For Tiger Woods, a Masters walk unlike any other awaits

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods’ 91st aggressive spherical on the Masters will begin like all the remaining.

Shortly after 11 a.m. on Thursday, the five-time champion caught his tee into the bottom at Tea Olive, the identify of the primary gap at Augusta Nationwide, took a few follow swings and continued a well-known stroll that started over a quarter-century in the past.

It is what occurs when Woods stuffs his driver again into his bag that may decide whether or not his surgically rebuilt proper leg — or the remainder of the 46-year-old Corridor of Famer for that matter — is prepared for a take a look at not like every other he is confronted in his profession.

The five-mile or so stroll between the Georgia pines at Augusta Nationwide is 11,000-plus steps of up and down and up once more. It requires hitting photographs from uneven lies. Of digging into the pine straw when required. Of making an attempt to peak over bunkers that may run so deep — because it does on the par-3 fourth gap — you want to leap if you are going to see the flag.

Nobody apart from Jack Nicklaus has navigated the sprawling course in addition to Woods. No lively participant is as well-versed within the contours of each inch of completely manicured Bermuda grass.

That is why Woods wasn’t complaining when he stated on Tuesday “strolling is the arduous half.” He is merely stating a truth. And he is hardly the one one who is aware of how bodily draining competing within the Masters will be.

Two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Unusual used to go away the event with shin splints. And Unusual did not need to do it whereas working with a leg filled with rods and plates metallic detectors shudder once they see you coming across the nook.

“, 72 holes is an extended highway, and it’s going to be a troublesome problem and a problem that I’m up for,” Woods stated.

At the very least in concept. He hasn’t performed 18 holes at Augusta Nationwide on consecutive days since shredding h is leg in a automotive accident in February 2021 that led docs to think about amputation. Now he is asking the identical leg that anchored 15 main championships and a PGA Tour record-tying 82 victories to carry up for 4 rounds within the span of 81 or so hours.

That does not even embrace the warm-up or restoration, routines that require much more time than they did when he fist-pumped his option to his first inexperienced jacket 25 years in the past.

It is asking rather a lot. Sure, it is simply strolling. Solely it is no odd stroll. And it is no odd week. For Woods or anybody else.

“I believe a lot of the stress that we now have might be extra psychological than bodily,” stated world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who at 25 was born lower than a yr earlier than Woods captured his first Masters title.

The stress is not between Woods’ ears, however beneath his ft. The elevation modifications are almost fixed out of your opening shot. Down the hill to the primary fairway, then again up towards the inexperienced. Down a hill once more at No. 2. Rolling terrain on No. 3. An elevated tee at No. 4. Uphill almost all the best way at No. 7. Ditto No. 8. A climb to the flip at No. 9.

The again 9 is a jumble. The tenth fairway might double as a ski slope. One other trek down the eleventh into Amen Nook. The twelfth and thirteenth supply a little bit of a respite. Mounds and a slanted fairway on the 14th, the place a flat lie is principally a fantasy. A mild downhill to the fifteenth inexperienced. The sixteenth gives a respite, earlier than the seventeenth tee begins one final climb again to the clubhouse.

Woods admits his mobility is so restricted he ditched Nike cleats for FootJoys as a result of it offered extra consolation. He is hoping the jolt of adrenaline fueled by the primary capability crowd to come back to Augusta since his titanic victory in 2019 will assist him get by.

Nonetheless, golf is golf. Throw within the crucible that’s the Masters and Woods is aware of adversity is unavoidable. He harassed he would not come again simply to be a subject filler. That is merely not his approach. He is not going to ask his leg to easily assist him get round, however to face on the 18th inexperienced late Sunday afternoon and have Hideki Matsuyama drape a sixth inexperienced jacket over his shoulders.

It sounds unattainable. It very properly could also be unattainable.

“Once I determine to hold it up after I really feel like I can’t win anymore, then that will likely be it,” he stated. “However I really feel like I can nonetheless do it, and I really feel like I nonetheless have the arms to do it, the physique’s shifting adequate. I’ve been in worse conditions and performed and received tournaments.”

Sure and no. He received the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines principally on one leg. But he was simply 32 then. He is nearer to 60 now than that good Father’s Day weekend within the solar again house in California.

The spirit stays keen. It has because the first time he ducked contained in the ropes at Augusta as an beginner in 1995.

It is the remainder of him, significantly the appropriate ankle that should bear the burden of a lot — together with inner and exterior expectations that come when your identify occurs to be Tiger Woods — that may decide whether or not this lengthy stroll will likely be spoiled.

“I don’t have to fret in regards to the ball hanging or the sport of golf, it’s really simply the hills out right here,” he stated. “That’s going to be the problem, and it’s going to be a problem of a significant marathon.”