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      Tiger Woods Says He Intends to Play the Masters

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      Woods, who sustained significant leg injuries in a single-car crash in February 2021, has played several practice rounds at Augusta National this week.Follow our live coverage of Tiger Woods’s return to the MastersAUGUSTA, Ga. — In a career defined by triumph, travail, resolve and resurrection, Tiger Woods on Tuesday vowed to attempt his most startling comeback yet: returning to golf’s greatest stage, the Masters Tournament, roughly 14 months after a car crash so devastating that doctors weighed amputating his right leg.Woods, who as recently as two months ago downplayed his physical capacity to contend on a championship course, is scheduled to tee off in Thursday’s first round of the Masters Tournament at 10:34 a.m.“As of right now, I feel like I am going to play,” Woods, 46, said at Augusta National Golf Club, which has hosted the event since 1934.He will be seeking a sixth green jacket, the ceremonial garment bestowed upon Masters winners and golf’s most-prized award. If successful, Woods will tie Jack Nicklaus for the most Masters victories and claim his 16th major championship, inching closer to Nicklaus’s record 18 major titles.Woods has not played in a PGA Tour event in 17 months and his world ranking has plummeted to 973. But when asked on Tuesday if he believed he could win this week, he answered: “I do.” He added that he would not “show up to an event unless I think I can win it.”Given his past record, it hardly seemed an idle boast. Part of the Woods legend is his ability to deliver implausible achievements while under duress, like his narrow playoff victory at the 2008 U.S. Open when Woods won despite having a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and two stress fractures in his left leg.Woods teed off on No. 1 during a practice round on Monday.Doug Mills/The New York TimesWoods on Tuesday recalled that experience at Torrey Pines Golf Course near San Diego and said it would serve as inspiration.“I’ve had stuff before and things I had to play through, even going back to the U.S. Open when my leg was a little bit busted,” he said. “Those are all times that I can draw upon where I was successful — how I’ve learned to block things out and focus on what I need to focus on.”Still, Woods conceded that walking Augusta National’s hilly terrain for four consecutive days will test the recuperative limits of his right leg, which was surgically rebuilt after his sport-utility vehicle tumbled off a Los Angeles-area boulevard at a high speed on Feb. 23, 2021.He sustained open fractures, in several places, of the tibia and the fibula in his right leg, injuries that had to be stabilized with a rod and with screws and pins inserted into his foot and ankle. Woods spent a month in a hospital and was confined to a bed at his Florida home for another two months.Asked Tuesday if he had pain while playing golf, Woods replied: “There is, each and every day.”Woods said he had no misgivings about his ability to play. The worry, he said, was the topographical perils of Augusta and the demands of the 72-hole tournament: “Walking is the hard part.”Woods is scheduled to play the first round with Louis Oosthuizen, who finished second at the Masters in 2012 but has never won at Augusta, and Joaquin Niemann, who tied for 40th at last year’s tournament.Woods, who practiced briefly Tuesday morning before heavy rain chased the golfers from the course before 11 a.m., said he planned to play a nine-hole practice round on Wednesday. Woods also played nine practice holes on Sunday and Monday, the second time with Fred Couples and Justin Thomas. Woods was limping more noticeably on Monday than on Sunday. He walked up the many hills slowly with his gait slightly more inhibited.Couples, a longtime friend and a frequent practice-round companion of Woods’s for more than a decade, agreed with Woods that the sloping, uneven contours of Augusta National would most likely present the biggest challenge to Woods.“It is about the walking,” Couples said. “It’s brutal to walk, and to go do that after what he’s gone through — whatever it was, 14 months ago — and to be playing today?“You can always be in pain, right? He’s kind of a tough guy. He’s never going to let you know he’s in pain.”Overall, Couples was impressed with how Woods played.Woods said he would play another nine holes on Wednesday.Doug Mills/The New York Times“He looked phenomenal,” Couples said. “He drove it really, really well, like a machine. His irons were good. He’s Tiger Woods, so of course, he knows how to putt. He’s just unreal. If he cannot overdo it. If he just doesn’t get too amped up, which is easier said than done.“But if he can walk around here in 72 holes, he’ll contend. He’s too good.”On Tuesday, Woods praised the surgeons, physical therapists and other specialists who have helped bring about his recovery, which he said would be tested daily during the tournament.“How am I going to get all the swelling out and recover for the next day?” he asked. “It’s just a matter of what my body’s able to do the next day and the recovery. We push it and try and to recover the best we possibly can that night and see how it is the next morning.”Woods added: “It gets agonizing and teasing because of simple things that I would normally just go do now take a couple hours here and a couple hours there to prep and then wind down.”At the same time, when asked to summarize his last 14 months in a few words, Woods said he was “thankful.”“To finally get out of that where I wasn’t in a wheelchair or crutches,” he continued, “and walking and still had more surgeries ahead of me, to then say that I was going to be here playing and talking to you guys again, it would have been very unlikely.”Woods, who won his first Masters title 25 years ago, in 1997, has carefully managed expectations — of the golf world and, perhaps, of his own — for a return to the PGA Tour at several points since the crash.Woods’s last appearance in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event was at the 2020 Masters, which was played in November rather than April because of the pandemic. At that event, Woods struggled and finished tied for 38th. But the 2019 Masters, his first major tournament victory in 11 years, makes any challenge — even competing in this year’s Masters — seem possible.After undergoing multiple back and knee surgeries, Woods was not considered a serious contender that year, yet through the final round he played his best golf, birdieing three of the final six holes to win his fifth Masters title.It is difficult to imagine there could be a sixth for Woods in the coming days at Augusta National, given the severity of his injuries and the challenges he will encounter on the course, but Woods has proved in the past, many times over, that he is hard to bet against. More

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      The Masters: 10 Most Memorable Shots

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      The tournament tends to inspire magnificent moments, and there have been many.The Masters, which begins on Thursday, never fails to deliver shots to remember, which generate roars from the crowd at Augusta National Golf Club.Gene Sarazen at Augusta National in 1935, when the tournament was known as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament.Augusta National, via Getty ImagesThis year will no doubt provide more shots that fall into that category and more thunderous roars. Most likely they will come during the back nine on Sunday, when, as the saying goes, the tournament truly begins.Here are 10 examples, in chronological order, of sensational shots by players who walked away with the title — and, since 1949, the coveted green jacket.1935: Gene SarazenThere’s no film of the shot that ranks as the greatest of all. That’s unfortunate.The Masters wasn’t known as the Masters then; it was the Augusta National Invitation Tournament and in only its second year.In the final round, Sarazen was trailing Craig Wood by three strokes. On No. 15, a par 5, Sarazen hit a 4-wood from about 230 yards away. The ball dropped into the cup for an incredible double eagle. Just like that, he was tied with Wood.Sarazen beat Wood by five shots the next day in a 36-hole playoff.1960: Arnold PalmerAfter making a long birdie putt on No. 17 to tie Ken Venturi, who had completed play, Palmer needed another birdie on the last hole to capture his second Masters title in three years.Mission accomplished.He nailed a 6-iron from the fairway to within five feet of the pin and then converted the putt.Palmer prevailed again at Augusta National in 1962 and in 1964, winning the last of his seven majors.Jack Nicklaus at the Masters in 1975.Augusta National/Getty Images1975: Jack NicklausHis tee shot at No. 16, a par 3, in the final round wasn’t what he was looking for, with the ball coming to a rest about 40 feet from the cup. He would, in all likelihood, get his par, but still trail the leader, Tom Weiskopf, by a shot.Forget about the par.Nicklaus knocked in the uphill putt for a birdie, lifting his putter in the air to celebrate. After Weiskopf and Johnny Miller missed their birdie attempts at 18, Nicklaus won his fifth green jacket.1986: Jack NicklausNicklaus, 46, was making an unexpected run on Sunday when he faced a second shot at the risk/reward 15th hole.The risk was worth the reward.From 202 yards away, he hit a 4-iron over the pond to about 12 feet from the pin.He converted the eagle putt and followed with birdies at 16 and 17 to win by a stroke. For Nicklaus, who fired a final-round 65 (30 on the back nine), it was his sixth Masters title and 18th, and final, major championship.1987: Larry MizeWhen a sudden-death playoff got underway, Mize was not the favorite. His opponents were Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros, future Hall of Famers.Yet it was Mize, an Augusta native, who came through, chipping in from about 140 feet on No. 11, the second playoff hole, to outduel Norman. Ballesteros, in pursuit of his third green jacket, had dropped out after a bogey on the first playoff hole.Mize went on to win only two more PGA Tour events.1988: Sandy LyleAfter hitting his drive on No. 18 into the bunker, Lyle needed a par to move to a playoff with Mark Calcavecchia, who was already in the clubhouse.From 150 yards away, Lyle, who couldn’t see the flag, proceeded to hit a magnificent 7-iron, the ball trickling down the hill to stop about 10 feet from the pin.Lyle, of Scotland, made the birdie putt to become the first player from the United Kingdom to win the Masters.Mark O’Meara with his caddie on the 18th green at the 1998 Masters.Augusta National, via Getty Images1998: Mark O’MearaThe tournament seemed destined for the first sudden-death playoff since 1990.O’Meara, who was tied with David Duval and Fred Couples, was lining up a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole.There would be no playoff.O’Meara, who had started the day two shots back, knocked it in for his first major title. He won his second major a few months later in the British Open.2004: Phil MickelsonWithout question, Mickelson’s 6-iron from the pine straw on No. 13 in 2010 deserves to be on the list, but his birdie on the final hole in 2004 also stands out.Tied with Ernie Els, Mickelson hit his approach to 18 feet from the hole. A playoff appeared to be a strong possibility, and similar to O’Meara in 1998, Mickelson, 33, was in search of his first major triumph. He had finished second three times.Jim Nantz, the CBS anchor, said it best as the ball edged toward the cup.“Is it his time? … Yes.”Tiger Woods faced his fans after winning the Masters in 2005.Icon Sport Media, via Getty Images2005: Tiger WoodsLeading in the final round by only one, Woods was in trouble after his 8-iron to No. 16 missed the green to the left. He had to aim about 25 feet from the cup to catch the slope at the perfect spot.He found the perfect spot, and the ball stayed on the edge of the cup for a second or two before tumbling in for a miraculous birdie.Woods secured his fourth green jacket on the first playoff hole against Chris DiMarco.2012: Bubba WatsonWatson, on the second playoff hole against Louis Oosthuizen, sent his tee shot into the pine straw on the right.Advantage: Oosthuizen. Not for long.Watson managed to hook his wedge shot to about 15 feet from the cup. He finished with a par, earning the first of his two Masters victories when Oosthuizen made a bogey.“As an athlete, as a golfer,” Watson told reporters at the time, “this is the Mecca. This is what we strive for — to put on the green jacket.” More

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      Ben Crenshaw Is Not Done With the Masters

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      He played it as an amateur in the 1970s, won it twice and will once again be telling tales at the Champions Dinner.In the history of the Masters, Ben Crenshaw’s name is writ large.He was the low amateur, meaning the amateur who plays the best that week, in back-to-back years, 1972 and 1973. In 1984, he won the tournament, besting Tom Watson by two strokes. But it’s his 1995 victory at age 43 that’s one for the history books.Just days after his coach and mentor Harvey Penick died, he paired again with Carl Jackson, the Augusta National Golf Club caddie, to win by one shot. When the final putt dropped, Crenshaw draped himself around Jackson in an emotional embrace on the 18th green.Crenshaw, 70, hasn’t played in the tournament since 2015, but he has become a guiding presence at the annual Champions Dinner. He is also among the top golf course architects. He and his business partner, Bill Coore, have designed or renovated a half dozen courses rated in the top 100 in the world.Ahead of his 50th Masters, Crenshaw spoke about the course, the players and the history. The following has been edited and condensed.How has the experience of the tournament changed over the years?With modern golf, I’m amazed how Augusta National has striven to keep up with the times. They have stretched the length of the holes almost as much as they possibly could in a lot of instances. But the actual intent of playing the golf course is very much the same. You still want to drive the ball into a position so you have the best angle into those greens. In our day there was no second cut [of the higher grass just off the fairway that was instituted in 1998] — it was cut grass everywhere you looked. The ball would keep running. It was very strategic in that regard. There were a lot of instances where an errant tee ball could run into trouble.Augusta National will play 7,510 yards this year, 300 yards longer than the average PGA Tour course. Still, it’s the greens, not the length, that challenge the best players. What are they like?The greens are remarkable in the way they play. It’s the contours of those greens and what can happen to the ball. From a player’s standpoint, Augusta National is very much about the approach shot to the green. But you learn the course over time. You don’t go directly to the flagstick. You play over there to get where you’re going. When a player is trying to practice and learn the golf course, you’ll see the newcomers go to many spots around the greens and hit these chips and little short shots. You can’t practice them enough. I’d hit them from various spots; I’d hit it somewhere I hadn’t been.Ben Crenshaw had an emotional reaction to winning the Masters in 1995 by one shot. Phil Sheldon/Popperfoto, via Getty ImagesSo distance matters less?Let’s face it, much of the emphasis is on how far people can hit the ball and what advantage they have. That’s true. But if you look over the champions list there are so many people with varying distances off the tee. It will always reward the long hitter who hits it where it should be.You were the low amateur in the ’70s, and a winner in the ’80s and ’90s. What challenged you over the decades?The course goads you into taking chances. You know if you don’t bring that shot off, you always suffer the consequences of missing by a very small margin. If you miss a spot on the green, the ball might go 60, 70 feet away from where you want it to go. No one can play safe and win at Augusta. You’ve got to take chances to score. Nothing gives you more confidence than when you hit a good shot. It puts the excitement in the game. There was nothing like being in contention at Augusta and hearing the crowd.What’s the conversation like at the Champions Dinner?When we’re at the dinner we all look around the table and we’re seeing different eras of golf. The conversation among the champions is always how they played, who you were chasing, who were your pursuers, what chances did you take. There’s a thread woven through all of us that we’re very fortunate to be in that room. You always want to ask Jack Nicklaus or Gary Player or Vijay Singh: “You faced this shot, and you knew you had to take a chance there. Did it come off as you planned?” We faced the same challenges, and we got through it. More

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      How Augusta National Is Adjusting to Players’ Focus on Distance

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      Modern golf balls and clubs are challenging older courses. How much longer can Augusta National withstand the new technology?When it comes to major championships, the pedigree of the golf course matters. Courses hold the history of the players who have won there.Arnold Palmer at Cherry Hills. Ben Hogan at Merion. Tom Watson at Turnberry.Tiger Woods at, well, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews, Valhalla and Augusta National when he won all four majors consecutively for the so-called “Tiger Slam” in 2000-1.But Augusta National Golf Club, host of the Masters, is different from the rest. It was originally designed by two greats: Dr. Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones, the great amateur. It’s the only major played on the same course year after year. And its champions return like members for that week. Cue the song birds and blooming azaleas.There’s just one problem: modern professional golfers are hitting the ball so far that classic golf courses are being overpowered and some are struggling to find ways to remain relevant and challenging.Just two years ago, Bryson DeChambeau dominated Winged Foot, considered among the toughest championship venues, to win the United States Open. He hit it as far as he possibly could and then wedged it onto the green. The formidable, high rough of a U.S. Open had little effect on him (though he was the only player to finish under par).Now, the days of players like Gene Sarazen, who won the Masters in 1935, hitting a wood into the par-5 15th green are behind us. But the fear is that instead of someone like Woods hitting a 7-iron into that same green it will be a wedge, a much easier club to hit with.Augusta National is aware that the Masters transcends golf. Keeping the course from being a victim of clubs and balls that help players increase their distance is paramount. Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, another classic course, had its future as a major site called into question earlier this year when, at the Genesis Invitational, players hit drives down adjacent fairways to have an easier approach to the green.Players like Bryson DeChambeau, shown here hitting a drive at the 18th hole during the first round of the 2019 Masters, have dazzled with their distance. Two years ago his long shots at Winged Foot helped him win the United States Open. David J. Phillip/Associated PressSo how has Augusta National continued to challenge players and stand up to golf balls that fly farther and spin to a quick stop, and drivers that launch those balls 330 yards and beyond? It’s a combination of technology and psychology.“Augusta National continues to add length judiciously where they can,” said Ben Crenshaw, the 1984 and 1995 champion and an acclaimed golf architect. “Subtle changes have been well thought out.”For such a historic course, Augusta National makes changes pretty much every year. This year it lengthened the 11th and 15th holes, which have become less strategic with players hitting farther, and the 18th, with its gigantic bunker waiting to swallow any straight shots.The added distance is around a total of 50 yards for the three holes, if the tees are pushed back. The goal is to change how players approach those holes. It’s not a new issue.“The length debate has been going on at Augusta National since Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie designed the course,” said Joe Bowden, a local doctor, longtime volunteer and member of the adjoining Augusta Country Club. “The first year the Masters was played in 1934 the course length was 6,700 yards. This year the course will officially measure 7,510 yards for the 2022 tournament.”Yet there’s a limit to the length. As magnificent as Augusta National is to watch on television and experience in person, it’s not exactly situated on a prairie. Hedged in by Washington Road, a commercial thoroughfare as average as Magnolia Lane is spectacular; established neighborhoods; and the Augusta Country Club, the National, as its neighbors call it, only has so much space to grow in the state’s second-largest city.A few years ago, the club went so far as to buy an entire hole from Augusta Country Club so it would have space to lengthen its own 13th hole. In a letter to its members, the then-president of Augusta Country Club noted that Augusta National would rebuild part of its 8th and 9th holes as part of the deal.Augusta National purchased an entire hole from the Augusta Country Club a few years ago so it could lengthen its 13th hole, shown here. Doug Mills/The New York TimesYet the club can also change the speeds of the fairways and greens at will, through how they water them but also which direction they cut them. “People don’t realize how much this can speed up or slow down a course,” said a former assistant golf professional at Augusta who requested anonymity because employees aren’t allowed to speak about club matters. “But it’s much bigger than you think.”For a club that regularly adjusts its angles and lengths of holes, there are more striking things it could do and still be in keeping with the original intent of the course. Michael Hurdzan, who designed Erin Hills, site of the 2017 U.S. Open, pointed to several things the club could do to mute the impact of distance and still be consistent with MacKenzie’s design. One would be to continue to bring trees into play. They could be used to block shortcuts that players can take. “There are only two hazards that make a difference to the great player, ” he said, “trees and water.”Another is to think differently about the bunkers. There are twice as many bunkers, 44, today as when the course was built, but there are only 12 fairway bunkers. Of those, only three are on the back nine where the championship is often decided, and two of those are on 18.“The fairways are basically bunkerless,” said Hurdzan, who advocates bunkers jutting into the fairways, known as cross bunkers. “Mackenzie wasn’t afraid of cross bunkers. If someone wanted to stiffen it up, they could use cross bunkers or more bunkering in the fairway. You could try to hit the big drive and risk it or hit a shorter club and hit a longer iron in.”Of course, what all classic courses are battling is technology: a ball that flies farther than ever when hit with a driver that springs it like a trampoline. This is an issue golf’s two governing bodies are addressing, with an update issued in March. Observers think this is the time for changes to the equipment.“With all due respect to the players, it’s not them working out that’s making the ball go farther,” said Geoff Shackelford, a golf course architect and commentator. “You put technology in their hands that’s 10 years old, and they’re going to go backwards. Technology that’s 30 years old — they’ll really go backwards.”“There are so many things Augusta can do to make it tough,” Shackelford added. “It’s not going to become irrelevant, but it does lose some of the charm when you’re taking away some of the things we’ve come to know.”Shackleford noted that previous attempts to roll back distance were met with resistance, but not so the March announcements from the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. The technology, he said, is making it harder to stand out as a player. “It probably mutes some of the super elite players’ extra special skills.”Length, though, can be misleading at Augusta. Greg Norman was among the longest players of his era. When he found himself in a playoff in 1987 with Seve Ballesteros, whose short game made up for wild tee shots, and Larry Mize, a comparatively short hitter, it looked like Norman had the advantage.But that’s not how it ended. On the second playoff hole, Mize chipped in for a birdie to win the playoff.“With his length, Greg had an advantage,” Mize said. “Thank God golf is more than length. The longest hitters aren’t always winning the Masters.”Still, Mize said he, too, would be in favor of the U.S.G.A. addressing what technology has done to distance.“I know it’s hard to bring it back,” Mize said. “But I’m hopeful that 20 years from now golfers won’t be hitting it any further. I’m optimistic that Augusta will still be relevant. It’s a special place and a special event.” More

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      Reliving How Tiger Woods Won the 1997 Masters

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      Follow our live coverage of the first round of the MastersPerhaps the most important thing to remember on the 25th anniversary of Tiger Woods’s seismic victory at the 1997 Masters, the first of his 15 major championships, is that almost no one saw it coming.Yes, Woods, then 21, had won three PGA Tour events, and there was avid interest in his first major as a professional. But one year earlier, as an amateur, he had missed the Masters cut. In 1995, he tied for 41st. It was accepted wisdom that grasping the intricate nuances of Augusta National Golf Club would take years. Woods, it was said repeatedly by the tour’s elders, would have to wait.“That’s how I felt,” Paul Azinger, a 14-year tour veteran in 1997 and the winner of the 1993 P.G.A. Championship, said in an interview last month. “It’s harder than it looks.”Azinger felt differently after he was paired with Woods in the second round. For the first time, he watched Woods hit a ball with a driver. Azinger, now 62, had never seen a golf shot hang in the air for so long as it rocketed away from the tee.“I can still see that white ball framed against the dark trees in the distance, then the blue sky and then the green fairway — it was a bullet that seemed to never stop,” Azinger, now an NBC golf analyst, said.The four days of the 1997 Masters would turn out to be a profound experience for those of us fortunate to be on the grounds at Augusta National, and for 44 million people who watched on television. It set records and broke cultural ground, as Woods became the first nonwhite athlete to win golf’s most tradition-bound event. It permanently reshaped almost every aspect of the game, how it would be broadcast and who might watch, and it was the first globally prominent chapter in the life of a young Black man with a catchy nickname who would soon become one of the most famous and most popular people in the world.Although many remember vividly the moment that Woods won — the 4-foot putt and his full-body fist pump — not everyone recalls that his week began inauspiciously.The First RoundAugusta National Golf ClubDuring his first nine holes on Thursday, Woods very nearly played his way out of the tournament. He shot a four-over-par 40 with four bogeys and no birdies. I realized it was possible for him to win, but it seemed unlikely. It was Augusta National. It takes time. Almost every enduring, top golfer from the last 60 years — Palmer, Nicklaus, Faldo, etc. — did not win the tournament until his fourth try. Most won in their fifth or sixth. And they weren’t 21, either.But when Woods then shot 30 on the back nine — and was calm in the news conference afterward, as if he had expected it — that’s when I knew he would be contending on Sunday.NICK FALDO (defending Masters champion, paired in the first round with Woods) We both made a mess on the front nine; just knocking it all over the place. I had won six majors so maybe people gave me a little slack, but for Tiger, I’m sure a lot of people were probably thinking, “Well, he’s still a little in over his head, isn’t he?”TOM KITE (finished second) The Tiger curiosity was very high so I have no doubt a lot of guys in the field heard about that opening 40.Tiger Woods teeing off on No. 18 in the first round of the 1997 Masters. He shot 30 on the back nine.Steve Munday/Allsport via Getty ImagesTOMMY BENNETT (one of many Black caddies picked by the club from the nearby Sand Hills neighborhood) Somebody told me Tiger shot 40, and I said, “Doesn’t matter, man, he’s not worried.” That kid was raised to be fearless. When I caddied for him in ’95 [at the Masters] he only put three balls in his bag and told me he wouldn’t need any more. And he didn’t. I knew he’d come back.FALDO Tiger birdied the 10th and chipped in for birdie on the 12th hole. That shot was basically the beginning of the rest of his career.JEFF SLUMAN (tied for seventh) The chip from behind the 12th green was incredibly difficult. Everybody watching was saying, “He’s got to be careful not to pitch that back into Rae’s Creek and make double bogey.” And bang! He puts it in the hole. Are you kidding?FALDO The crowds around us started getting bigger and bigger and louder and louder. He seemed to feed off that. It was the beginning of Tiger mania, right? I looked around and realized that this is really something to remember.Woods would birdie the par-5 13th and eagle the par-5 15th — for the tournament he would be 13 under on the par 5s — then added another birdie on the 17th hole. He finished at two-under-par 70, one of only seven golfers in the field of 86 to break par that day. Woods celebrated by heading to the drive-through of the Arby’s on Washington Road just beyond the club’s ornate front gate. He had two of his Stanford college buddies in the car. After they wolfed down roast beef sandwiches at the house rented with Woods’s parents, Earl and Kultida, they played basketball in the driveway and table tennis in the basement.The Second RoundAugusta National Golf ClubKITE The conditions had been so hard the first day — windy with very firm greens — you bet 70 was a good score. People noticed.AZINGER I suddenly realized how many people were following us and how much pressure he was already under.LEE WESTWOOD (playing in his first Masters) It was obvious how strong he was mentally, and his age did not matter.AZINGER We get to the 13th hole on the back nine and he’s now four under par for the tournament, which is not too shabby. Then Tiger goes eagle-birdie-birdie on 13, 14 and 15.JIM NANTZ (longtime CBS Masters host) Tiger made the putt for eagle on 13 and I looked at my watch thinking this might be a historic moment. I said, “Let the record show that a little after 5:30 on this Friday, April the 11th, Tiger takes the lead for the very first time at the Masters.”Woods and Paul Azinger waiting to tee off on the eighth hole in the second round.Amy Sancetta/Associated PressAZINGER Tiger was hitting a wedge or 9-iron to the greens on the back nine par 5s while some guys were hitting 3-woods there. Tiger looked like he wasn’t more than 155 pounds and his swing was so fierce I worried for his back even then, but my goodness, every shot had such integrity. As pros, we know it when we see it.JUSTIN LEONARD (1997 British Open champion) We were trying to beat this guy, but I knew I couldn’t drive it as far, I didn’t hit my irons as well, I didn’t have his short game and I didn’t putt as well. You knew you were going to be able to watch history, but you weren’t going to be making any history yourself.At the midpoint of the tournament, Colin Montgomerie, a sometimes crusty Scot who at 33 had competed in 22 majors and finished in the top 10 five times, trailed Woods by three strokes. In a packed news conference after the second round, Montgomerie said of Woods, “The pressure is mounting, and I have a lot more experience in major championships than he has.”The Third RoundAugusta National Golf ClubBefore Woods’s third round on Saturday began — he was in the final grouping, the prime TV spot, with Montgomerie — Butch Harmon, Woods’s coach, put his arm around his pupil and said, “Let’s go show Colin Montgomerie who you really are.”Woods responded, “Oh, don’t worry.”LEONARD I would have said the same thing as Colin. As professional golfers you have to try to draw on experience if you have it, and Colin had the experience — with some success. But at the end of the day it didn’t matter at all.Woods, in a 2007 interview on the 10th anniversary of his 1997 victory, said: “Colin’s comment did motivate me. Maybe if he had already won a major I might have let it go, but since he had not, I figured we were pretty even going into that round.”BERNHARD LANGER (1985 and 1993 Masters champion) I had played in Thailand with Tiger when he was an amateur and it was clear as day that this was going to be a different kind of rookie on tour. In the third round Saturday he shot 65, right? Seven birdies? It doesn’t sound like he was very nervous to me.SLUMAN He wasn’t afraid of anything. The bigger the stage the better for him. I made a comment when I was in pretty good position on the leaderboard that maybe all the guys on tour should take up a collection and offer to send him to grad school or something.By the third round, Colin Montgomerie knew he had no chance to overtake Woods, and he wasn’t happy about it.Augusta National/Getty ImagesMONTGOMERIE (after he shot 74 to Woods’s bogey-free 65) All I have to say is one brief comment today. There’s no chance humanly possible that Tiger is going to lose this tournament. No way.When a reporter recalled that Greg Norman in 1996 had lost a six-stroke, final-round lead to Faldo, Montgomerie snorted: “Faldo’s not lying second, for a start. And Greg Norman’s not Tiger Woods.”As they had since the tournament started, Woods and his college buddies went to Arby’s. Then they played basketball and table tennis.The Final RoundAugusta National Golf ClubLate the next morning, Woods donned what would become his trademark Sunday colors: a blood red sweater and black pants. Before he left for the course, Woods ascended the stairs and entered the bedroom of his father, Earl, who had recently undergone surgery for his ailing heart.“Son,” Earl said when he saw Tiger, “this is probably going to be one of the toughest rounds you’ve ever had to play in your life.”The day carried a weight, and when Woods arrived at the course, a visitor found him. It was Lee Elder, the first Black golfer to play the Masters, in 1975. Elder got a speeding ticket on the drive to Augusta. An honorary starter at the 2021 Masters seven months before he died, Elder told reporters in 1997: “Nothing was going to stop me from getting here. I made history here, and I came here today to see more history made. After today, no one will turn their head when a Black man walks to the first tee.”Henry Ashley, the headwaiter at Augusta National and one of about 20 Black club employees who lined the plantation-style clubhouse balcony to catch a glimpse of Woods on the first tee, told The Greensboro News and Record: “Tiger’s the man, period. He’s your man; he’s my man.”After Woods thundered a tee shot toward the first fairway, the congregation of club employees remained on the balcony to watch him walk onto the course. As Woods disappeared over a distant hill, the employees, one by one, turned and walked through a single thin door frame to continue their clubhouse duties.Woods, teeing off on No. 3 in the final round, had captivated the gallery.Steve Munday/Allsport via Getty ImagesLANGER I don’t know all about American history. But there were a lot of scenes like that in 1997. You know, seeing Tiger win the Masters, I think, in effect, said, “You can do what I’m doing.” I’m convinced it had an impact on future generations that were not white.COSTANTINO ROCCA (accompanied Woods on Sunday) The mood was festive, like a celebration or a big party. I’m not sure the crowd even knew there was a little Italian guy playing with him. The atmosphere was powerful.KITE Because the final round of the Masters has seen many historic collapses, nobody was conceding Tiger the title — even if he would have had to collapse like crazy to be caught. But there was still a wait-and-see attitude.ROCCA I did cut his lead by a stroke after the first seven holes when Tiger made a couple bogeys. Then he hit his tee shot on No. 8 into the trees and I thought maybe there’s some chance. What if I make birdie and he makes double bogey? Instead, I made par and he made birdie.KITE It was case closed.SLUMAN From there, a coronation.NANTZ I talked briefly to Lee [Elder]. There was emotion in his eyes. And fatigue.ROCCA (tied for fifth) On the last nine holes, the crowd was getting crazier and crazier, and at one point Tiger turned to me and asked if I was OK. He’s a nice guy, and I was proud of him.NANTZ I kept thinking about how much this moment meant to so many people. It transcended the sport, and seeing Lee Elder was a visual cue to me.As Woods, his baggy pants flapping in the wind, sank a last putt to set 20 Masters records, including youngest winner and largest margin of victory (12 strokes), Nantz said, “There it is, a win for the ages.”

      After the WinThe victory was transformative, particularly for golf, though not in every way imagined. Designers tried to “Tiger-proof” their golf courses by making them longer and more difficult. Woods’s crossover appeal, long predicted, swiftly materialized. Ten days later, in a sign of his cultural transcendence, Woods gave Oprah Winfrey his first post-Masters interview. He was sent up by “Saturday Night Live.”Inspired by Woods’s trailblazing achievement, Sean Combs, the rap mogul known as Puff Daddy, called Hype Williams, an award-winning music and film director and producer. Their conversation about what had transpired at Augusta National became the conceit of the hip-hop video “Mo Money Mo Problems,” which also featured the rapper Mase. It was released three months after Woods won the Masters.

      HYPE WILLIAMS Puff was very excited about the idea of Tiger Woods and adamant about starting a video with him as a Tiger Woods character. With Mase and Puff, we had the opportunity to let them embellish on Tiger Woods and the big moment that the sport was having in 1997. That’s what it represented. Coincidentally, I just shot Tom Brady’s campaign for his golf line. Tom also happens to be a very serious golfer, and he was heavily influenced by “Mo Money Mo Problems.” He told me he wanted that energy of the original video for his campaign, a ’90s energy that Tiger came to exemplify.DUSTIN JOHNSON (then 12) When I was growing up, in high school you were kind of a dork if you played golf. But Tiger actually made it a cool sport to play.Nick Faldo put the green jacket on Woods.Dave Martin/Associated PressIn 2020, Woods put the jacket on Dustin Johnson.Doug Mills/The New York TimesJoe Beditz, the president of the National Golf Foundation, saw the impact, including a 22 percent increase in recreational golf participation and a 50 percent jump in the number of nonwhite golfers from when Woods turned pro in 1996 to 2001.JOE BEDITZ Tiger’s biggest impact, by far, was on golf’s public awareness. He became ubiquitous: TV ads, magazine covers, interviews and television appearances. The ultra-elevated public awareness was the headspring from which all of golf’s blessings flowed — more fans, more golfers, more courses, more equipment sales.In the same five-year period beginning in 1996, PGA Tour prize money mushroomed by 172 percent, television ratings for the Masters jumped by 58 percent and network cameras tried to capture every shot struck by Woods at any tournament.NANTZ The idea was to never lose track of Tiger during the entire body of a three-hour broadcast. It was a new era for golf because a golfer was now maybe the most famous athlete in the world.The pervasive belief in the wake of Woods’s 1997 Masters victory was that it would be a catalyst for diversifying professional golf, which had a well-deserved reputation for exclusionary tactics and biases. The PGA Tour had a Caucasian-only clause until 1961. Elder was not welcomed to the Masters until 14 years later. Woods’s 1997 Masters breakthrough and exploding fame were expected to bring sweeping change. But 25 years later, there are no more than a handful of Black golfers on the PGA Tour.JARIAH BEARD (one of dozens of Black caddies at Augusta National from 1955 to 1983) We had more Black pros in the 1960s than we do now. In the 1980s, another Black golfer, Calvin Peete, won 12 PGA Tour events. He won the Players Championship and was near the top of the money rankings list almost every year. Tiger came along 10 years later, but how many have followed him?EDWARD WANAMBWA (an editor for African American Golfer’s Digest and a former caddie for Elder) It was a bit naïve to think there was going to be this sudden influx of African American golfers. Why didn’t the floodgates open? Because elite golf is not a cheap endeavor — the equipment, the travel, the entry fees to tournaments, it’s expensive. There are well-meaning initiatives to introduce the game to junior golfers, but the mechanisms for getting to the tour weren’t there.Lee Elder talked to Woods before the final round.Augusta National/Getty ImagesBEARD (81, still lives in Augusta) Tiger’s win really helped young white golfers more than Black golfers. The young white golfers made Tiger their hero and emulated his swing, his workout habits, his aggressiveness. They all became better because of Tiger.GARY WOODLAND (2019 U.S. Open champion) I’ve watched Tiger win that first Masters on an old VHS tape maybe 400 million times.JOEL DAHMEN (sixth year on the PGA Tour) I’ve watched too many times to count. At least 40. Every time it comes on, I don’t care if Tiger is on the first hole in that final round, I have to watch the whole thing.WANAMBWA That’s the thing, it was still great to watch a brother — someone who looks like us — slip on the green jacket at Augusta National. It was a win for all the Black caddies and all the Black golfers who never got to play there. That supersedes all the rest.Woods skipped Arby’s after Sunday’s final round. As is tradition, the Augusta National membership feted the Masters champion and his family at a ceremonial dinner as the sun was setting on the grounds. When Woods got back to his rental house, a party ensued for the tenants and invited guests with no shortage of adult beverages.At some point late in the night, Woods slipped away from the gathering. Later, Earl Woods went looking for the Masters champion. He peeked into his son’s bedroom and found him asleep on the bed, his arms hugging his green jacket.After sinking the final putt, Woods fell into the arms of his father, Earl.Dave Martin/Associated PressInterviews have been edited and condensed.

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      Tiger Woods at the Masters: “It Will Be A Game-Time Decision”

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      Woods, who won his last major in 2019, at the Masters, is trying to return to golf after sustaining significant leg injuries in a single-car crash in February 2021.AUGUSTA, Ga. — In a career of impressive comebacks, Tiger Woods continues to work toward attempting his most remarkable return to golf yet.Thirteen months after a car crash left him with devastating leg injuries, Woods said that he would travel to Augusta on Sunday to continue practicing before the start of the Masters Tournament, beginning on Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club.“I will be heading up to Augusta today to continue my preparation and practice,” Woods wrote in a post on social media. “It will be a game-time decision on whether I compete.”I will be heading up to Augusta today to continue my preparation and practice. It will be a game-time decision on whether I compete. Congratulations to 16-year-old Anna Davis on an amazing win at the @anwagolf and good luck to all the kids in the @DriveChipPutt.— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 3, 2022
      Woods, a 15-time major champion with a reputation for willing himself to victory under the most challenging circumstances, has been undergoing rehabilitation on his surgically rebuilt right leg since his sport utility vehicle tumbled off a Los Angeles-area boulevard at a high speed on Feb. 23, 2021.On Tuesday, Woods flew from his home in Florida to Augusta on his private jet with his 12-year-old son, Charlie, according to people who were familiar with Woods’s schedule but who were not authorized to discuss it publicly. He played an 18-hole practice round at Augusta National with Justin Thomas, a PGA Tour pro who is also Woods’s neighbor and close friend.The length of the course and its unforgiving elevation changes would be a daunting challenge for Woods. On Wednesday, in a conference call with reporters, Curtis Strange, the two-time U.S. Open champion who is now a golf analyst for ESPN, called Augusta National “the hardest walk in golf.”Another two-time winner of the U.S. Open, Andy North, who is also an ESPN commentator, said he thought the British Open would be a likely place to return to competition for Woods because this year’s venue — St. Andrews — is “flat and it’s an easy walk.”“Augusta is the last place you would have thought he could possibly play,” North said.But Woods, who won his first Masters title 25 years ago, in 1997, has carefully managed expectations — of the golf world and, perhaps, of his own — for a return to the tour at several points since the crash.In mid-February, before the Genesis Invitational, Woods said in a news conference that he had worked mostly on chipping, putting and short irons, but had not spent time “seriously” on his long game because of his right leg.“I’m still working on the walking part,” Woods said then. “My foot was a little messed up there about a year ago, so the walking part is something that I’m still working on, working on strength and development in that. It takes time. What’s frustrating is it’s not at my timetable. I want to be at a certain place, but I’m not. I’ve just got to continue working. I’m getting better, yes. But as I said, not at the speed and rate that I would like. You add in the age factor, too. You just don’t quite heal as fast, which is frustrating.”In mid-November, in his first public appearance since the accident, Woods cast doubt on his ability to return to a physical condition that would allow him to be competitive and win on the PGA Tour.Woods, who on Nov. 21 posted a short video on social media of himself taking a swing, said he hoped to play competitive golf again at some point, but offered no timetable for doing so, and ruled out a full-time return to the PGA Tour.“I got that last major,” Woods said Nov. 30 at a news conference, recalling his stunning 2019 victory at the Masters, golf’s most watched event, at age 43.Woods sustained open fractures, in several places, of the tibia and the fibula in his right leg. He spent a month in the hospital, and doctors had considered the possibility that his leg might have to be amputated.“I’ve had a pretty good run,” Woods said in November, then nine months removed from the crash. He added: “I don’t see that type of trend going forward for me. It’s going to have to be a different way. I’m at peace with that. I’ve made the climb enough times.”Woods after a missed shot on No. 2 during the final round at the 2020 Masters.Doug Mills/The New York TimesApparently not.At the 2020 Masters, played in November rather than April because of the pandemic, Woods struggled and finished tied for 38th. But it was the 2019 Masters, his first major tournament victory in 11 years, that would make any outcome — even his return to the Masters next week — seem possible.After undergoing multiple back and knee surgeries, Woods was not considered a serious contender that year, yet through the final round he played his best golf, birdieing three of the final six holes to win his fifth Masters title. When he sank the winning putt on the 18th hole, he celebrated with a primal scream as thousands of fans encircling the green roared.Two years earlier, Woods had ranked as low as 1,119th in the world. His comeback, given his off-the-course hardships then, is among the greatest in sports history.Does he have another one in him?In December, Woods played 36 holes with his son Charlie at the PNC Championship. The scramble format allowed for the use of a cart, and Woods walked with a limp and struggled on some drives to push off with his right leg. On many holes, he declined to hit shots from difficult or uneven lies that would have put added stress on his right leg. Since Charlie’s ball was often in the best position, Woods could pick and choose when to participate.In the moments before his 2021 crash, Woods was speeding. The police said he was traveling about 85 miles per hour in a 45 m.p.h. zone when he lost control, crossing a median and hitting the curb on the opposite side of the road. The vehicle struck a tree at an estimated 75 m.p.h., and went airborne before stopping in some brush. More

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      For a Few Days at Augusta National, the Spotlight Shines on the Women

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      When the club held its first national women’s amateur tournament in 2019, it hoped to benefit women’s golf, especially the junior circuit. It seems to be working.AUGUSTA, Ga. — Anna Davis had just turned 12 when Augusta National Golf Club, in a surprise, announced it would create a new national women’s amateur championship. On Saturday, now 16 years old, Davis won the tournament.Annika Sorenstam, who won 10 L.P.G.A. major championships, attended the club’s news conference in 2018, when Augusta National officials said it wanted the 54-hole tournament to benefit women’s golf at all levels.“This is a dream come true,” Sorenstam said at the time. “It will be an exciting carrot for these young amateurs.”Sorenstam sat behind the first tee on Saturday as Rachel Kuehn, who was 16 when the tournament was created, teed off in the final round.“I turned around and Annika Sorenstam was there and I thought, Oh my gosh, I have to hit the fairway,” Kuehn, who would finish seventh, said later. “I didn’t hit the fairway but it was really cool to see her and so many people out supporting women’s golf. It’s what this tournament was meant to do.”Amari Avery was 14 when Augusta National announced the event, which included the news that the national women’s amateur championship would be broadcast live on NBC on the weekend before the start of the Masters Tournament.“The very first year they played it I saw how electric it was and I made it a goal for myself to be a part of that atmosphere that very second,” Avery said Saturday after she finished tied for fourth.Amari Avery after a missed putt on No. 18.Doug Mills/The New York TimesIf Augusta National’s intent was to benefit women’s golf, especially the junior circuit, Kuehn, whose mother, Brenda, was a top amateur who would have loved playing competitive golf at Augusta National, and Avery, whose father is Black and mother is Filipino, each insisted the club’s relatively new amateur championship is achieving its objective.“It’s just been incredible,” Kuehn said. “It’s a testament to what Augusta National is doing here.”Avery, whose appearance nine years ago in a Netflix documentary about elite grade school golfers earned her comparisons to Tiger Woods, said the Augusta National tournament was “huge.”“It’s hard to find words for how much this has impacted amateur women’s golf,” she said. “Seeing all these people lined up and clapping and cheering for us, it’s how it should be and it’s a step in the right direction, for sure.”Andre Avery, Amari’s father, saw the symbolism.“For my daughter to turn on the TV years ago and see young women playing on the golf course where the Masters is played, I mean that was a turning point for her,” Avery said. “And today, for African American kids to be watching TV and see someone that looks like them on the same course, that’s a really big deal, too. It’s important for them to see that.”The first Augusta National Women’s Amateur was held in 2019 and the 2020 event was canceled by the pandemic, which inhibited attendance at the 2021 tournament as well. But on Saturday, the crowds at Augusta National, which began admitting women members in 2012, were hearty, with the galleries around the closing holes 10 deep with fans. (Augusta National does not release attendance figures.)“I’ve never played in front of such big crowds,” Davis said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”Girls watching the trophy presentation at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.Doug Mills/The New York TimesBrenda Kuehn could not help but notice how many women were in attendance — and how many had brought their grade school and preteen daughters, who surged around the golfers as they finished their rounds, clamoring for autographs.“I gave my golf ball to a little girl as I came off the 18th green today and I’m not sure if she understood what was going on, but the look and smile on her face was a beautiful thing,” Ingrid Lindblad of Sweden, who finished tied for second, said.Lindblad, a junior on the golf team at Louisiana State, said that one of her professors even knew she would be competing at the storied golf club.“Not many people normally talk to me about one of our college tournaments,” Lindblad said. “Only family and close friends go to those. But that’s how this tournament is different. There’s no question it’s raised the profile of women’s golf. And that will continue to have positive effects.”Kuehn’s coach at Wake Forest University, Kim Lewellen, said she has seen a rise in participation at junior girls’ camps and in the number of women recruits who have contacted her since the tournament’s inception. She credits the appeal of seeing women at a renowned golf course and the fact that it is contested the weekend before the Masters is played.Anna Davis, winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, on No. 18 after missing a birdie putt.Doug Mills/The New York TimesThere are other prominent American women’s amateur championships, like the U.S. Women’s Amateur, first played in 1895, but Augusta National seems to have captured a distinctive foothold.“It’s the platform,” said Avery’s golf coach at Southern California, Justin Silverstein. “Arguably, everyone in golf has heard of Augusta National and even most casual sports fans have heard of the Masters. It’s the most recognizable golf course in the world.“Young women golfers turn on NBC, and that’s another huge platform, and they see people that look like them — or people not that far removed from them — and they think: Maybe I can do that too.”Sometimes, that is all it takes.Davis, who shares her March 17 birthday with Bobby Jones, one of the founders of Augusta National who died in 1971, said on Saturday that she had not heard of the event until last year — when she watched it on television.“It made me very excited to try and compete in this event,” she said. “Then I was excited when I learned I was going to play here.”Now she is the tournament champion. More