Woods enters unique territory
AUGUSTA, Ga. – No. 1 tee at Augusta National, Saturday, 1:55 p.m.
Beneath a leaky Georgia sky, the masses gather quietly in the mud. Men carrying equipment on their shoulders walk past; the Squeegee patrol on their way to doctor a rain-soaked course.
Off in the distance, a roar. Someone else’s birdie on a distant hole. “Fore please,” a voice asks. “On the tee, Tiger Woods.”
Applause. Then silence. Then a full, purposeful swing by a man in a light striped shirt, and the drive screams down the middle of the fairway. It is now or never for Woods in the third round of the 2008 Masters. He marches from the tee, and the chase begins.
•••
No. 18 fairway, four hours later.
His drive has wandered too far right, landing in pine straw, surrounded by a gang of Augusta trees. He has a 4-foot window of escape to try to get the ball through the trees to the green, or he can play it safe and punch the ball out backward. He doesn’t hesitate, takes a 7-iron, and aims for the green.
“I had to either make a 4 or a 6, one of the two,” he said later, meaning par or double bogey. “Might as well go ahead and make 4.”
He ends up with a 6-foot putt to save par. He does not have a bogey in 26 holes, closes to within four shots of the lead, and ends the day six behind.
“There’s no doubt,” he said, “I’ve put myself right back in the tournament.”
Woods does not get many chances to do something for the first time anymore. But now he will. He has never won a major coming from behind in the final round. All 13 championships have been as a third-round front-runner.
“You want to win the Masters, period,” he said. “Doesn’t really matter how you do it as long as you do it.”
In some ways, it has been a frustrating afternoon. A bevy of missed birdie putts. A sloppy drive on No. 15, when the CBS microphones clearly picked up his self-derision: “Dumb ass!
“If I could have made a few more putts, I would have been right there,” he said later. “I’m right there, anyway.”
“You’ve got to hang in there and hang around. You know that anything can happen, especially around that (Amen) Corner.”
•••
No. 18 leaderboard, two hours later. Look at the top. Four thrilled men, and a legend.
Trevor Immelman leads Woods by six strokes. Brandt Snedeker leads him by four, Steve Flesch by three, Paul Casey by two.
The four combined own six PGA victories, and no majors. They are playing well and fearlessly, while so many big names flounder. Today could change one of their lives, and they all understand that. But they are mortals, and the question is if they can feel the full, imposing presence of Woods.
Casey: “Are we scared of him? I don’t know if we’re scared of him, he is just that good. He just doesn’t make mistakes.
“I don’t think it’s a case of guys quaking in their boots. You’re just not as good as he is.”
Snedeker: “I’m most concerned with Trevor Immelman. He’s the one in front of me.”
Immelman: “All I can ask from myself is to go out there and play as hard as I can and believe in myself.”
Flesch: “I have nothing to lose. Nobody expects Steve Flesch to do much in the Masters tournament.”
The gusts are forecast to top 20 miles an hour today. Woods knows what wind can do to a man at Augusta. And what Sunday can do to a man. And if he charges, all those in front of him will know.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to hear the roars if he is doing it,” Snedeker said. “I’ll worry about that when it comes.”
But only one man in the past 28 years has made up a six-shot deficit the last round to win the Masters – Nick Faldo in 1996, when Greg Norman imploded.
This might be too much to ask of Woods, or too much for him to ask of himself. It would be extraordinary.
But that’s what Sundays at Augusta are for.