Tiger Woods steals Donald Trump’s thunder by landing at Augusta early
Donald Trump probably thought he would attract the most Sunday golfing headlines by turning up unexpectedly on the final day of the LIV Golf tournament at his Doral course in Miami.
Until, that is, Tiger Woods’ private jet touched down at Augusta Regional Airport.
While the former President was theatrically shaking the hands of his LIV buddies – Bubba Watson and Bryson DeChambeau to name but two – Woods was apparently in Masters town and making it all but certain that he will play in his 26th Masters.
No need to say that the five-time champion will be made exceedingly welcome in Thursday’s first round.
The last time the 48-year-old was seen at The Masters was in last year’s third round. He withdrew after seven holes and was later to have a procedure that fused the bones in his right ankle. It was a bleak scenario and Sir Nick Faldo was just one observer that day to wonder if he had played his last round in the Masters, and indeed competitive golf as whole.
In fact, Faldo almost pleaded with his fellow green-jacketeer to retire. “How much pain he is in?” he asked. “He’s got to get realistic…if you can’t walk four days, when are you going to call it a day? The fans do not want to see him like this.”
Yet here Woods is, 12 months on, having managed to finish one round of official tournament golf in the interim, apparently ready to compete and face the questions. Woods will know they will be numerous.
In December, he made a ‘soft’ comeback at one of his foundation’s tournaments – the Hero World Championship in the Bahamas – where he came 18th of 20. His return proper came at the Genesis Invitational in LA in February and in just his sixth start since the car crash in the same city that three years earlier had so almost cost him his right leg, he was forced to withdraw with illness during the second round.
No dramas. Everyone expected him to play at The Players, but he skipped last month’s flagship event on the PGA Tour without explanation. Instead, he set the March agenda by attending a players’ meeting with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and the chairman of LIV Golf.
Woods is on the Tour’s policy board and has emerged as a huge figure in the negotiations to strike a peace deal. All very noble, but why has he not played since recovering from that bout of influenza in LA? Have his injuries flared up again and if so what is he doing here?
The cynics will claim Woods is duty bound because of the clothing sponsorship deal he recently signed with TaylorMade. His “Sun Day Red” line is due to launch on May 1 and the exposure at The Masters – the most watched of the four majors in the United States – will be seen as paramount in the marketing division.
Yet Woods’s desire to compete surely cannot be doubted. Not after all he has proved, particularly in this event five years ago when he won his first major in 11 years. Nobody had given him a Tiger’s chance in Hell of a fifth greenjacket, when he was suffering with back issues that required four surgeries.
However, he showed the world it was wrong on that occasion and, somewhere in the remarkable psyche will reside the belief that he can do it again. Perhaps not this year – daft even by his surreal standards – but in the future, if he can live up to the wish he expressed at the Hero that he could manage to tee it up once a month.
It is in his nature to say “I’m here to win” and it will be a surprise in his Tuesday press conference if he does not repeat that well-worn mantra. (He will also be asked if he has yet decided to be the US Ryder Cup in next year’s match in New York.) But his primary focus will be to make it to the weekend and make history by chalking up another Augusta record in the process.
Woods last year tied Gary Player and close friend Fred Couples for surviving 23 consecutive Masters cuts. It would be another remarkable Georgia feat if he can stand alone. There are big doubts, however, as recognised by Notah Begay, one of his oldest friends.
“This last couple months he’s just been spending trying to find a way to recover,” Begay, the former Tour pro, told Golf Channel. “He can play the golf, but we always knew the question mark was going to be can he walk the 72? And he’s not going to know until he gets out there and figures out if the way he’s prepared for this year’s Masters is going to work for him.”