Forget what will Phil do next? The more intriguing question is: What’s the next trick up Tiger’s sleeves?
Forget what will Phil do next? The more intriguing question is: What’s the next trick up Tiger’s sleeves?
Tiger’s opening-round 70 a year ago at Augusta National en route to making the cut was one of the most impressive rounds of 2022 when you consider that it was just some 13 months earlier that he was involved in a near-fatal car accident and could have lost his right leg.
Tiger’s game looked sharp in the first round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera in February, his lone start in an official PGA Tour event since missing the cut at the British Open in July. It reinvigorated talk about the possibility of a 16th major title for Woods, who has slipped into the winner’s Green Jacket on five occasions, most recently in 2019 at age 43.
Tiger’s quest to get closer to Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 majors (and six Green Jackets) already has the TV talking heads buzzing. Here’s a snippet of what the CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel analysts had to say:
Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel
How Tiger plays, I think, will captivate us beyond belief.
Notah Begay, Golf Channel
The fact that he was able to play (at the Genesis Invitational in February) at the level after basically being on the bench for six months, to come out and make a cut, I just can’t even get my mind around that.
Andy North, ESPN
To be able to get around there is so difficult. It’s just — for him it’s such an uphill battle. But in the back of your mind, you still believe that you get something rolling, you just never know.
Curtis Strange, ESPN
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he got us on the edge of our seat for the first couple of days, but can he sustain it? I think that L.A. kind of just made me look forward more to the Masters because he’s still got something in that body.
Trevor Immelman, CBS
If he somehow finds a way to get his name in and around that leaderboard come the second nine on Sunday afternoon it will be all systems go out there.
Scroll below for their takes on Tiger at the Masters.
BROOKLINE, Mass. – The opening scenes in what would later become perhaps golf’s greatest storybook ending, a fascinating tale that has resonated for more than 100 years, were set in what can only be called a perfect setting.
Across the street from The Country Club, founded in 1882 and one of the five founding clubs of the U.S. Golf Association, Francis Ouimet grew up in the modest, six-room, 1,500-square-foot home at 246 Clyde Street.
Looking out the window of his second-floor bedroom, he woke to a view of the 17th hole of The Country Club, which he would walk across to get to school and where he would later caddie and fall in love with the game.
And then, at age 20, he became a folk hero and changed the path of the game’s history over the sacred ground outside Boston.
In authoring arguably the biggest upset in the chronicles of golf, Ouimet took down Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, the two best golfers of the time, to win the 1913 U.S. Open in a playoff at The Country Club that drew up to 20,000, mostly blue-collar workers each round.
After winning the 1913 U.S. Open, Brookline’s Francis Ouimet (rear) credited his caddie, 10-year-old Eddie Lowery. Ouimet later dedicated this photo, writing over Lowery’s towel, “This is the boy who won the 1913 Open.”
And as it turned out, it was at the 17th where two of Ouimet’s biggest moments unfolded. In the final round, Ouimet, an amateur who had to be talked into entering the championship by his friends, came to the hole nicknamed “The Elbow” trailing by one shot. At the time, the dogleg-left hole was playing to 275 yards. After reaching the green with his approach, Ouimet made a long birdie putt to tie for the lead and joined Vardon and Ray in an 18-hole playoff the following day after making par on the 72nd hole.
In the playoff, with Ray out of contention, Vardon trailed Ouimet by one when the group arrived at the 17th tee. Vardon tried to cut the corner and wound up in the lone bunker that bears his name. Ouimet found the fairway. Vardon had to lay up and made bogey while Ouimet made birdie again for a three-stroke lead.
Ouimet polished off his startling win on the final hole.
The game exploded across the land. And the 17th took root as the course’s pivotal hole, later home to more magical, game-changing moments to decide championships. If history is prologue, the penultimate hole on the scorecard – which will play out to 373 yards this week for the 122nd U.S. Open and now features four bunkers on the left of the fairway bend and numerous mounds – will play a crucial role in the outcome.
“It’s unique,” reigning PGA champion Justin Thomas said. “Unlike a lot of holes out here that are pretty self-explanatory off the tee, it’s just am I going to hit a driver or am I going to hit a 3-wood, whatever it is? That hole presents a lot of opportunities of different clubs off the tees.
“Especially with how a lot of guys are playing nowadays. A handful of guys are probably going to hit driver, try to hit it right in front of the green. Or if you get a helping wind, maybe the tee is up, you can knock it on the green. But then again, I’m sure the rough is going to be nasty up there to where you get opposition. It’s tough, and then it’s, like, do you lay up? Do you lay up to a good number?
“It’s a hole that you can have a two-shot swing on it pretty quickly for it being a pretty short, easy hole, but it’s really just going to be how you want to attack it or approach it once you get to that point, especially come Saturday and Sunday.”
Julius Boros poses with the trophy after winning the 1963 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. Next to him is Francis Ouimet, the 1913 U.S. Open champion and honorary chairman of the tournament. (Photo: Associated Press)
When the U.S. Open returned to The Country Club 50 years later, the 17th was decisive in Julius Boros’ victory. In the final round, Arnold Palmer missed a two-foot putt that put him two strokes behind the leader, Jacky Cupit, who a few holes later made double bogey after an errant drive. That led to a three-man playoff, with Boros joining them the next day. Boros birdied the 17th in the final round and again in the playoff to win the national championship.
Twenty-five years later, the third U.S. Open at The Country Club featured more histrionics. After taking the lead with a 25-foot birdie on the 16th in the final round, Curtis Strange three-putted the 17th from 15 feet. He saved par from a greenside bunker on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Nick Faldo.
Strange made a knee-knocking four-footer for par on the 17th to secure his victory in the playoff for the first of his two consecutive U.S. Open wins.
Curtis Strange and his wife Sarah kiss the U.S. Open Championship trophy at the 1988 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. (Photo: Peter Southwick/Associated Press)
And then there was the 1999 Ryder Cup at The Country Club. Facing a four-point deficit entering singles play, the Americans staged a ferocious comeback that was capped for victory on the 17th hole.
That’s where Justin Leonard, who was 4 down earlier in his match against Jose Maria Olazabal, holed a 45-foot putt that set off a premature, frenzied celebration as the U.S. team flooded the green despite Olazabal’s chance to make his putt and keep the match going.
After the green was finally cleared, Olazabal missed his putt and the U.S. won.
Nineteen-year-old Sergio Garcia played brilliantly for Europe that week; he is one of three players in this week’s field to have played in the 1999 Ryder Cup, the other two being Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson.
“It’s not overly long, and you have a wedge to the green. But the green is always tricky,” Garcia said. “But it always feels if you hit a decent shot to the green it always feels you have a birdie putt because the green is small.
“It’s tricky, the two-tiered green, especially if it gets a little firm, like it was in the Ryder Cup, and then the back pin is very difficult to get to. There’s a very small area to land your ball and if you hit it too hard it can easily one hop over the green, and then you have a difficult up-and-down.
And if you fly it on the bottom, trying to skip it up there, it’s tough to get up the slope. But that’s the beauty of all the old designs. The greens are small, and the areas where you have to hit the ball are very tiny and you have to be very precise.”
Chances are another eerie moment or two will take place on the 17th hole this week. It will be the latest entry to the legend Ouimet ignited in 1913.
“That’s what’s so good about golf is the history and the tradition and these stories,” McIlroy said. “The fact that he grew up just off the 17th hole here, and we’re still talking about it to this day over 100 years on. That’s so cool.
The U.S. Open will return to The Country Club on Thursday, but the course won’t play the same as it did when the Brookline club last hosted the prestigious event in 1988.
The routing is different than in 1988, when there was a one-tee start. Since 2002, golfers in the U.S. Open have started on the first and 10th tees in the first two rounds. At TCC, golfers will tee off the first and ninth tees to allow them to easily proceed to those tees from the practice areas.
In 1988, the U.S. Open at TCC played to a par of 71. This year, par will be 70 even though the course will stretch to 7,381 yards, about 250 more than 34 years ago.
The USGA will use 15 holes from TCC’s main course and four from its nine-hole Primrose course to form the other three holes.
Much of Primrose No. 1 and the green of No. 2 will be combined to form the 490-yard, par-4 13th hole for the championship. Primrose’s 425-yard, par-4 No. 9 will be No. 9 on the championship course, and Primrose’s 625-yard, No. 8 will be used as the 14th hole on the championship course.
The par-3, 131-yard 11th hole will be used, but the par-4, 432-yard fourth hole won’t be. It was the other way around in 1988. The broadcast compound will be located on part of the fourth hole.
Jeff Hall, USGA managing director of rules and open championships, is excited about the addition of the 11th hole, and he called it one of his favorites at TCC because just about every golfer can relate to playing a 131-yard hole.
“They can actually do it,” he said. “A 260-yard par 3, well, not so much. That’s a two-shot par 4 for me now. But on a 131-yard par 3, everybody can figure out what club they would hit. Maybe it’s a 7-wood for somebody, and it will be a wedge for the best players in the world, but everybody that connects with the U.S. Open connects with that shot.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceww-TVpMqy/
10th hole is now a par 4
The 10th hole was a 515-yard par 5 in 1988, but will be a 499-yard par 4 this year. The 14th hole was a 450-yard par 4 in 1988, but will play as a 619-yard, par 5 this year. Architect Gil Hanse moved the tee back.
“It’s an adult golf hole,” Hall said. “If you do not drive it in the fairway there, you will have a real challenge to get it up on the plateau to play your little, short, third shot.”
When Curtis Strange won at TCC in 1988, he used a 2-iron or a 3-iron and a 9-iron on the 310-yard, downhill par-4 fifth hole.
“Nobody plays golf that way anymore,” Hall said. “We’ll see what they’ll do. I’m really fascinated to see how the modern golfer plays that particular hole. The Country Club is an old-school golf course. Small greens, very tight fairways. How is this modern golfer going to adapt to that or are they just going to let it rip?”
TCC was built to fit holes into the land the way it was. Caterpillar tractors didn’t clear anything, so TCC has some blind tee shots that modern golfers may not be used to hitting. Hall pointed out that Paul Azinger once told him that shots are only blind once — the first time someone hits them. After that, the golfer needs to figure it out.
“It will be interesting to see how the modern golfer adapts to this old-school golf course,” Hall said.
As usual for the U.S. Open, the rough will be punishing.
“When players start mumbling about the rough,” Hall said, “I remind them that we cut the fairways every single day, sometimes twice.”
In other words, hit it straight. Fairways will range from 22 or 24 yards wide up to 38 yards wide.
“But if you get it off that fairway, there’s going to be some rough, and that’s the idea,” Hall said. “We want to place a premium on driving the golf ball.”
Another change from 1988 is the playoff format. When each of the previous three U.S. Open championships were held at TCC, playoffs lasted 18 holes. Now they’re only two holes, and if the players are still tied, the playoff extends into sudden-death holes.
In 1913, amateur Francis Ouimet of Brookline defeated Britons Ted Ray and Harry Vardon in an 18-hole playoff at TCC.
In 1963, Julius Boros defeated Jacky Cupit and Arnold Palmer in an 18-hole playoff in the U.S. Open at TCC.
In 1988, Strange defeated Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff.
ESPN’s golf broadcast team reacts to Scott Scheffler admitting he ‘cried like a baby’ ahead of the final round of the Masters.
Scottie Scheffler’s victory at the Masters was a watershed moment for the 25-year-old Texan who reached World No. 1 in March. But perhaps the most memorable moment of the week happened away from the course before Scheffler reached the first tee on Sunday and it wasn’t disclosed until he shared it with the world during his winner’s press conference.
“I cried like a baby this morning,” he said. “I was so stressed out. I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting there telling (wife) Meredith, ‘I don’t think I’m ready for this. I’m not ready, I don’t feel like I’m ready for this kind of stuff, and I just felt overwhelmed.’ She told me, ‘Who are you to say that you are not ready? Who am I to say that I know what’s best for my life?’ And so what we talked about is that God is in control and that the Lord is leading me; and if today is my time, it’s my time. And if I shot 82 today, you know, somehow I was going to use it for His glory. Gosh, it was a long morning. It was long.”
Scottie Scheffler celebrates with his wife Meredith Scudder after winning the Masters golf tournament. (Photo: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports)
Scheffler went on to shoot 71 that afternoon and claim his first major. He’ll be one of the favorites at the 104th PGA Championship next week at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Speaking on a media conference call, ESPN analysts Curtis Strange and Andy North and ESPN lead anchor Scott Van Pelt discussed Scheffler’s brutal honesty and what it reveals about a player who seemed cool, calm and collected in ripping off his first four wins over a span of six starts.
“That’s an honesty we don’t get very often. That, to me, was shocking that anybody admitted that that’s where they were. In today’s world of mental health and people understanding how important maybe letting those feelings be known,” said North, who has served as ESPN’s main golf analyst for nearly 30 years. “I thought it was quite amazing, but initially it was a little bit shocking that, whoa, in the old days, no one would ever admit to that. But I think that’s the beauty of so many of the younger players and athletes and people who are focusing on how important it is to have serious discussions about how you feel.”
“My first reaction is wow, why would you say something like that?” Strange said. “I’m not going to say I ever cried in the morning and almost was overcome with emotion, but I spent a long time in the bathroom more than once. Is that the same difference?”
Strange broke into laughter.
“Why would you say that?” Van Pelt interjected. “You’ve got a problem with a guy sharing his emotions? You’re telling people that you were on a toilet? No one wants to hear that.”
More laughter ensued.
“I thought it was awesome, Curtis, because here’s a guy that he has such a maturity that belies his age, and his outward, what he projects is that nothing fazes him,” Van Pelt said. “But here he is on that morning, and I think it’s that epiphany, that holy bleep moment. I’m in the last group, and I’m No. 1 in the world, and I’m supposed to win. Well, what if I don’t? Or am I really ready to do all this?”
“He was in Butler Cabin on Friday night,” Van Pelt continued, “and I asked him, I said, ‘Look, when you won in Phoenix and you won in Bay Hill, match play is different, but you weren’t leading.’ There’s a weight that comes with leading. I said, ‘I’m not trying to sell you on it’s bad to be up five on Friday. Of course it’s not. But now there’s expectation, and everyone’s looking at you.’
“It seems like come Sunday morning that weight landed firmly in his lap. I thought it was just fantastic that he shared how heavy it was. Then how did he respond? There he was in the Green Jacket. I just thought it gave you context that a guy who hadn’t shared with us much that he felt those things, and here he shared it with the world. Maybe it’s easier to do that when you’re wearing the jacket because now you can be truly honest about it. I thought it was really cool.”
It was certainly a revelation no one saw coming from Scheffler.
Here are some stories of what golfers do to prep for arguably the toughest set of greens they’ll face all year.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The week before Tiger Woods played in the Masters for the first time as an amateur in 1995, he practiced for Augusta National’s lightning-fast greens by putting on Stanford’s basketball court.
Ernie Els famously practiced on a billiards table to which Stewart Cink said, “My ceilings aren’t high enough for me to putt on my pool table otherwise I would too.”
Others have settled for the smooth concrete of their garage. Then there’s the possibly apocryphal story of players trying to simulate the speed of the Augusta greens by putting in a bath tub. Something tells us Bryson DeChambeau tried this or something even wackier.
When TPC Sawgrass superintendent Jeff Plotts was asked if the pros that practice there ask him to ratchet up the green speed on the practice green ahead of the Masters, he said, “Get it all the time.”
Here are some of the stories of the rude awakening pros experienced their first time at Augusta National and what they do to prep for arguably the toughest set of greens the pros face all year.
The golf world is abuzz with anticipation that Tiger Woods could play at the Masters next week for the first time since being involved in a single-car crash.
ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt was texting with a PGA Tour pro on Tuesday and joked that if Tiger Woods plays in the Masters next week the rest of the field could play in the nude and no one would know that they were even there.
“I’m kidding, obviously,” said Van Pelt, who will host ESPN’s coverage of the first two rounds of the Masters from Augusta National, April.
The golf world – nay, the sports world – is abuzz with anticipation that Woods could play for the first time since being involved in a single-car crash last February that could have ended his life and nearly required his right leg to be amputated. Woods flew in his private plane to Augusta, Ga., on Tuesday along with son Charlie, and reportedly played 18 holes.
“It changes everything,” Van Pelt conceded, of the coverage of the first men’s major of the year. “He’s the singular player in the sport. There’s people tracking his plane yesterday like it’s an SEC (conference) coaching search, and just the idea of him going up there and what’s going on and is he going to try, and if he plays, then that becomes its own lane of coverage. It’s Tiger. We all know what he is and what he represents, and if he’s going to try to play after what happened and the car accident – by the way, fellas, it’s not just him playing a tournament, it’s him playing the Masters Tournament. It would be quite something from a coverage standpoint.”
Tiger Woods plays a shot on the first hole during the second round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on November 13, 2020, in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Speculation is running rampant that Woods will play for the first time since competing in the PNC Championship in December, a two-man scramble with his son. That was contested on a flat Florida course in which he was allowed to ride in a cart. Augusta National, in contrast, is considered the toughest walk on Tour. In multiple interviews during the Genesis Invitational in February, Woods dismissed any talk that he could return as early as April for the Masters and conceded that his recovery was proceeding slower than he expected. But there he was in Augusta, spending the day testing his surgically-repaired leg that had a rod inserted into his right tibia to determine if he can walk the hilly terrain.
“I’m so excited that he looks like he’s putting forth an effort to think about it and test his body. Is he going to play? We have no idea. But it looks like he’s testing himself, and that is a good thing, and how else would you test yourself other than to go walk and play and get up there and play some practice rounds and see if you can walk the golf course, see how the leg holds up, see how the game is,” Strange said. “When you practice and walk and work out at home, it’s a different animal than when you get to the site and walk the golf course, which is the hardest walk in golf, Augusta National, and walk the golf course and put yourself in that element and that atmosphere, and I applaud him for trying because he’s got to start somewhere if he’s going to play again.”
When Van Pelt noted that how Tiger felt when he woke up after playing Augusta National likely is more relevant in the decision-making process for Woods than how he felt during the round on Tuesday, ESPN analyst Andy North weighed in.
“Can he even get out of bed this morning?” North wondered. “Because it’s one thing to do it that one day, but to do it four days in a row, on this golf course – I struggled on this golf course all the time walking around, and what he’s gone through, I think it’s marvelous that he’s giving it his best effort.”
Woods is a five-time winner at the Masters, and claimed his 15th Masters title when he came from behind on the back nine to don the Green Jacket once more in 2019. Woods last played in the Masters in November 2020, when he made a 10 on the 12thhole in the final round, his highest score on any hole during his career. He rebounded to birdie five of the last six holes.
“Having known him as long as we have, the thought that he went down to his place in Florida and grinded his butt off to give himself a chance doesn’t surprise me, and it shouldn’t,” Van Pelt said. “I long ago stopped trying to define what a successful week would look like for this dude.
“Now, you can roll your eyes at ‘I only compete if I think I can win’ and should a 46-year-old man play on a compromised leg, and let’s not forget a fused back, should he think he should win? Well, no, not reasonably, but it isn’t reasonable that a guy with a fused back in 2019 beat all those guys that he beat. I’m not putting any limits on him if he’s able to play. But I’m very surprised based on what I thought I knew that the possibility not a week out exists that he could play.”
“To be in this position where people are actually talking about this guy might actually play in the Masters, I think that’s amazing,” North added.
“He likes challenges, doesn’t he?” Strange said rhetorically. “This is certainly going to be a challenge. I look forward to it. I hope he plays. It’ll certainly be an exciting week.”
ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, Curtis Strange and Andy North on Tiger Woods’ absence, Dustin Johnson’s defense and stories from the Masters shop.
Curtis Strange remembers a quiet atmosphere while walking the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club last fall.
“It was completely different from start to finish,” said the two-time major champion and ESPN golf analyst about the November Masters, won by Dustin Johnson. “When we went on air and the red light came on, we tried to act as normal as possible, and I think we did a good job because it was the start of the Masters, but it was different.”
It’s difficult to remember what “normal” life was before the COVID-19 pandemic. From a golf perspective, fans are getting a bit of a refresher with the build up to next week’s Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.
“Without patrons, it lost a lot of its soul, there’s no question about that,” said ESPN’s golf and SportsCenter host Scott Van Pelt. “I do think it will feel far more familiar and ‘normal’ this next week, even as so many things we typically do won’t.”
As the first men’s major championship of the season returns to its spring position on the schedule, Strange, Van Pelt and Andy North joined a group of reporters on a conference call to preview the event and discuss what changes they expect to see in this year’s tournament compared to the fall.
Tiger and DJ
You can’t talk about, or even think about, Augusta National or the Masters for long without the 2019 champion, Tiger Woods, coming up.
The five-time Masters champ is still recovering — now at home — from a February car crash near Los Angeles after hosting the Genesis Invitational. Woods’ fractures from the crash are on the upper and lower parts of both the fibula and tibia, where a rod was inserted to stabilize the area. Screws and pins were used to treat other injuries in the ankle and foot, while doctors sliced muscle in the area to relieve pressure and swelling in the area (a safeguard against infection).
“I think (at Augusta), more than any other place they play, you think of Tiger. So much of his career sprang through that lens. From that bookend in ’97 hugging his father to ’19 hugging his children in essentially the same spot. You can’t help but think about him,” said Van Pelt. “I think because he’s won there and Tuesday with the Champions Dinner, you get together with that very small group and trade the stories and what have you, that his presence will be sorely missed.”
The conversation moved from the 2019 to the 2020 champion, Dustin Johnson, and his chances of defending his title just five months later.
“There’s not much that bothers him,” said Strange. “As I was talking to Butch Harmon yesterday, he said, ‘You know, he hasn’t played great the last three times out, no worry. No worries at all.’”
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The Masters shop
Entering the Masters shop and leaving with a loaded bag is a rite of passage for anyone who’s been lucky enough to take a trip down Magnolia Lane.
North, a two-time major winner who’s best finish at Augusta was a T-12 in 1979, said he doesn’t go in the shop, “but my wife sure does.”
“Every year she comes back with more stuff than I can even imagine,” said North with a laugh. “But it is pretty cool. That logo is a pretty darn famous logo. From a gift standpoint, if you’re giving that to somebody, they usually appreciate it.”
Strange’s oldest son and daughter-in-law are in town this week, and he’s refusing to even look at his credit card statement. Van Pelt once left an entire bag of gear in an overheard compartment of an airplane. Everybody’s got a story from the shop.
“You just think you’ve got to be done. Who else could I need something for? Then every year, you’re like, ‘that’s a handsome quarter zip. Mom kind of likes that visor,’” explained Van Pelt, who spent $200-plus on ball markers to give away to friends and family.
“It’s every year. It’s a tradition unlike any other.”
From the inspirational story of Dennis Walters to Ben Hogan, golfers have shown the power of the human spirit to prevail.
Dennis Walters has a message for all the doubters who say Tiger Woods is finished after suffering multiple injuries to his legs and shattering his ankle in a single-vehicle collision on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
“I’m betting on Tiger,” said Walters, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2019. “He’s proven he can overcome almost anything.”
More than 45 years ago, on July 21, 1974, Walters, an aspiring professional golf, was driving a cart down a gravel path. He was riding a golf cart down a steep hill when the brakes failed and he was thrown from the cart, severing his spine. He couldn’t feel his legs when he woke up in a hospital bed and knew his dream of playing on the PGA Tour was over. He has been paralyzed from the waist down since that day.
“The one thing I have learned is not to really believe anything doctors predict,” Walters said. “Medicine is not an exact science. When you combine the human will and the human spirit to overcome things, that is a very powerful force and I believe if it is possible, Tiger can do it. I’d never count him out. His mental capacity far exceeds anyone I’ve ever seen. I think that’s his strongest weapon once he gets to the point that he is able to physically rehab. If he wants to do it, I’d say Tiger Woods will be OK.”
A tow truck recovers the vehicle driven by Tiger Woods in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on February 23, 2021, after a rollover accident. (Photo: Frederic J. Brown/ AFP via Getty Images)
Walters predicted that the healing process the next few months will be difficult physically, but the bar will be set even higher mentally. When Woods spoke on TV on Sunday, he was nearing the point where he thought his surgically-repaired back might allow him to begin preparing for a return in time to play the Masters in April. He must start over again. Walters knows the feeling. Six months after his accident, Walters wasn’t making any progress so he confronted his doctor.
“He said, ‘You’re never going to walk again.’ That made me cry,” Walters recalled. “I said, ‘How about playing golf? He said, ‘Forget it.’ I said two words to him and they weren’t happy birthday!”
Essex County Golf Club in West Orange, New Jersey, where Walters once had qualified for the U.S. Amateur, was across a road from his rehab center. Walters told his doctor that he was going to return some day and hit golf balls from the parking lot on to the course.
“I came back a year and a half later and did that. My doctor said, ‘I’m never telling anyone they can’t do anything,’ ” Walters said. “It’s folly to predict what a human being can do. That’s my reasoning for saying, let things progress and see what happens. I’m betting on Tiger Woods. To what degree? I don’t know, but if Tiger Woods is given a chance, he might be able to give us more thrills like he has all these years.”
Walters has toured the country performing more than 3,000 golf exhibitions, and was Woods’ opening act when he did junior clinics early in his career. It was a letter in the mail from golf great Ben Hogan, who had suffered his own life-threatening injuries after being hit by a bus head on in 1949 and recovering to win six majors, and his support that provided a psychological lift for Walters.
Count former PGA Championship winner and NBC golf commentator Paul Azinger among those who agree that Tiger isn’t done yet.
“You can’t forget that nobody fights back harder than Tiger,” Azinger said.
“I will never stop believing that he won’t make a Ben Hogan recovery until he doesn’t,” Woods’ former instructor Hank Haney tweeted.
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Woods has won a major on one leg, endured five back surgeries and come back time and time again, but this is different.
“This is his greatest challenge,” former U.S. Open champion and ESPN golf analyst Curtis Strange said. “This is something he can’t control. He’s got a beat-up body in that hospital and it’s going to take time to heal. Only then can he think about golf. But regardless, this isn’t the end of Tiger. He still has so much to offer the game.”
Comebacks have defined Woods’ career. This one may require him to re-learn how to walk and there’s no telling yet what the crash has done to his balky back. But Strange remains hopeful, too.
“Look at Alex Smith,” he said, referring to the Washington Football Team quarterback who recovered from a gruesome injury to his leg that was believed to be career-ending. “Did it seem possible he could play football last year? But he did. What seems impossible can happen.”
