From Augusta National: How Will Tiger Woods Play This Week? Take A Hint From The Man Himself

AUGUSTA — After all these years and all those surgeries, golf is still the Tiger Woods show. For evidence you need only to look at this picture from a Monday practice round. 

David Cannon. Getty Images.

A Monday! It’s possible there’s more public interest in Woods than ever before. His career arc is downright Shakespearean: triumph, scandal, triumph again, disaster. He is playing in the most important golf tournament in the world with rods and screws and who-knows-what-else in his leg. There’s also his fused back, and the left knee’s also had its share of issues. He’s a walking icon—add in a dose of finality and, well, people are willing to stand behind five other people to catch a glimpse of him hitting a meaningless tee shot on a cool and wet Monday morning. 

"I don't know how many more I have in me," Woods said. "I know more guys on the Champions Tour than I do the regular tour."

The notion of Woods winning a sixth Masters title, a 16th major championship—it’s hard to wrap your head around how big a story that would be. Like 2019 on steroids. And his play at Riviera, at least in stretches, had you wondering if god dammit, it might just be possible. Plus, he knows every intricacy of Augusta National, every mound, where to miss, when to attack, all of it. He’s come here with no lead-up at all and a broken-down body in the past and been very competitive. 

So, the question is: what are his prospects for this, his 25th Masters appearance?

Let’s take a hint from the man himself. Last year, when asked whether he truly believed he can win the Masters in his first start after a traumatic car accident, he responded with two words and zero smiles: “I do.” That’s the posture he’s maintained at every golf tournament he’s ever played. Remember that Curtis Strange clip, where he’s asked what would make a successful pro debut? Winning, he says, only for Strange to condescendingly tell him “you’ll learn.” Strange is the one who learned, by the way, but the point is that Tiger’s been that way from 1996 all the way through 2022. 

But this year, he said something different. Here’s the full question and answer, to avoid taking anything out of context:

Q: This time last year, you said you definitely would not be here unless you thought you had a good chance of winning the tournament. Does that still stand? And accompanying that, do you feel your physical conditioning with your leg, can you compare where you are this year to a year ago? 

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I think my game is better than it was last year at this particular time. I think my endurance is better. But it aches a little bit more than it did last year just because at that particular time when I came back, I really had not pushed it that often. And I had a little window in which I did push it and was able to come back. Fast-forwarding, I didn't really play a whole lot afterwards. Took a little bit to recover from the event. I played in February at L.A. and then took a little time off before getting ready for this. You know, I just have to be cognizant of how much I can push it. Like Rory was saying, I can hit a lot of shots but the difficulty for me is going to be the walking going forward. It is what it is. I wish it could be easier. I've got three more years, where I get the little buggy and be out there with Fred (laughter) but until then no buggy.

Does that sound like someone ready to win a major championship? On an extremely hilly golf course?

Fred Couples and Rory McIlroy played a practice round with Woods on Monday morning. Both left with the same impression, and it’s the same thing we heard here last year, and at Southern Hills, and at St. Andrews, and at Riviera: his game looks good. On the range, he looks like Tiger Woods should look on the range. It’s a stripe show. 

“You watch him on the range and you watch him hit chips and putts, and he's got all the aspects of the game that you need to succeed around this place. It's just the toll it takes on his body to compete over 72 holes.”

So he looks good in practice. But here’s the thing about PGA Tour pros: they all look good in practice! If they don’t, that’s noteworthy. But striping it on the range, or on a Tuesday, does not automatically lead to weekend success. Especially when something as simple as walking without debilitating pain is no guarantee. 

Then there’s the weather, which couldn’t look worse for Woods. At this point in his career he needs about three hours of prep before he plays. Throw in a few weather delays, which are looking likely, and, well, who knows how the leg is going to react? And ever since the back surgery, warmth has been his best friend and cold his worst enemy. It’s supposed to be in the low 50s all weekend, when Woods’s energy reserves will already be depleted. 

All this to say: it doesn’t look great for this week as far as contending goes. He'll likely make the cut, because making the weekend at the Masters is easier than making the cut at the other three majors—only 88 players, top 50 and ties, and a bunch of 50+ past-champions and amateurs in the field—and because could put his right hand in a lender five minutes before his tee time and still manufacture a respectable score. He's never missed the cut here as a professional. He's also played four times since the accident, all against elite fields, and made the cut three times…but he hasn't been anywhere near the lead once. That's the most likely outcome this week, too. 

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“If it wasn’t the Masters, he probably wouldn’t be playing,” Joe LaCava told the New York Post on Tuesday. “The injury is devastating.”