At the time of writing, Tiger Woods has still not decided—as a minimum not publicly—as to whether or not he’ll play within the Masters subsequent week. There is a new World No. 1, a boatload of juicy storylines main into the year’s first guys’s essential, the Augusta National Women’s Amateur—and yet all anyone appears to care about is what Tiger will do.
That we’ve even reached this point is, of course, patently insane. It become much less than 14 months ago that Woods lost manage of a rushing SUV, sent it tumbling over a hillside and nearly had his right leg amputated. The publish-crash photographs cautioned a life-threatening catastrophe; speculating on his golfing destiny in the ones first moments bordered on crass. He become fortunate to be alive.
Once it became clean that Woods might keep his ability to walk—the respectable prognosis: comminuted open fractures to each the tibia and fibula in his proper leg as well as full-size harm to the soft tissue and nerves around the ankle—two questions emerged: First, would he have the choice to preserve gambling? He’d already finished arguably the finest comeback in our sport’s history, triumphing the Masters with a fused back. Would he be inclined to tolerate the pain? To positioned within the hours? Would he be affected person and diligent enough to do it all yet again?
Of path he would. He’s Tiger Woods, the most singularly-minded competitor in golfing records. Competition is all he’s ever known. Anyone who notion Woods might sincerely rehab sufficient to in which he may want to stroll, display up at a few tournaments as a figurehead and smile for the cameras made the mistake of assuming Woods thinks like a regular person. One of the primary memories Tiger has after the crash is looking his satisfactory friend/proper-hand guy, Rob McNamara, to throw him objects to peer if he nonetheless had his palms. He stuck them. He nevertheless has his hands.
The desire, then, by no means wavered. But would it not be bodily viable? Yes, apparently. Woods hasn’t simply had multiple surgeries to the leg; he’s had multiple waves of more than one surgeries. Relieving swelling, inserting hardware, rebuilding the leg, casting off hardware. The exact variety of methods is unknown; however given the fact he’d already had 10 earlier than the crash, possibly his lifelong operation count number is nearing 20. He returned domestic to South Florida nearly a month after the coincidence and started rehabbing in silence, faraway from the cameras, as is his desire.
The first huge replace we obtained from Woods got here in November, when he posted a 3-second swing video to social media captioned “making progress.” This at once have become the second one biggest golfing story of the year, trailing simplest the accident. A few weeks later, he tempered expectancies via telling Golf Digest his days as a complete-time excursion participant have been over and that he’s return would be only on a constrained foundation. This have become the third biggest golfing tale of the 12 months, trailing simplest the swing video and the coincidence. Any caution went out the window whilst he dedicated to playing with his son within the PNC Challenge, and the hype teach raced out of the station while he flashed a PGA Tour-caliber game from 150 yards and in. All interest then shifted to the Masters. In the interim, Woods received the inaugural Player Impact Program and its $eight million first prize without hitting a single aggressive shot all year. It’s no longer simply that Woods remains the needle; given the downright Shakespearean scale of this latest comeback, it’s as though the needle is sharper than ever.
Until this week, but, Augusta nevertheless regarded a pipe dream. At the Genesis Invitational in February, Woods emphasised the distinction among playing a scramble, in a cart, on a lifeless-flat path in Florida and not using a difficult, and the chance of competing against the quality gamers inside the international at Augusta National. He informed us he turned into nevertheless a long manner away from gambling. But with every passing day that Woods didn’t formally withdraw from the event he’s received five times, talks grew louder. Rumors swirled. Videos of him playing his domestic direction in opposition mode upped the pace. Then his plane changed into tracked en path to a small metropolis at the Georgia/South Carolina border and abruptly, this have become a practical opportunity.
Again, Woods may want to still determine towards playing subsequent week. Perhaps Tuesday’s exercise round despatched his leg into screaming ache. The net doesn’t seem to be shopping for it, nor do the oddsmakers or the gamblers. According to the books, Woods is now overwhelmingly favored to tee it up within the year’s first predominant, and no participant has obtained greater bets to win the Masters. Not to play; to win.
The anticipation has reached comical degrees, even with the aid of Tiger requirements. His injury history has put the wearing public on this function more than a few instances: thinking whether or not Tiger Woods will play a event or now not. But it’s in no way pretty reached this degree earlier than.
Whether Woods performs in six days or now not aside, it’s clean that his return is coming near near. It’s similarly clean that a forty six-12 months-old man with a fused again and a surgically rebuilt proper leg, who has not performed in a tournament in more than 16 months, retains an airtight stranglehold over this recreation. There will come a time whilst golf moves on from Tiger Woods. It’s simply no longer now.