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Tiger Woods' decision on Masters will tell a lot about state of his game
By Scott Michaux
Published on
Tiger Woods came to town Tuesday on an exploratory mission. Now we'll see if the rehearsal was good enough to warrant an official return engagement next week.
Woods' Gulfstream G5 was parked in front of the terminal for private aircraft at Augusta Regional Airport on Tuesday morning and left in the afternoon. Sources, including Woods' agent Mark Steinberg, say he played 18 holes at Augusta National Golf Club as he prepares to make a decision on whether or not his game is tournament-ready in time to play the Masters.
Just the news that his plane was spotted in town sparked a worldwide conversation on Twitter and was seen as an encouraging sign that Woods might end his self-imposed exile next week on the same stage where he first invoked Tigermania at the 1997 Masters.
The Augusta visit was considered the last piece of the rebuilding puzzle Woods needed to see if his game was up to the standards of one of the most demanding short-game venues in the world. A balky wedge is not a tool you'd recommend carrying to the Masters, and Woods' competitive short-game of late bears little resemblance to his historical excellence.
"I read where people said it wasn't the yips," said Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, a former tour pro. "Well, you can call it whatever you want, but it's catastrophically bad what we saw. So to get past that ... (Augusta's) the most difficult place in the world to hit pitch shots."
Woods hasn't played on the PGA Tour since withdrawing after 11 holes at Torrey Pines on Feb. 5 citing "deactivated glutes." He announced an indefinite leave of absence on Feb. 11 to work on the flaws that emerged in his short game since he returned in December after letting his back fully recover from surgery last March.
Recent reports out of South Florida claim that Woods' game has been improving out of the public eye and he's been firing in the low- to mid-60s in rounds at the Medalist.
Skeptics, however, wonder whether it's possible for his game to recover from so far down in two months of non-competitive golf. Woods shot a career-worst 82 in February in Phoenix.
"Given what we've seen, it's unimaginable to me that in this short period of time, he would have been able to come to any sort of manageable level of short game," Chamblee said Tuesday in a teleconference.
Chris DiMarco lost in a playoff to Woods at the 2005 Masters – an event remembered most for Woods' boomerang chip-in in the final round on the 16th hole that tumbled into the cup. Now a Golf Channel analyst as well, DiMarco expressed concern about what a high-profile failure at Augusta could mean to Woods in the long-term.
"If he does play Augusta, this is a make-or-break week for him, I think," DiMarco said. "Now you're going to all these comfortable places that he's used to, and if he goes out and stinks it up – I never thought I'd ever say it because I thought when I played with him he had the greatest mind ever, he was the strongest mind I've ever seen – but it's getting mental. And if it doesn't get fixed, I don't know if he can overcome it."
Even after skipping events at PGA National and Bay Hill in the last two months, Woods still said "I hope to be ready for the Masters, and I will continue to work hard preparing for Augusta."
Word has it that his Augusta trip was a scouting mission to determine whether his current game meets his own high standard for competition in the season's first major.
Tuesday's surgical appearance at the course offers hope that he might return for the Masters. However, should he decide not to play now after testing himself at Augusta National it would send a clear message that his game isn't ready.
If Woods decides to play Augusta next week, it will be his first competitive round in two months.
It would be his longest layoff before a major since 2010, when he finished tied for fourth at the Masters after returning from a five-month leave trying to repair his marriage after scandalous revelations of infidelity.
Woods missed the Masters for the first time in 20 years in 2014 after undergoing microdisectomy surgery on his back the week before the tournament. While he hasn't won the Masters in a decade, he also has finished outside of the top six at Augusta only once in his last nine starts.
So it takes a lot for Woods to skip the Masters.
"Going to Augusta for Tiger is like going home," said Peter Jacobsen. "I think he's as comfortable around there as he is around his home course."
Jacobsen interprets Woods' Tuesday practice session with optimism.
"Clearly Tiger is a positive thinker, and I think anybody that's a positive thinker is going to be able to shake that off," Jacobsen said of Woods recent short-game woes. "If you're a negative thinker, if you think everything is doomsday, then yeah, he's probably not going to play well -- he's going to chunk chips, he's going to do what we saw last fall. But I think the mere fact that he's there or he's thinking about playing or the fact that if he does, in fact, play, I think it goes to show you that he's figured it out. I think that he's good enough, and I think he's going."
Woods' pending decision after Tuesday's rehearsal will tell a lot about the state of game.
This article was written by Scott Michaux from The Augusta Chronicle, Ga. and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
