After the suffering, a shocking news that shocks the golf world: Tiger Woods withdrew from the Augusta Masters due to his physical pain, which had been afflicting him since the first round of the tournament. This is what he made known this Sunday morning on his social networks.
“I am disappointed to announce that I am withdrawing from the Masters this morning due to aggravation of my plantar fasciitis. Thank you to all the fans and the tournament for showing so much love and support – good luck to the players today!” he wrote, without giving further details. If his sporting present was a total uncertainty due to the ailments of his body, the unknown about his future is getting bigger.
The phrases of Joe LaCava, Tiger Woods’ experienced caddie, echoed in the rainy Saturday afternoon at Augusta National. The sapient man had said before the tournament, when he was warned of the weather instability that could occur on the days of the Masters, something lethal for the 47-year-old player: “Tiger’s right leg injury, a direct sequel to the car accident of 2021, is devastating and incompatible with the times ahead. My biggest fear is that it will rain a lot at Augusta, that there will be thunderstorms and we’ll have to stop and start, or that we’ll have extra holes one day. I can’t imagine doing more than 27 holes [in a day] around here. … I hope first and foremost that doesn’t happen.”
Unfortunately for the Woods clan, the weather forecast came true. And the images delivered by the tournament since Thursday, when the competition got underway, show an increasingly limited Tiger in his movements. Far from enjoying his favorite Major on the course he knows like no other. On the stage where he wore the green jacket five times and where he set one record after another. There where all his devotees walk as in a procession, behind the all-time crack and winner of 15 Majors.
Such is the suffering Woods undergoes that he was rarely seen celebrating. And he has, he had, some brilliant shots in this Masters, interrupted several times by rains and strong winds, to the point that on the second day he was even close to tragedy when three trees fell and by chance did not crush the fans who were comfortably seated in their folding chairs, closely following their favorite golfers. But Tiger didn’t even feel like making a fist, let alone doing any of the pirouettes of yesteryear, like spinning on one leg and causing the crowd to explode. He was always the closest thing to Rafa Nadal in that regard. This time, he almost didn’t even allow himself a smile. His seemed like an ordeal.
On Saturday, after he had heroically qualified for the second 36 holes, setting a new record for his palmares by overcoming no less than 23 consecutive cuts on the mythical Azaleas course, when the definitive suspension came, somehow Tiger must have sighed. He didn’t know if it was good or bad, though. He confirmed it hours later: it was lousy. Because the organization confirmed that the activity would continue in double shift on Sunday, with simultaneous starts for the 1st and 10th in the case of the last 18 holes.
While undergoing massages and kinesic sessions, Woods looked at LaCava: they both guessed each other’s thoughts. “29 holes!”. For the caddie, Tiger was in no condition to do 27 holes in one day, and now two more than that amount awaited him. a monstrosity! As things stand, almost like climbing Everest. And all, after a traumatic day. Wet. Intolerable for your bones. Whoever suffers from this kind of problem and some arthrosis, will understand perfectly well what Woods must have gone through on the third day of competition. A champion crushed in the physical, only pushed by his competitive soul. Willing to resist. But at what cost?
The images of Woods during some passages on the Augusta course caused pain to the eye. Not as much as he endures. But it really hurt to see him in that condition. It was poignant. He had already shown something on the first day, in the middle of a sunny day, when he was waiting for his turn to hit and leaning on the bag of clubs. Because of course, standing also bothers him. Clearly.
He closed his seven holes of the third round with a lapidary +6. And he was in last place among the 54 qualifiers. But nobody cared too much about that, because on the one hand he had made the cut. And on the other hand, he continued to show pride in order not to lower the flags of the fight. Although he probably thought about it more than once. Because he had previously completed the second day, also unfinished on Friday, with another 7 holes. There were 14 in total. Some, in Augusta, say that rather than playing them, he survived them. And they were probably right.
“I’m very lucky to have this leg,” Tiger had said at the pre-tournament press conference. Way to look on the bright side of things. “It’s mine. Yes, it’s been modified and it’s got some metal in it, but it’s still mine. It’s been tough and it always will be,” he emphasized to make it clear that it had not been a phrase of occasion.
“I’ll try to enjoy it. I don’t know how many Augusta’s I have left,” he added, wistfully. Both LaCava and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy had slipped that Woods, for his spirit, could well aspire to win the sixth green jacket. It sounded like utopia. It is a utopia. We will have to see how he gets to the end of the road in this Masters led by local Brooks Koepka, if his physical condition does not abandon him in the attempt. If 14 holes cost him blood, sweat and tears of the heart, imagine 29.
It is true: nobody forced him to this ordeal. Perhaps this is his last offering to a public that never abandoned him. Neither in times of glory, nor in times of scandals, nor in the hour of the body that responds more and more muted. Aware that Tiger will be only one. And that he fought like a quixote against the inexorable adversity.