Will you hear Tiger roars at Augusta National this year? Woods likes his chances
It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t won here since 2005. Tiger Woods is the story of every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Masters week.
If he’s not at Augusta National Golf Club — as he was not in 2014, 2016 or 2017 due to injury — the story is when he will return. If he is, as he is this year, the story is: can he win?
Woods, 44, says he can.
“I just feel like that I’ve improved a lot over the past 12, 14 months, but I’ve more than anything just proven to myself that I can play at this level again. I’ve worked my way back into one of the players that can win events.”
Woods has not won a major in 11 years, but he did get a win the Tour Championship at East Lake in September, and that was enough to get the patrons at Augusta excited. The golf crowd most known for its decorum has always loved Woods, even when his life has seemed to lack it at times.
“This is unlike any other golf tournament, and my relationship with this event and the patrons that have followed, not only myself but all the players here throughout the years, has been just special. The golf course is special,” Woods said. “The tournament does an incredible job of creating a special atmosphere, but it’s also the patrons and how you can tell birdie roars and eagle roars.”
You can also tell the Tiger roars, just like you can always hear patrons on the grounds asking where Woods is playing on practice round days or when he might get to the course.
“It’s fun for me; the fact that I can get people fired up like that, and they enjoy something I love to do,” he said. “It’s exciting to be part of situations like that, that people will look back on my career and say, ‘I saw him pull this shot off.’ Some of my best shots I’ve ever pulled off have been here. It’s just a very special place, and I get excited about it.”
He is the No. 4 betting favorite here this week at 14-to-1, behind only Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose, but he’s not the same Woods who won here in 2005. He can no longer practice all parts of his game as much as he’d like at the same time due to the strain on his back, and he recently decreased the weight of the shafts on his driver and 3-wood to reduce the strain on his neck, he said. In place of the physical dominance that used to carry him here, he has 22 years of experience.
“I’ve got a pretty good little library in my head of how to play the golf course,” he said.
If that’s enough, then perhaps Woods will be the story of Augusta on Sunday this year, winning his fifth green jacket and 15th major.
“After I won my 14th, I felt like I still had plenty more major championships that I could win, but unfortunately I just didn’t do it,” he said. “I put myself there with chances on the back nine on various Sundays and just haven’t done it. You know, hopefully this year, I put myself there again, and hopefully I’ll get it done.”
How to Watch 2019 Masters
TV
Thursday, 3 to 7:30 p.m., ESPN
Friday, 3 to 7:30 p.m., ESPN
Saturday, 3 to 7 p.m., CBS
Sunday, 2 to 7 p.m., CBS
Stream
