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AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods believes he can win the Masters, and no matter what you think of the man and his turbulent journey, his expressed article of faith means one thing:
You need to believe it too.
Michael Jordan. Tom Brady. Serena Williams. Over the decades there’s been a small handful of American athletes who can will almost anything into existence, and who have earned all benefit of the game-time doubt. Tiger Woods is more than an honorary member of that club.
The question posed Tuesday: “Do you think you can win the Masters this week?”
The answer delivered a nanosecond later: “I do.”
Man, that’s a long par-5 removed from Woods’ stated forecast back in November, in his first press conference after a February car wreck left his right leg so mangled that amputation was on the table. At his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, Woods said that he didn’t need to compete at the highest level anymore to live a fulfilling life, and that winning the 2019 Masters after his spinal-fusion surgery was a satisfactory endgame to his career.
“After my back fusion, I had to climb Mount Everest one more time,” he said then. “I had to do it, and I did. This time around, I don’t think I’ll have the body to climb Mount Everest, and that’s OK. …As far as climbing the mountain again and getting all the way to the top, I don’t think that’s a realistic expectation of me.”
And yet there was Tiger at Augusta National on Tuesday, fully dressed in his mountain climbing gear and fully prepared for a sky-high challenge. He admits he has a hard time walking more than 13 months after suffering open fractures impacting his upper and lower tibia and fibula, and yet he is ready to attack a course set up as one of the most forbidding walks in golf.
At 46, Woods has rods, plates and screws in his rebuilt leg, and he hobbles from tee to green like a much older man trying to keep up with his grandkids. But he is not a shooting guard, or a shortstop, or a slot receiver. His sport requires him to walk, not sprint. His sport allows him to stand still when unleashing his greatness on the opposition, and right now Tiger’s golf game is almost all the way back.
Monday, after playing nine holes with his friend, Fred Couples called Woods’ power and precision “phenomenal” and predicted that he would contend as long as he could walk the 72 holes. Tuesday, after spending some time with Tiger at his Jupiter, Fla, home, and watching his swing, Rory McIlroy said he wouldn’t be surprised if Woods put himself in position to win Sunday.
“I’m not surprised at anything he does anymore,” McIlroy said.
Anyone present in 2019 when Woods won his fifth green jacket would find it perfectly reasonable to believe that he might top that triumph three years later. His ability to come back from professional, personal, and physical adversity – and yes, no question, much of that was self-inflicted – is matched only by his desire to perform on the biggest stage.
So two days before he launches his first drive of the tournament, Woods was already talking about getting to the back nine Sunday with a shot to match Jack Nicklaus’ record of Masters titles, and to win No. 6 at the same age that Nicklaus won his sixth in 1986. The Golden Bear’s comeback and Tiger’s 2019 comeback rank as the two most indelible victories at Augusta National.
If Woods wins this one, it would reduce those two moments to the size of a range ball.
“I don’t show up to an event unless I think I can win it,” he said.
And a quarter century after he broke through here for the first time, Woods showed up. He was asked what he would’ve said or thought in the days and weeks after he crashed his SUV if someone told him he would play in this Masters with the expectation of winning it.
“Well, at that time I was still in a hospital bed, and I was out for the next three months,” Woods responded. “I never left that hospital bed even to see my living room for three months. So that was a tough road. To finally get out of that where I wasn’t in a wheelchair or crutches and walking and still had more surgeries ahead of me, to say that I was going to be here playing and talking to (reporters) again, it would have been very unlikely.”
About as unlikely as winning 15 majors and tying Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82 PGA Tour victories. But now Woods believes he can win a 16th major this weekend, and break Snead’s record. He believes he still has the hands to get this done. “I’ve been in worse situations and played and won tournaments,” he said. Fourteen years ago, Woods survived 91 holes with fractures and a torn ACL in his left leg to win the U.S. Open.
He says his surgeons have given him a chance to prevail again on one leg. “Now it’s up to me to endure the pain,” Woods said.
He is the king of pain, and the king of golf. If Tiger Woods believes he can win this Masters, you’d be a fool not to believe it too.
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