My, how foolish one would be to completely rule Tiger Woods out of contending for his fifth green jacket next week at Augusta National.
First and foremost, it has become abundantly clear that Woods is intending to play the Masters next week.
Buzz of Woods' impending decision to attend his 18th Masters as a professional began circulating on Monday morning when his plane was spotted at the Augusta Regional Airport.
Scott Michaux of The Augusta Chronicle initially broke the story when he reported that, “a plane matching the tail numbers of Tiger Woods’ Gulfstream G5 was parked in front of the terminal for private aircraft at Augusta Regional Airport on Tuesday morning.”
While this was, of course, interesting news at the time, one has to wonder when the tail numbers of a professional golfer’s private plane sitting on a tarmac at some small regional airport last made headlines around the world.
But then again, this is Woods we are talking about here.
Woods’ absence from last year’s Masters sent ticket prices plunging, while television ratings dropped to their lowest level since 1957. So, Woods’ plane spotted at the Augusta Regional Airport was indeed a big deal for anyone that is in anyway involved with the Masters event.
Bob Harig of ESPN.com then reported that Woods played an 18-hole practice round at Augusta National on Tuesday.
And Golfchannel .com is now reporting that Woods was spotted on the practice tee at Augusta National on Friday morning.
Although earlier in the week Harig reported that Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg said, "Tiger clearly is working hard and he will advise as to when he is ready to play competitively," it is obvious to most that Woods has every intention of lacing up his spikes and stepping onto the first tee at Augusta National next Thursday.
The question then becomes, how will Woods perform?
Well, if history is anything to go by, there is absolutely no reason to believe that Woods is headed toward some kind of embarrassing performance next week at Augusta National.
Woods, much like Phil Mickelson, has the ability to completely transform his game from the moment he drives down Magnolia Lane each year.
The Champions locker room at Augusta National might as well be Woods’ phone booth–he can step into that locker room as an injured golfer who has been struggling with his game and walk out the other door as golf’s version of Superman.
It is truly an incredibly phenomenon that occurs once Woods (and Mickelson) arrive at Augusta National each and every April.
Despite all of the struggles Woods has experienced since 2008, he has finished outside of the top six just once in his past six Masters appearances.
Going back to 1997, Woods has finished outside of the top eight just four times in 17 starts.
Now, it is certainly easy to predict that this time will be different when considering that Woods has been battling a case of the chipping yips and has not played four full rounds at an official PGA Tour event since last July.
But 1997 was also different, as was 2010 and 2011.
Back in 1997, no one in their right mind believed that a 21-year-old beginning his first full season as a professional could possibly win the Masters.
So what did Woods do?
He went out and won by 12 strokes while displaying a previously unseen form of power that sent the Augusta National green coast scrambling to completely redesign the entire golf course.
In 2010, there was no possible way Woods was going to contend while coming off of an incredibly embarrassing sex scandal and having not played a professional event in more than four months.
So what did Woods do?
He stepped onto the first tee, piped his opening drive right down the middle of the fairway and posted an opening-round score of 68 en route to a T4 finish.
The prognosis for Woods was even worse in 2011, when he arrived at Augusta National with his game completely in shambles.
Woods would have had a difficult time hitting a 300-yard wide fairway off of the tee or rolling his golf ball through a basketball hoop on the greens back in April of 2011.
So what did Woods do?
He stepped into that phone booth, walked out and posted three under par rounds, including a final-round score of 67, which led to another T4 finish.
While the Masters presents the most obvious example of Woods’ ability to turn his game on at big-time events, it is certainly not the only example.
During Woods' so-called slump years between 2010 and 2012, he had just two top-10s in 2010, both of which came at majors (the Masters and the U.S. Open).
Woods again posted just two top-10s in 2011, one of which came at the Masters and the other at the WGC -Cadillac Championship at Doral .
It is probably a bit far-fetched to believe Woods will be the last man standing next Sunday evening, but to predict that Woods will not at least be in the mix would be flying directly in the face of history. Particularly when considering the recent reports coming out of Woods’ home course—Medalist Golf Club.
On Monday, Golf Digest senior writer Tim Rosaforte told the Golf Channel that Woods is playing 27 holes per day at Medalist and recently shot a worst-ball score of 66.
A worst-ball score essentially means that a player hits two balls for each shot and then plays the worst of those two balls for the next shot.
If these reports are to be believed, it appears Woods is officially beginning to shake off that rust and rid himself of those pesky chipping yips that had plagued him earlier in the year.
Combine that with Wood’s history at Augusta National, and, oh, how foolish one would be to completely rule Woods out of contending next week at the first major of the year.
from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1ER0Fud
via IFTTT April 03, 2015 at 06:54AM
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