WATCH ABOVE: Tiger Woods returns to the game at the site of some of his greatest successes. But is he ready to compete with the other contenders in the field? Kevin Smith has more.
It is something Tiger Woods hasn’t experienced in his entire professional career.
Since he first came to Augusta as a professional in 1997, when Woods has competed he’s almost always been considered a favourite to win the Masters.
But not this year. Vegas oddsmakers have him a 20 to 1 shot to win, behind players like Rory McIlroy, Jimmy Walker, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson.
What’s surprising is that Woods’ odds are that strong. After all, he’s 111th in the World Golf Rankings and hasn’t made the cut in a tournament since last July, and didn’t play at the Masters last year because of a back injury.
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Since then he’s been injured and struggled with swing changes. When all those factors are considered, it is difficult to figure out how anyone expects Woods could win this week.
Except that he’s Tiger Woods, and there’s no golfer like him. And Woods says he can win.
Woods says he’s put in an incredible amount of time with new coach Chris Como, his new swing instructor, trying to get his game in shape after announcing he was withdrawing from the sport for a spell.
“I worked my ass off,” Woods said in the media room at the Masters. “That’s the easiest way to describe it. People would never understand how much work I’ve put in to come back to this. It was sun up to sun down. It was a lot of work.”
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Woods seems at ease at Augusta in a way that one might not expect considering the scrutiny he’s under. He played a practice round with Mark O’Meara, who he was once very close friends with, and joked around in the media room. It was a demeanor that differed dramatically from Woods’ past press conferences, which could be perfunctory and dismissive.
Woods says he hadn’t noticed a difference in his attitude, but he’s clearly happy to be back playing.
“There’s no tournament in the world like this and to come back to a place where I have so many great memories and so many great times in my life is always special,” he said. “I’m excited to be back and playing at this level. I feel my game is finally ready to compete at this level, at the highest level.”
When he last played, in February in San Diego, Woods struggled to hit a chip shot or make a putt. He looked frustrated and years removed from the golfer who not only hit soaring drives, but possessed one of the best short games the sport has ever witnessed.
Woods says that’s changed, and some pundits suggest he might have shot 30 over nine holes on Monday had he kept score.
“I feel like I wasn’t hitting the ball as well as I needed to and I wasn’t chipping or putting as well,” Woods said of his disappearance from golf over the past few months. “I needed to have all facets of my game come around. We’ve put a lot of work into this and it has finally paid off.”
The truth is that even if the work has paid off, no one should expect Woods to be in the mix this week. He hasn’t competed in a tournament in months and younger stars—McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day—all come into the Masters playing well. Even Woods acknowledged that golf is evolving.
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