US Masters: Tiger Wooods says another Masters jacket has his name on it
Woods has endured so many injuries and surgeries that it’s uncertain if he can walk the 72 holes at Augusta. He reckons he cannot only finish the tournament – he can win it to match Jack Nicklaus’s record of six green jackets.
Why keep playing the US Masters?
“I love golf. I do,” Tiger Woods says. “I’ve always loved it. I played other sports growing up but I just have always loved this sport. I love to compete. To have the love I have for the game, and the love for competition be intertwined, I think that’s one of the reasons why I’ve had a successful career. I just love doing the work. I love logging the time in. I love preparing. I love competing. I love that feeling when everything’s on fire with a chance to win and you either you do or you don’t.”
What does golf mean to you?
“Well, it’s been my life,” Woods says. “I started playing at nine months, so I’ve done it pretty much my entire life. I played my first tournament when I was five. I’ve been playing tournament golf and playing golf around the world, not just here in the United States, but around the world. It’s allowed me to see places that I don’t think I would ever have gotten a chance to see. People that I’ve got a chance to meet all around the world. The generational connectivity with the sport, right? Watching Sam (Snead) and Gene (Sarazen) and Byron (Nelson) tee off, two years later to watch them drinking my milkshakes (at the Champions’ dinner), to play practice rounds with Fred (Couples), Raymond (Floyd) and Seve (Ballesteros) over the years, and Jack (Nicklaus) and Arnold (Palmer), those are memories that I’ll have for a lifetime. And it’s all because of this sport.”
Woods will play with Australian Jason Day and American Max Homa in the first round of the Masters. We could waffle on here about Woods’ attachment to Augusta National Golf Club but let’s whack a sock in it. He can do all the talking.
What does the Masters mean to you?
“Well, this tournament has meant so much to me in my life and my family,” Woods says. “I think I’ve been playing here for, what, 29 years now? It was the ultimate to be able to stay in the Crow’s Nest and to watch Byron and Sam and Gene tee off on the first hole. It’s been a part of my life to have won here as my first major as a pro. Hugging my dad, as you saw, then a full circle in 2019 to hug my son. It’s meant a lot to my family. It’s meant a lot to me. I always want to keep playing in this. It’s the only major we play on the same site, the same venue, each and every year. We get to tell stories and catch up with friends. I get a chance to catch up with idols and the people that I looked up to my entire life.”
How’s the banged-up body?
“As far as my physicality on certain shots, every shot that’s not on a tee box is a challenge,” Woods grins. “Once we start the hole, it’s a bit of a challenge. Things just flare up. The training we have to do at home, it changes on a day-to-day basis. Some days I feel really good and other days, not so much. We work at it each and every day, whether it’s trying to loosen me up or strengthen me or just recovery. My practice sessions certainly aren’t what they used to be. I used to live on the range or live on a short game facility and just be out there all day. That’s no longer the case. So I just have to be more focused on when I do get a chance to go out there, to practice and really grind out and make every shot count. Because I just really don’t have the ball count in me anymore.”
Can you walk the 72 holes?
“Well, the ankle doesn’t hurt anymore,” Woods says. “It’s fused. It’s not going anywhere, so that’s fine. It’s other parts of my body that now have to take the brunt of it. The back, the knee, other parts of the body have to take the load of it. Just the endurance capability of walking a long time and being on my feet for a long time … it’s certainly one of the hillier walks that we have on tour. You just don’t realise it. Where the clubhouse is perched to the bottom of the 12th green, we’re playing on a hillside. We’re just meandering back and forth across that hillside. So yeah, it’s a long walk, but I think more than anything it’s the shaping of shots. These are things I can’t simulate in Florida. We’re pretty flat. I try the best I can on certain hillsides back at home to hit shots but you’ve just got to come out here and do it.”
How do you like slipping back into your green jacket here every year?
“It’s special,” Woods says. “To come down Magnolia Lane – the first time I got a chance to see it, I came in the middle of the night. We played a Stanford-Georgia Tech event. So I came in the middle of the night and I didn’t get a chance to see Magnolia Lane my first time, right? So I got a chance to stay in the Crow’s Nest and the next day I got a chance to see the golf course and what this amazing property is. The fact that I’m able to put on a green jacket for the rest of my life is just absolutely amazing. I’m just an honorary member, but I love it.”
Can you win a sixth Masters? “If everything comes together, I think I can get one more,” he says. “Do I need to describe it any more than that. Or are we good?”
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