Kendall: Young Masters stars might overwhelm Woods
THERE IS ONE person in the world who wouldn’t be delighted to be stuck at four Masters titles like Tiger Woods, but for Woods it must feel like a quagmire.
The one-time greatest player in the history of the game hasn’t played a competitive round in two months entering this week’s tournament. He decided to play in this year’s event on Friday, announcing after sneaking in (or trying to sneak in) two practice rounds at Augusta National last week.
Word of both rounds leaked, of course, because Tiger is Tiger. We even got the score of one of the rounds from a Golfweek report – 74. (Wonder if in the “Maybe Not” section of Woods’ pros and cons for playing this week included this: 8-over hasn’t won the Masters in a long time, as in ever, or been remotely close.)
So, like Tiger was the story of last week with the “Will He or Won’t He?” and “Where’s His Gulfstream Parked Today?” angles, he’ll be the story of this week, at least until Friday, when recent history tells us Woods will be headed home to watch the weekend on television.
“We all know the plight of Tiger Woods,” said ESPN analyst and 11-time PGAwinner Paul Azinger. “Sadly, for whatever reason, Tiger sacrificed a winning swing at the altar of a perfect swing, and he may have sacrificed a winning body at the altar of a perfect body, and it’s been hard to watch that undoing. But that’s what we’ve seen.”
Woods hasn’t played a professional round since Feb. 5 when he walked off thecourse at Torrey Pines after 11 holes. His scorecard in three tournaments this season looks like this: T17, CUT, WD.
We once thought Woods would easily pass Jack Nicklaus’ six Masters jackets and 18 total majors along the way. Instead, Woods has gone Masters-less now for nine years and major-less for six. He is not ranked among the nation’s Top 100 golfers for the first time since 1996.
“All we see with Tiger is the tip of the iceberg,” Azinger said. “We don’t see the whole iceberg. We only see Tiger show up. We can only know what the state of his game was the last time we saw him. It’s impossible to know if he is continuing the path of over-engineering or if he wants to be the best player again.
“The best player hits it pin-high the most often and gets it up-and-down. The best player doesn’t fight a right miss and a duck hook. I think it’s so easy to fall in the trap of technique. There’s no position at the top that brings it down on autopilot. There’s no two swings that have ever looked the same. It’s hard to watch the changes happen. And what we don’t know is what’s under the tip of the iceberg.”
Whenever Woods lets go of the spotlight, attention will turn to all the cubs who are very capable of doing to Augusta National what he did from 2001 through 2005 when he won three times with a combined score of 40-under par.
“This is a new generation, a new age, a new time; and guys like Rickie Fowler and (Jordan) Spieth and (Patrick) Reed, they are the future of this game and they are going to carry the torch,” Azinger said. “I look for one of those guys to really contend this week.”
The New Tigers also includes Columbia’s Dustin Johnson, who’s back from a hiatus of his own, and looking much healthier on the golf course than Woods. Johnson leads the PGA Tour in driving distance this year at 318.8 yards off the tee. Augusta National isn’t that tough a place to play (comparatively) if you’re controlling the ball at that distance.
“He can overpower a golf course,” Azinger said.
“I just think he could win as easily this week as Rory McIlroy, simply because his length, and I think he’s playing well enough,” ESPN analyst Curtis Strange said. “His confidence is high. And you’ve got to remember, he’s had a chance to win three other majors.”
And he’ll have a great chance to win this one just as soon as we all quit worrying about Tiger.
This story was originally published April 4, 2015 at 11:48 PM with the headline "Kendall: Young Masters stars might overwhelm Woods."