At the Masters, Tiger Woods Finishes, a Victory in Itself

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods had 212 yards to the fifth inexperienced on Sunday morning. Holding a protracted iron, he swung with applicable velocity and rhythm. However one thing was amiss at contact with the ball, and within the millisecond it took for Woods to transition from downswing to follow-through, he let go of the membership. It flung to the bottom over his left shoulder.

The shot bounced 30 yards wanting its goal, and Woods grimaced. His shoulders sagged. He sighed and retrieved the membership from the grass and slowly limped ahead closely favoring a proper leg surgically reconstructed after his automotive crash on Feb. 23, 2021.

The 2022 Masters Match, which started with a smiling Woods thrilled to be again at Augusta Nationwide Golf Course surrounded by a supportive group of colleagues, was taking part in out for him in its remaining hours in small, humbling methods.

Woods’s miscue on the fifth gap of the ultimate spherical was one in all many gaffes, on this case the second of three consecutive bogeys on the entrance 9. Ever since his startling, inspiring opening-round one-under-par 71, Woods has wilted piecemeal — betrayed by a sore proper leg, a balky again bothered by chilly climate and the calls for of strolling and taking part in for seven successive days for the primary time in 17 months.

By Sunday, the crowds that swarmed his opening rounds had thinned significantly as followers have been dashing to place themselves to see the fourth-round leaders, who would tee off three hours later.

However as Woods walked uphill to the 18th inexperienced, the sizable crowd of followers who waited for him applauded thunderously.

After a double bogey on No. 17 and a four-foot putt for par on No. 18, Woods completed the spherical six over par, 13 over for the event. He pumped fingers along with his taking part in companion, Jon Rahm, tipped his cap to the gang and walked off the inexperienced, smiling and limping.

It was not the conclusion Woods envisioned when he willed himself to make an inconceivable return to elite aggressive golf lower than 5 months after declaring his days as a prime participant all however over. However Woods emphatically doesn’t view his four-day rating at this yr’s event because the measure of his look.

After Thursday’s first spherical, Woods, who for a quarter-century has been famend for saying that his solely objective at any competitors is to win it, was requested if simply exhibiting up at Augusta Nationwide was a victory.

“Completely,” he answered. “Completely sure.”

It was a revealing confession for Woods, however it elucidates the picture of him slowly ascending the hilly terrain on Sunday, usually wincing. He completed nowhere close to the leaders, however he completed nonetheless.

It’s probably that Woods is not going to play once more till the P.G.A. Championship in mid-Might in Tulsa, Okla. Woods has mentioned his schedule going ahead could be modeled after the strategy Ben Hogan took when he returned to golf from a automotive wreck in 1949. Hogan had fractures of his collarbone, pelvis, a rib and an ankle, in addition to different severe accidents. Hogan received the U.S. Open the subsequent yr and two extra main golf championships in 1951 however skipped many different tournaments.

In November, in his first public feedback since his accident, Woods evoked Hogan’s comeback as a paradigm to comply with.

“I feel one thing that’s life like is taking part in the tour sooner or later — by no means full time ever once more — however choose and select, similar to Mr. Hogan did,” he mentioned. “Decide and select just a few occasions a yr and also you mess around that.”

On the tenth tee on Sunday, Woods took yet one more ferocious swing of his driver. He held on to his membership and leaned on it as his ball hooked left into the woods.

Then Woods used the membership like a cane to assist his proper aspect as he descended the steep slope that led to an 80-foot elevation drop from the tee field to the distant fairway. When he reached flatter floor, Woods handed his driver to his caddie, Joe LaCava, and soldiered on.