Tag: The Masters 2019

Brennan: Break helps Tiger Woods, who gets to keep his Masters title 7 more months

The Masters will always be Tiger’s best chance to win a major every year, and now he gets more time to prepare his troublesome back.

Editor’s note: CBS will replay the 2019 Masters from 12:30-6 p.m. Sunday.

Last month, after the Masters became one of many sporting events to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, it didn’t take long for astute fans to realize one of the fascinating unintended consequences of the decision:

Tiger Woods would remain defending champion far longer than usual.

When Augusta National announced earlier this week that it was moving the Masters to Nov. 12-15, it became clear that Tiger’s 14-year wait between Masters victories, and nearly 11-year drought between majors, would be rewarded with another seven months to reign as the king of the green jackets.

It will be almost Thanksgiving by the time Tiger is no longer Masters champion – unless he wins again, which means he would have less than five months before April 2021 to try to do it again.

And, while we’re looking ahead, consider the 2022 Masters, when Tiger will be 46, the same age that Jack Nicklaus was when he so improbably won the Masters in 1986.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This long, uncertain break as the nation has shut down due to the pandemic has to be helping the oft-injured Tiger gear up for what very well could be the most bizarre golf season we have ever seen.

If American life starts to get back to some semblance of normal by this summer, we could see the PGA Championship in early August, as it’s scheduled now, followed by the most interesting back-to-back timing on the golf calendar in memory: the U.S. Open, then the Ryder Cup, one week to the next in mid-to-late September.

Tiger has barely played this year, finishing ninth at the Farmers Insurance Open in January and 68th at the Genesis Invitational in February. Last month, he missed the one round of the Players Championship that was played because his back was “just not ready,” he said.

But he said this week that he would have been ready for the Masters had it been played as usual in April. “Night and day,” he told GolfTV of the change in his health over the past month or so. “I feel a lot better than I did then.”

Tiger Woods on the 18th green during the final round of the 2019 Masters Tournament at Augusta National. Michael Madrid/USA TODAY Sports

However, because he has played so little so far this year, there is no certainty that he could have recaptured the form that delivered the sports comeback for the ages, his fifth Masters victory, on April 14, 2019.

It was so fitting that Woods – who endured a jaw-dropping personal scandal in 2009 and four surgeries on his back, including spinal fusion two years earlier – ended his major drought in Augusta, where he won his first major in 1997 as a 21-year-old.

The Masters will always be Tiger’s best chance to win a major every year. When he’s 50, as long as he’s healthy, his name will rise onto the leaderboard one day or another, just as has happened with Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer. Tiger was made for the Masters, and vice versa.

Remember what happened last year, when one competitor after another fell by the wayside that final day — not one, not two, not three but four of the men in or near the lead hit shots into Rae’s Creek in front of the par-3 12th hole Sunday. It was as if the gods of golf had come down from the heavens and personally cleared Tiger’s path to victory.

Tiger, of course, believes he would have been in prime position to do it again this spring because he always thinks he will win every tournament he enters, but this break will serve him well. He needs the time and even more important, his back needs the time.

As things stand now, he would have a little more than a month between the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, but then no time off at all between the Open and the Ryder Cup, which could be a challenge for him physically. But then comes good news: he would have six weeks until the Masters.

For now, he’s practicing social distancing, and golf, at his home course in Florida, and spending time with his kids at home.

“I go back to what my dad used to say,” he said in the interview this week. “Just take it one meal to the next. So you go at it until the next meal, and you figure it out.”

He sounds content, and he should be. He still owns the title that means the most to him. He remains Masters champion.

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Masters Memories: Jim Nantz recalls Tiger Woods winning the 2019 Masters

CBS’s Jim Nantz used the phrase “return to glory” to commemorate the fifth green jacket and first major for Tiger Woods in nearly 11 years.

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Editor’s note: CBS will replay the 2019 Masters from 12:30-6 p.m. Sunday.

Jim Nantz didn’t have a rehearsed phrase at the ready for Tiger Woods winning his fifth green jacket and 15th major title at last year’s Masters.

“As Tiger tried to figure out how to play his second shot at 18, Steve Milton, our director, cut to a shot of the family gathered behind the green and it triggered the thought that if he makes five and wins this thing, ‘What is that scene going to look like?’ ” Nantz recalled in a phone interview from Pebble Beach, California, where he’s been sheltered-in-home since March 19. “I drew a comparison to 2006 when he won (the British Open) at Hoylake for the first time after his father, Earl, had passed away. I thought there might be some parallels. I remembered how emotional that was for Tiger.”

But Nantz, who has been part of the broadcast team since his debut in 1986 when Jack Nicklaus at age 46 won his record sixth green jacket, still didn’t know what the narrative might be over the final putt.

“Just seeing the family on the monitor, I knew that this was going to be a moment that transcended a golf achievement; this was an achievement that was bigger than that. This was a story about a man that made it all the way back. He was on top of the world and had many things in his life go sideways, including injuries that would have marked the end of virtually anyone else’s career. Doubters by the millions. And there’s his family about to embrace him and welcome him back to a place he’d once been. The word glory surfaced in my head.”

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Nantz witnessed the way Tiger was just lurking behind 54-hole leader Francesco Molinari as they reached the back nine on Sunday, and how the script flipped as four of the last six players dunked balls into Rae’s Creek at the par-3 12th hole. As Woods plotted his way around the final stretch, making 2-putt birdies at 13 and 15 and working the slope at the par-3 16th for another birdie, Nantz felt as though he’d seen this movie before.

“You put him on Augusta, he’s playing well enough to turn it on and tap into those brilliant days of yesteryear. It wasn’t lost on me,” Nantz said. “As his ball was coming off the slope at 16, I thought it was going in. If ever there was a moment that would top what he did on that very hole in 2005 I thought that was going to be it.”

Woods had two putts for the win and when he tapped in for victory, Nantz memorialized the moment by saying simply, “The return to glory.”

Tiger Woods celebrates after making a putt on the 18th green to win The Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)

Said Nantz: “I meant that, yes, as a golf achievement – the glory in his game – but I meant it equally as much about the glory in his life, and wasn’t that a wonderful thing to see?”

Then Nantz went silent for more than 2 minutes.

“There was nothing else that could be said or should be said,” he explained. “If you tried to insert yourself over that you’d be making a terrible mistake. Let this visual medium with its abundance of emotional audio have its rightful spot center stage and so I got out of the way. Tiger talks about ‘the feels,’ and some people laugh at that, but in broadcasting we have ‘the feels’ too, and it just felt right at that moment. The feels at that moment was to sit back and watch and then I picked an appropriate moment to get back in with a narration.”

Nantz, who was already in Butler Cabin for the upcoming green jacket ceremony, can almost recite verbatim what he said next to broadcast partner Nick Faldo, who was still in the 18th tower.

“I said, ‘Nick, that moment with Tiger and his family, if you’re a parent and you didn’t shed a tear, you’re not human,’ ” Nantz recounted. “And Nick said, ‘Jim Nantz, I will promise you that you will never ever see a moment bigger than that in the game of golf.’ ”

Tiger Woods speaks to the media after winning the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club. (Rusty Jarrett/Augusta National/Handout Photo via USA TODAY Sports)

Nantz has one more favorite memory from that day. As a result of the tee times being pushed up to the morning to avoid storms in the forecast, Nantz contributed to a Masters replay that was shown later that day. After Tiger had wrapped up his media obligations and the various celebrations accorded to a new champion, he returned to the Butler Cabin for a second interview with CBS.

It was during this segment, after the adrenaline had worn off for Woods and it had begun to sink in what he had just achieved, that Nantz relayed the story of how Venturi stopped to give him a ride back to the CBS compound in his golf cart after Nicklaus had shot 65 to win the 1986 Masters. It had been Nantz’s first major and Venturi told the rookie announcer that he’d never see a better Masters again.

“Well, you know what?” Nantz told Tiger. “Ken Venturi was wrong.”

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Lynch: Francesco Molinari hasn’t been the same since Rae’s Creek, but that’s water under the bridge

Francesco Molinari admits 2020 hasn’t started the way he’d like, but he’s planning to build up his game for the Masters.

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ORLANDO — Outwardly at least, the Francesco Molinari who arrived at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Tuesday was the same guy who left with the trophy a year ago. Same low-key demeanor. Same squat, college wrestler’s body. Same diligent work ethic. Only his results betray the fact that much has changed.

His victory 12 months ago, thanks to a scintillating final-round 64, was the culmination of a run of form that had seen the Italian claim the European Tour’s flagship BMW PGA Championship and the Quicken Loans National on the PGA Tour, before winning his first major at the Open Championship, fending off charges from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Then came the Masters.

At 12:47 p.m. on that Sunday afternoon last April, Molinari stood on Augusta National’s 12th tee with a two-stroke lead. In a swirling wind, his tee shot drowned in Rae’s Creek, leading to a double bogey. He finished tied for fifth, two shots back of Woods.

Since then the Italian stallion has looked more like a wheezy pack mule: 18 worldwide starts, zero top 10s and five missed cuts, including in three of his four events in 2020. A year ago he was No. 7 in the world. Today he’s ranked 26th.

He has not been the same player since that day in Georgia, raising the question of whether that one swing has lingered. “It hasn’t,” said his coach Denis Pugh. “Because if I sensed it did then I would have chatted about it with him.”

Francesco Molinari plays his third shot on the 12th hole during the final round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 14, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

Pugh suggests it’s a different major last year that holds the key to Molinari’s struggles. In May’s PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, he was paired for two days with Woods and the eventual winner Brooks Koepka, after which he realized that he could not consistently summon power and accuracy in the same swing. After a lengthy break at year’s end, Molinari and his coach set about fixing that. “It’s a slow grind build-up,” Pugh said. “It’s being patient.”

Molinari echoed that sentiment. “I’m a little bit behind where I was planning to be, obviously, at this time. The start of the season has not been as good as I hoped for, but it’s only the start,” he said. “I think I’ve got some good planning for the next few weeks building up to Augusta and some good direction to work towards.”

Even as he works towards Masters ’20, Molinari finds himself still fielding numerous questions about Masters ’19. He spent ample time Tuesday discussing the vagaries of the wind at Augusta National’s perilous little 12th: “Well, if there’s no wind, you know… there’s nothing really that can stop you from hitting that green… You never know how much wind actually it’s going to get… I think it depends on the direction… If it comes from a certain direction it can funnel in the trees and then that’s when it gets really hard… It’s more the wind direction specifically on that hole that makes it tricky… Depends on the exact moment when you’re hitting the shot…”

“It’s just complicated,” he finally offered.

One thing that has helped push thoughts of that Masters mishap to the back of his mind is the coronavirus panic. Last week his older brother Edoardo withdrew from a tournament in Oman amid fears another Italian golfer he was sharing a hotel room with was symptomatic. Both were tested and given an all-clear, and were eventually reinstated in the tournament. The younger Molinari admits to initially seeing humor in the situation.

“I was laughing, actually. If you know my brother, of all people, for it to happen to him,” he said. “Joking aside, obviously being Italian it’s not a great time back home with the health situation.”

Molinari lives in London, but his parents remain at the family home in Turin, a city in northern Italy badly impacted by the virus. Schools have been closed and football games canceled. “They’re not the youngest anymore, so it’s a bit worrying from that point of view,” Molinari admitted. “I speak to them pretty much on a daily basis and they’re fine. There’s nothing too worrying at the moment.”

All of which puts his on-course form into perspective, even as he hopes to find progress at an event where he has finished in the top 10 four times in seven starts. “I try to be honest with myself. In golf it’s never too easy because there’s a part of you that always makes you think you’re close even when you’re not,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m particularly close right now. My expectations going into the next few weeks are really to build up some momentum and get better day by day and not really thinking too far ahead of myself.”

And presumably not thinking too far behind himself either.

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