AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | When Tiger Woods raised the question last Tuesday of how many more Masters he might be able to play – “I don’t know how many more I have in me,” he said – it sounded open-ended.
By Sunday morning, when Woods withdrew with 29 holes remaining and citing a recurrence of the plantar fasciitis that has plagued him in recent months, the reality seemed more ominous.
Woods made it to the weekend of the Masters for a record-tying 23rd consecutive year, but he couldn’t get to the finish line.
Woods had slipped into the weekend when his friend Justin Thomas made two closing bogeys on Saturday, pushing the cutline to 3-over and allowing Woods to tie Fred Couples and Gary Player for the most consecutive cuts made at Augusta National.
It was a bittersweet blessing.
With temperatures in the 40s, the rain coming and going, the wind adding bite to the chill and the smell of woodsmoke drifting out of chimneys and around the clubhouse, Saturday at the Masters felt more like winter than the advent of spring. The conditions worked against the 47-year-old who labored around the hilly property.
By the time play was halted Saturday afternoon, Woods was 6-over through seven holes and had made consecutive double bogeys in the soaking and shivering rain, dropping him into last place among the 54 players who made the cut.
Woods has acknowledged that his right leg isn’t going to get better, and his right foot is a particular problem because of the damage done by the single-vehicle rollover accident in early 2021.
He winces occasionally when he walks, and the wonder he produces isn’t from the golf he plays but about the future he faces.
Because of age and injury, Woods walks tentatively, finding the smallest slopes where he can, and swings around a back that doesn’t fully bend and a leg that doesn’t fully function.
Physically, how much better can he get?
There is still a nobility to his presence on the course even if the game that once looked so easy now looks so hard. With each passing tournament, there is a growing acceptance that no matter how hard he works and how hard he tries, what time and trauma have taken away isn’t coming fully back.
The Sunday morning withdrawal shouldn’t diminish the accomplishment of extending his streak of cuts made at the Masters.
Rory McIlroy didn’t do it. Bryson DeChambeau didn’t do it. Thomas didn’t do it.
The thing about Woods and Augusta National now is this: It may not last much longer.
Woods himself offered that bit of foreshadowing in his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday when he said, “So just to be able to appreciate the time that I have here and cherish the memories…”
Tiger Woods never has been about looking back. He constructed his legend – notably a record-tying 82 PGA Tour victories, including 15 major championships, five of which were Masters titles – focusing on the moment, seemingly capable of cutting steel with his eyes. He seemed impervious to pain and unaccepting of mediocrity.
He’s different now.
Earlier Saturday morning, 65-year-old Sandy Lyle and 64-year-old Larry Mize waved their goodbyes to the Masters, graying past champions gracefully taking their final bows.
At this moment, it’s hard to picture Woods going the distance like they did, not because he doesn’t want to but because he won’t be able to. Walking Augusta National is hard work and that, more than the shots he’s required to hit, likely will determine how many more Masters Woods can play.
“I wish it could be easier,” Woods said.
The reality is that it may never have been more difficult.
Ron Green Jr.