Tiger Woods was atop the golf world going into the 2013 Masters.
He had won six tournaments in the previous 12 months. Had regained the No. 1 spot in the official world rankings by winning three of his first five PGA Tour starts that year. Headed to Augusta National off two impressive wins in the WGC-Cadillac Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
He was healthy, happy and sound. A fifth green jacket was well within reach, a 15th major triumph and first since 2008 was at hand.
“I feel comfortable with every aspect of my game,” he told the media. “I feel that I’ve improved and I’ve gotten more consistent, and I think the wins show that. That’s something that I’m proud of so far this year, and hopefully I can continue it this week and the rest of the year.
2013 Masters: Final leaderboard
“It was nice to get back to No. 1. There are a lot of players who try to get there and have never been able to do it, and I’ve been able to get there a few times throughout my career. And to battle the injuries that I’ve come through and to get through all that and to win enough golf tournaments and to win consistently enough to get to that point, is something I’m very proud of.”
And it was right there for the taking for Woods before a flagstick got in the way at 6:32 p.m. (ET) Friday in the second round.
After opening with a 70, Woods had moved to 5 under through 14 holes and was tied for the lead. After a drive into the trees on the par-5 15th, he laid up to 87 yards. His approach was spot on but his ball clanked off the flagstick and rolled backward into the pond fronting the green.
Woods collected himself, took his drop and hit his fifth shot to four feet and made the putt for bogey. When nightfall arrived, Woods was three back of the lead.
But his bad break had led to a bad drop. Throughout the night and into the next morning, Masters officials had determined Woods took an incorrect drop. Woods hadn’t dropped near the same spot from which he played his third shot. As he told ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi on Friday, he dropped about two yards behind the original location. That’s a penalty. Saturday morning Woods was summoned and accepted the ruling, which now dropped him five shots out of the lead.
But he was allowed to keep playing. In the past, Woods would have been disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. The USGA and R&A changed the rule in 2011, allowing a player to have penalty strokes added to his score if he unknowingly signed an incorrect scorecard.
“I wasn’t even really thinking,” Woods said about taking his drop. “I was still a little ticked at what happened, and I was just trying to figure, OK, I need to take some yardage off this shot, and that’s all I was thinking about was trying to make sure I took some yardage off of it, and evidently, it was pretty obvious, I didn’t drop in the right spot.”
Woods got within four of the lead with a third-round 70. But he didn’t apply pressure in the early going on Sunday, failing to birdie the second and missing from short range at the third. Bogeys at four and seven dropped him seven shots behind the leaders. He got within three with birdies at nine, 10, 13 and 15 but parred in.
A closing 70 left him four back of a playoff between Adam Scott and Angel Cabrera. Scott won with a birdie on the second playoff hole to become the first Australian to win the Masters.
“I played well,” Woods said. “I certainly missed my share of putts today, actually this week. I also made a bunch too. So it’s one of those things where this golf course was playing a little bit tricky, we had four different green speeds out there and I couldn’t believe how slow they were the first two days, yesterday I couldn’t believe how fast they were, and then today it was another different speed again.
“I certainly had a chance. If I would have posted a number today, I was right there.”
This is the 19th story in a series looking at each of Tiger Woods’ appearances at the Masters. Catch up on the series here.
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