 |
| Tiger Woods at the Augusta National Golf Club, on Wednesday. (Reuters) |
Augusta: This has been a different Masters week and it is only three days old. This one, the 74th, began to be unlike any of the preceding 73 on March 25, when it was announced that a press conference with Tiger Woods was called for 2pm on Monday.
Woods affects golf spectators in a way no one has before him. He alters thinking, affects the way people behave and talk. When he talks, people in golf listen. Golf has had its comebacks, but never one such as this. The greatest was Ben Hogan’s in January 1950, 11 months after doctors had said he would never walk again, having crashed his car into a truck on a foggy Texas morning.
Hogan came second at a tournament in Los Angeles and three months after that, he finished fourth at the Masters before, still limping and drawn, winning the US Open at Merion. That is a comeback from a car accident that nearly killed him. Woods’s is a comeback from a train wreck of his personal life. Here at Augusta, Woods has won four times and each victory was worthy of attention. His win in 2001 was his fourth major championship triumph in succession, the “Tiger Slam”.
Woods’s long anticipated return will be on Thursday, in the opening round.
The 14-times major champion has not competed in almost five months and no one, Woods included, knows how he will fare in his first tournament back.
Even though the comfort level at Augusta is high, Woods’s emotional state of mind is likely to be an unknown factor on the golf course this week. He has not competed since winning the Australian Masters on November 15 following startling revelations about his serial philandering.
Woods is scheduled to tee off in the second-to-last group with fellow American Matt Kuchar and South Korean K.J. Choi at 1.42 in the afternoon when hordes of fans and media will be closely monitoring his form.
“That first tee, I’m looking forward to it,” Woods had said earlier. “I haven’t looked forward to that tee shot in a long time, not like this. It feels fun again. That’s something that has been missing.”
Fellow American Phil Mickelson, a twice champion at Augusta, expects the game’s leading player to cope with the distractions and intense scrutiny.
“From a player’s point of view, we expect to see the same player that we have always seen,” left-hander Mickelson said. “I don’t think anybody out here will question his ability to perform at the highest level, even though he has not competed in however many months.”
“I don’t think anybody expected him to play well in the 2008 US Open,” Mickelson added, referring to the 14th major title won by Woods despite severe knee pain and a double stress fracture in his leg.
“He had not touched a club in a while, nor played in a while and he was injured. And yet he came back and he won.”
Three-time major winner Padraig Harrington felt the unravelling of Woods’s private life would have no long-term influence on his golf career, and perhaps not even this week.
“I think most players would see what went on in Tiger’s life as his personal side, which has no real bearing on his golfing life,” the Irishman said. “Now, we don’t know what sort of bearing it’s going to have in the short term. He could be incredibly stressed.”
Asked if he would surprised to see Woods contending on Sunday, Harrington replied: “No. He’s favoured to win the tournament and those guys who set the odds know a lot more than I do. I would not be surprised at all if he was contending and I would not be surprised if he played better golf than ever, but there’s obviously a doubt to that. We will only be able to find that out on Sunday evening.”
Woods is trying to duplicate a feat achieved only by Hogan in 1951 and 1953 by winning the Masters as his season debut, but he has been a favourite among odds-makers within minutes of announcing he would return at the Masters.
If Woods performs well at Augusta, media industry watchers have predicted the US television audience could exceed more than 20 million viewers. CBS news and sports president Sean McManus recently said this year’s Masters would be “the biggest media event other than the Barack Obama inauguration in the past 10 or 15 years”.
While the return to golf by Woods has totally overshadowed anything else likely to happen this week, several other players have the credentials to win the prized green jacket.
Experience is always a prized commodity at Augusta National and Ernie Els, who has posted six top-10s at the Masters, along with Mickelson and Harrington, are almost certain to be in the title hunt.
South African Els, a three-time major winner, is also one of the hottest players in the game having won twice in his last three PGA Tour starts.
Woods’s appearance this year has already made it a most unusual Masters. Were he to win on Sunday, which is not out of the question, it would make this an extraordinary Masters; perhaps the most extraordinary of all.