What’s even more surprising than Tiger Woods winning the 2019 Masters is that the 15-time major winner, who won the major just 18 months ago, is unlikely to re-argue that he is not even in the top 14 favorites on the field. Perhaps even more reprehensible is the fact that last April two golfers who were still amateurs (Colin Morikawa and Matthew Wolf) when Woods won at August Gusta National now have even better odds to win the 2020 event because they Bid again.
Such is the life on Woods ’late-career roller coaster.
The height is high: winning the Masters, releasing the Zozo Championship, captaining and winning the President’s Cup. Lows are not as low as they are in the middle of the road, which is no place to stay on the PGA Tour – 3 times winner.
And yet, we stand there with the woods.
The juxtaposition is fantastic. Tiger Woods won’t be able to win the 2020 Masters, and yet, he will focus on a handful of both because he is Tiger Woods and because he has built a great sports career based on statements like “Tiger Woods will do”. 2020 Masters did not win. “
Yet the data is uncontrollable. Woods is playing like the best player in the 50’s or 60’s in the world, which is still good but no one will come near you as a favorite of the Masters or anywhere near. Since the PGA Tour resumed in June, its best finish in the PGA Championship is the T37. His game is a leaky dam. He makes a hole just to see the other one burst.
Yet we’ve seen Woods compete (even argue!) With less than the game of bringing in the Masters this time at the August Gusta National. Remember 2015? Being a Jordan Spieth Cruise was non-factoring, but Woods finished the T17 after several months of time to fix his chipping yips following some terrible blade wedges earlier in the year. His game is better than it was now.
What makes Woods dangerous in Augusta Gusta National is that he is smarter and smarter than everyone else in the field. Every miss on the course is smart enough to know that she exists and is smart enough to know when to be patient and disciplined and when to keep the pedal down. It deserves a one-day stroke in a combination of two. But many strings have been made in it.
In just six rounds so far this year, Woods has had a negative stroke in each single statistical category.
There is no conspiracy theory to explain his play. The back and legs and neck feel adequate, and are mentally good. The closest thing to the big headline when it comes to Woods over the last few months is that he changed the grip on his putter at one point. Big news The simple meaning of his fantastic acting is that this is who Tiger is now.
That is really the vague part about Woods’ moderation in 2020 No Wounded. While he has been healthy throughout his career, Tiger has always been elite, which is by far the best. Even in the midst of all the injuries – when he was healthy, he was great. That hasn’t been true in the late 2020s. Although he had to bend for several months at the beginning of the year, his battered body has remained stable ever since, but his game has yet to come.
We always thought it would be some negative action that would break Tiger forever. Maybe he shoots 90 at the US Open, and that’s a wrap. It currently exists as a legend and will be the trend point between being one before. Hopefully, it’s not the injury that gets us to that point.
What if, instead of finding the negative moment signaling his end, we would see the happiest moment of his career as the real finale?
What if his 2019 Masters win is a real swan song – at least the big championships – that are ever put on the spikes? It would be an oddity because success always brings more success for Woods, but it would also be worth it.
Doesn’t it make sense for him to climb the mountain at the last moment and put everything he has left to rest? The Tigers have not been the same in the Majors, since the Master will not win in the top 20 in three missed cuts and five appearances.
Last year was the legendary masters. Movies (plural) will be made about it. Sunday was like a dream. And while much has gone in the wrong direction for Woods in the latter part of his career, here’s something that has gone his way: His 15th major and fifth green jacket have arrived in a pre-epidemic world that can properly celebrate him. Can you imagine if he had won in 2020, with a patron of the old Fruitlands Nursery with no patrons in the vicinity to name the song when he first won two decades ago? It would still be good, but that wouldn’t mean much.
No one knows how Tiger is going to play during the coming week, month or year. Not even Tiger. Then whether he wins 10 more major or never makes another cut, one thing remains.
The 2020 Masters – Strange and Traditional It Could Be – is a reminder that, just a season ago, this all-time great athlete was housed inside what could be considered the shell of his former self, closing in the vague week of August Gusta. National.
Destroying Augusta Gusta was one thing for the 21-year-old mighty, but it was more relevant when the 43-year-old shouted at her children in the same sky and in the same sun with complete and complete disbelief. I’m glad he (and we) experienced it. This year, with no supporters in attendance and no less buzz on the property, no one but Woods will be screaming in the sky, but it won’t look like it did 19 months ago.
