hip.
“The past few weeks have been very, very difficult on me, not playing well and not hitting it anywhere near where I know I should be hitting it,” he said. “Yelling ‘Fore!’ off the tee every time is just not fun. It’s very difficult on your mental psyche as well.”
Playing the Masters was a “huge risk” a few weeks ago and a decision he said his doctors did not recommend.
“Different situation than Tiger, obviously, but it was definitely a day-by-day process of figuring out if I could do this,” he said.
So much goes back to Woods, who had broken bones in his right leg and ankle from the car crash outside Los Angeles in February 2021 that left him immobilized for three months.
Brooks Koepka knows a thing or two about playing with injury, even if not as many were people were paying attention.
But he is more concerned with his own game than what Woods has going on.
“Look, I’m happy he’s becoming healthier and able to play golf,” Koepka said. “We need him, the game needs him, everybody needs him, the fans need him, all that stuff. But at the end of the day everybody is just out here competing. I’m worried about myself and I’m sure everybody else is worried about themselves.”