Tiger Woods trains in Augusta on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters/Brian Snyder. 47 years old. It's not just that he fears the havoc this week's predicted cold in Georgia could wreak on his bionic right leg, but he doesn't show any faith that he can win.
< p>You might think that a necessary dose of realism from a man who is still rebuilding his body after crashing into a ravine at 87 miles per hour. But it's still good to hear the sport's most ruthless champion, a man who at the height of his career left his opponents castrated rather than defeated, admits to becoming a ceremonial golfer ahead of this year's tournament.
For the greats, this is a chilling fate, a slide into competitive irrelevance. Augusta, by contrast, treats the twilight of a past winner's career almost like a beloved rite of passage. You see it everywhere: in the life eliminations, in the first tee brawl with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, in the applause in 2002 for 89-year-old Sam Snead, even when he had just blown a patron's brains out with his drive. But for Woods, admitting he's no longer a contender is almost a fatal wound.
«I don't know how much I have left,» he said, his leg reconstruction finished. left him with a pronounced limp and lingering pain. «It's just an opportunity to appreciate the time spent here and cherish the memories.»
This marked a radical departure from his rhetoric 12 months ago. After shocking the world with his appearance shortly after a near-fatal car crash, he raised his eyebrows even more, stating that victory was possible. While he made the cut, two rounds off of 78 dissuaded him from such a blind faith in his ability to work miracles. Gone was the obligatory prediction that he might confuse the odds. In its place comes a reluctant acceptance of one's humiliated state, a tendency to think less about the future than about the past.
“Joy is different now,” he explained. “It's more difficult. I don't play that many tournaments, I don't train that much. I am limited in what I can do. I was able to spend more time with my son Charlie and we were able to create our own memories. Some of the things I experienced with my dad, the nighttime activities we used to do at the Navy golf course, I now do with my son. It's incredible, the connection and moments that come from this sport.»
Tiger Woods inspects the track in Augusta during a practice round on Tuesday. Photo: AP/Matt Slocum
For Augusta National, who layers so thickly on «tradition like no other,» it feels like you're swimming in syrup, this is a poetic scenario. There's a feeling that the Greenjackets are more comfortable with this incarnation of Woods, a nostalgic act that hits all the right diplomatic notes, than with a serial winner as he battled a string of scandals. Who could forget Billy Payne, the former chairman, who in 2010 arrogantly scolded him for adultery, lamenting: «Our hero has not lived up to the expectations of the role model we have seen for our children.»
On the part of Payne, whose club at that time did not yet accept women, it seemed a stretch to uphold the moral high ground. But time can be a powerful healer. Despite all of this, elements of Woods' personal life remain turbulent — he just broke up violently with his six-year-old partner Erica Herman, describing her in court papers as a «dumped ex-girlfriend» due to non-disclosure agreements — his reception this week has been ecstatic. Even when he's warming up on the training pitch, there's only standing room and the crowd doesn't know when the next chance to see this icon in the flesh will come.
Woods generates a curious energy these days. Somehow, his unparalleled dominance has given way to sentimental outsider status, and galleries harbor a faint hope that, despite countless physical efforts, he can come up with a way to break parity.
«For me to come back and play in the past was a small victory in itself,» he reflected. “My mobility is not where I would like it to be, but I am lucky to have this leg. Yes, it has been redone and there is some hardware in there, but it is still mine. It was hard and always will be. The ability and endurance of my leg will never be the same. This is my future and I agree with that.”
Woods looks like a calm person
It was pathetic to hear Woods describe his limitations so eloquently. But to study it in practice in Augusta was to observe a man at rest. He played alongside longtime friend Fred Paras, who offers a useful template for Woods during this twilight period, managing to remain competitive on the field into his sixties, all the while battling chronic back pain.
«I think when he tells you, 'I'm only going to play four tournaments this year and Augusta is one of them,' he's ready to go,» Paras said. “It probably won't be easy. But I think he'll be all right.”
Once, «good» was not a word that Woods would have felt uncomfortable attaching to his own performance. But, of course, a respectable finish is his highest goal. When he got his amazing win in 2019, it was thanks to winning the Tour Championship and finishing second at the USPGA. Now there's no such offer he's building for a sixth Masters title to match Nicklaus's record. He played four competitive rounds in a year, and although the third of them, 67th on the Riviera, was favorable, he still ended up in a draw and finished 45th.
The brutal truth is that Woods is here to remember, not to create another result for the ages. He's tried everything, even planting greenery in his backyard to replicate Augusta's challenge, but the chances of shock are vanishingly small. Quietly, imperceptibly, the most ruthless victor comes to terms with his appointment as senior statesman.
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