For a snapshot of the continued fascination with Tiger Woods, Augusta National at 4.20pm on Monday was the place to be. Never before, surely, has an afternoon practice two-ball attracted crowds 10 deep at the first tee. Woods himself is not prone to such matinee appearances. By the time he and Mark O'Meara reached the second, the following was akin to the Masters on a Sunday afternoon.
Make no mistake, this was seriously striking stuff and a nod to Woods’s allure. At a venue where mobile phones or any other electronic means of communication are banned from the hands of spectators, good old-fashioned word of mouth spread notice from the moment of arrival, 3.15pm to be precise: Tiger is here.
There was an element of ghoulish intrigue. Woods’s game has regressed to such a state that he will start the 79th Masters as the 111th-ranked player in the world. Until last week, there were questions as to whether he would appear in Georgia at all.
But appear he has; laughing, joking, offering practice ground hugs to Darren Clarke, O'Meara and his former coach Sean Foley. Woods even started his warm-up session listening to music; perhaps a nod to an endorsement deal rather than love of funky beats. The young Chilean amateur Matías Domínguez found himself in an unenviable position alongside Woods on the short-game area; he abandoned his own work just to turn around and watch.
The serious stuff relates to the 14-times Major winner’s golf or, specifically, his chipping. That isn’t lost on Woods himself; he spent 30 minutes hitting chip after chip and testing out different wedges before a more standard range session. By the side of the first green alone, the 39-year-old hit 20 chip shots from varying lies and angles.
Before that, a glimpse of the erratic and the brilliant had been offered. Woods pulled his opening tee shot left. Seriously left, 45 yards from the middle of the first fairway and on to the short stuff at the ninth.
What might have been forgotten is that Woods has been on such territory before, several times. He fired a short iron into feet, holed for birdie and had galleries who weren’t even expecting to see this show whooping with delight. At the par-five second, Woods easily hit the green in two. At the fourth, his tee shot finished 10 feet from the cup. The caution attached to this is obvious; it was only Monday.
Albeit Woods appeared slightly tentative on occasion around the greens, there were no signs of outright disaster. He is also noticeably thinner in terms of upper body muscle bulk than in recent times, which won’t be lost on those who have questioned his fitness regimes.
O’Meara lasted nine holes as Woods carried on, playing the 10th and 18th with the company of the army of ride-on mowers that were giving the pristine fairways their afternoon trim.
“I felt good. It was nice to get out here,” said Woods. “Chipping is fine. I wanted to test out some wedges out here. That was why I was chipping a little bit more. It came down to a couple of different bounce settings because it’s different from Florida. We figured the right one out.
“It’s been a process. But I’m on the good side now. It’s progression. I felt like I had to get my game into a spot where I could compete to win a golf tournament and it’s finally there.”
O’Meara, who won the Masters and British Open in 1998, said: “The thing about the kid is that you can never underestimate Tiger Woods. I’m a huge fan, a friend and I care about him.
“It was good to be out there with him. I saw some good signs. His pitching looks a lot better.
“There’s a lot of pressure on him but there is no reason why he should not have a good week this week.
“There are not many people that have played the game of golf like he has. The game of golf is better because of Tiger Woods.
“He is in a good place and I think he is fired up about it. He will be nervous on Thursday but I think he will be fine. He hit a couple of shots that were a little off but a lot of quality shots.”
Indeed, Woods continues to receive the backing of his peers. David Duval, a former world number one who suffered a pretty sharp fall from grace, used his Golf Channel analysis to point out what emotion Woods might have been feeling before taking to the course.
“When you have battled some demons, it is easy to grab a club and a ball on the range,” Duval said. “The longest thing is that walk to the first tee. You have to expose yourself to that, take it head on.”
Martin Kaymer, the US Open champion, offered something akin to a plea for peace and quiet. As altogether vain as that was to prove.
“I hope he’s happy. I hope he’s fine,” Kaymer said. “I hope he will play well this week. But what would bother me a lot is all the speculation. You don’t have a choice; you will read about it somewhere. You will hear about it because you socialise with people.
“So mentally it must be quite exhausting and we know how important the mental part is in golf. It’s difficult and some things I don’t find very fair. You know, you should just let him be. Let him play golf, what he likes to do.
“Sometimes I look at it and find it quite sad how people treat the whole subject. It shouldn’t be like this in my opinion. But that’s how it is unfortunately. That is how a lot of people make their money and some athletes, they suffer because of that.”
(Guardian service)
