Here at his 25th Masters, Tiger Woods sounds all of his 47 years. It is not just that he fears the havoc this week’s forecast chill in Georgia could wreak on his bionic right leg, but that he betrays not a scintilla of belief he can win.
A necessary dose of realism, you might think, from a man still rebuilding his body after crashing into a ravine at 87 mph. But it is still bracing to hear sport’s most remorseless champion, a man who at his zenith left his rivals not so much beaten as neutered, admit to becoming a ceremonial golfer ahead of this year’s tournament.
For the greats, it is a fate that curdles the blood, this drift into competitive irrelevance. Augusta, by contrast, treats the sunset of a past winner’s career almost as a beloved rite of passage. You see it everywhere: in the lifelong exemptions, in the first-tee schmaltz with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, in the applause in 2002 for an 89-year-old Sam Snead even when he had just brained a patron with his drive. But for Woods, the acknowledgement he is no longer a contender is almost a mortal wound.
“I don’t know how many more I have left in me,” he said, the reconstruction of his leg having left him with a pronounced limp and lingering pain. “It’s just being able to appreciate the time I have here and cherish the memories.”
This marked a radical departure from his rhetoric 12 months ago. Having shocked the world by turning up so soon after a near-fatal car crash, he raised eyebrows further by declaring victory was possible. While he made the cut, two weekend rounds of 78 disabused him of such blind faith in his capacity to produce miracles. Gone now is the obligatory prediction that he can confound the odds. In its place is a reluctant acceptance of his diminished state, a tendency to dwell less on the future than the past.
“The joy is different now,” he explained. “It’s harder. I don’t play as many tournaments, I don’t practice as much. I’m limited in what I can do. I’ve been able to spend more time with my son, Charlie, and we’ve been able to create our own memories out there. Some of the things that I experienced with my dad, the late-night sessions that we did at the Navy Golf Course, I’m now doing with my son. It’s incredible, the bonding and the moments that come because of this sport.”
