AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods understands how the visuals came across on social media and TV. He looked completely broken in Saturday’s relentless rain, as if all the injuries and surgeries were conspiring against him in that very moment, leaving him no choice but to walk away.
Only Woods didn’t exactly walk out of Augusta National after the storms suspended play. He staggered off the course, moving like a man nearly twice his age. At 47, Woods was smart enough to tell his cornermen that he couldn’t answer the bell for the next round against a heartless opponent — a hilly, 29-hole Sunday at the Masters, which was heavily favored to deliver the knockout.
But man, that decision had to hurt him to the core. It’s one thing to withdraw from the PGA Championship, which Woods did last year. It’s quite another to withdraw from the Masters, the Super Bowl of golf.
Last April, 14 months after what a moderator in Tiger’s Tuesday presser called “that horrific accident,” Woods somehow made the cut, an achievement equal to any of his five tournament titles. And yet in that same presser, Woods maintained that his severely damaged right leg “aches a little bit more this year than last year,” a truth hammered home by Sunday morning’s announcement that Tiger was going, going, gone.
“I am disappointed to have to WD this morning due to reaggravating my plantar fasciitis,” Woods tweeted. “Thank you to the fans and to @TheMasters who have shown me so much love and support. Good luck to the players today!”
Given the alarming optics — Tiger could barely walk to his golf bag before exiting stage left — and the fact Woods conceded that every Masters could be his last Masters, it’s natural to figure he is done as a competitive force. And that would be largely true, as Woods has permanently reduced his annual schedule to the four majors and a couple of carefully handpicked tournaments in between them, and has started talking about using a cart — he calls it “a buggy” — to play the Champions Tour at age 50.
It was long assumed that Woods would retire when he could no longer compete on the PGA Tour, and that he would find no satisfaction in riding a cart while beating the graybeards he pounded in their primes.
But now Woods is making concessions to the forces of gravity and time. A spinal fusion surgery on top of the leg-saving surgeries on top of all the other injuries and procedures over the years have largely reduced Woods to an ambassador and tournament host. He’s not yet Arnie & Jack in their golden years, but close enough.
“The joy is different now,” Woods said. “I’ve been able to spend more time with my son, and we’ve been able to create our own memories out there. And to share some of the things that … I experienced with my dad, the late-night putting or practice sessions that we did at the Navy Golf Course, I’m doing with my son. It’s incredible, the bonding and the moments that come because of this sport.”
Though it is good to hear the former terminator talk in humanizing tones, Woods can’t be ruled out as a threat to break his tie with Sam Snead for all-time PGA Tour victories (82) and to win his 16th major championship, two shy of Jack Nicklaus’ record. Just like 52-year-old Phil Mickelson can’t be ruled out winning another big one after his stunning Sunday climb up the leaderboard.
When Woods missed the U.S. Open cut at Shinnecock in 2018, a year after his Hail Mary fusion surgery and disturbing middle-of-the-night roadside arrest, I absorbed heavy pushback for writing that he would likely still win a 15th major title. Woods nearly won the British Open and PGA Championship the next two months, won the Tour Championship in the fall, and then won the green jacket for the fifth time.
Four years later, Woods is more fragile than he’s ever been. He might need another Hail Mary surgery to strengthen his leg like the fusion strengthened his back, but if anyone in the history of the sport can overcome massive physical hurdles to win again, it’s Tiger Woods. And if there’s any future arena that would accommodate that …
“It’s here,” Woods said at Augusta National, “just because I know the golf course.”
And he knows how successful older, lesser lights (Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer) have been here. And he knows that a 58-year-old Nicklaus nearly won for the seventh time here in 1998 with a deteriorating hip that was months away from being replaced.
“I’ve been stubborn and driven to come back and play at a high level,” Woods said.
Is that competitive spirit strong enough to beat the longest of odds?
“I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t believe that,” said his longtime caddie Joe LaCava, who told The Post before the tournament that his “biggest fear” was the grim weather forecast and the prospect of Woods playing 27-plus holes in one day. That fear was realized.
“Everything would have to go right for him to win another major,” LaCava said, “but I can see that Tiger still believes he can do it.”
And despite what we all saw Saturday, that’s good enough for me.
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