Not now. Possibly not ever once more.

The magic the five-time Masters champion summoned so simply for thus lengthy was nowhere to be discovered throughout one other labored four-plus hour journey beneath the Georgia pines on Saturday. His 6-over 78 marked his worst in 93 profession rounds on the event he has come to outline and left him at 7-over.

The limp from his surgically repaired proper leg rising extra pronounced with every deliberate, cautious step, the 46-year-old slipped additional down the leaderboard to finish no matter likelihood – nonetheless unlikely – of being an element come late Sunday afternoon.

There was no acquainted cost within the early April chill. Simply the truth that 14 months faraway from a critical automobile accident that threatened to finish his profession, Woods can nonetheless play golf. He simply cannot do it – no less than not in the meanwhile – on the degree wanted to compete in a area consisting of youthful gamers, many who grew up idolizing him however have lengthy outgrown standing in awe of him.

Following a gritty back-nine push on Friday that helped him keep on the perimeter of rivalry, Woods walked to the primary tee Saturday two hours earlier than the leaders. Seeking to ship a jolt by the gallery that stood five-deep in locations hoping for a glimpse and an opportunity to roar, Woods as an alternative spent a lot of the afternoon silently evident on the gap or his putter – or each.

He three-putted the par-4 first from 54 toes for a bogey, an indication of issues to return. On the par-4 fifth, he slung his membership in disgust after his method drifted to the correct, far-off from a again left gap location. His lag try from 60-feet over a ridge was effectively brief. His 9-foot par putt rolled his 3-feet by and his comebacker for bogey hit the outlet and bounced out. It was Woods’ first four-putt on the Masters – ever.

Issues by no means actually bought higher. Three extra three-putts adopted on a day the place nothing actually felt proper. And it wasn’t simply his leg. It was his again. His palms. His posture. Every part.

Even worse, there appeared to be no solution to compensate. He tinkered, the sort of looking out often reserved for the observe vary, not in the course of a serious.

“As many putts as I had, you’d assume I would have figured it out someplace alongside the road, however it simply did not occur,” he stated.

Whereas Woods was slowly making his manner up the 18th fairway, chief Scottie Scheffler – simply 25 and the world’s top-ranked golfer – was making the flip doing on the Masters what Woods has achieved so typically over the past quarter-century: imposing his will on the course and the event.

“All of us want we had that two, three-month window once we get sizzling, and hopefully majors fall someplace alongside in that window,” Woods stated. “We care for it in these home windows. Scottie appears to be in that window proper now.”

A window that’s at present closed for Woods. Whereas it will be simple to name his mere presence in northeast Georgia this weekend a victory in itself contemplating final fall he puzzled if he’d ever play competitively once more, Woods is not on this to be a feel-good story. He has little interest in being a ceremonial area filler.

His steely 1-under 71 throughout the first spherical on Thursday solely appeared to embolden him. Following a shaky front-nine 39 on Friday, he recovered to shoot 74 and simply get in beneath the cutline.

He opened with one other sloppy 39 on the entrance Saturday. And for a number of fleeting minutes shortly after he made the flip, it appeared one other rally was in retailer.

A crisp iron to 14 toes on No. 12 and a two-putt birdie on the par-5 thirteenth supplied a spark that by no means turned a flame. He bogeyed the sixteenth and seventeenth and his method up the hill to the 18th sailed into the gallery. His bump-and-run caught the slope and stored rolling, with Woods gingerly chasing after it lengthy earlier than it got here to a cease practically 60 toes away from the pin.

Three extra putts and his worst spherical at Augusta was lastly over. His 78 was another than the 77 he put collectively within the third spherical of his first journey to Augusta in 1995.

He was an novice again then, a 19-year-old phenom. Two years later, he was a champion. Two-plus many years later, he’s a Corridor of Famer and one of many biggest within the historical past of his sport. He is additionally a middle-aged father of two attempting to recapture one thing much more elusive than it was once.

“Every day is a problem,” he stated. “Every day presents its personal totally different challenges for all of us. I get up and begin the battle yet again.”