AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods had 212 yards to the fifth inexperienced on Sunday morning. Holding a protracted iron, he swung with applicable velocity and rhythm. However one thing was amiss at contact with the ball, and within the millisecond it took for Woods to transition from downswing to follow-through, he let go of the membership. It flung to the bottom over his left shoulder.
The shot bounced 30 yards wanting its goal, and Woods grimaced. His shoulders sagged. He sighed and retrieved the membership from the grass and slowly limped ahead closely favoring a proper leg surgically reconstructed after his automotive crash on Feb. 23, 2021.
The 2022 Masters Event, which started with a smiling Woods thrilled to be again on the Augusta Nationwide Golf Course surrounded by a supportive group of colleagues, was enjoying out for him in its ultimate hours in small, humbling methods.
Woods’s miscue on the fifth gap of the ultimate spherical was considered one of many gaffes, on this case the second of three consecutive bogeys on the entrance 9. Ever since his startling, inspiring opening-round one-under-par 71, Woods has wilted piecemeal — betrayed by a sore proper leg, a balky again bothered by chilly climate and the calls for of strolling and enjoying for seven successive days for the primary time in 17 months.
By Sunday, the crowds that swarmed his opening rounds had thinned significantly as followers had been speeding to place themselves to see the fourth-round leaders, who would tee off three hours later.
However as Woods walked uphill to the 18th inexperienced, the sizable crowd of followers who waited for him applauded thunderously.
After a double bogey on No. 17 and a 4-foot putt for par on No. 18, Woods completed the spherical six over par, 13 over for the event. He pumped fingers together with his enjoying companion, Jon Rahm, tipped his cap to the gang and walked off the inexperienced, smiling and limping.
It was not the conclusion Woods envisioned when he willed himself to make an unbelievable return to elite aggressive golf lower than 5 months after declaring his days as a prime participant all however over. However Woods emphatically doesn’t view his four-day rating at this 12 months’s event because the measure of his look.
After Thursday’s first spherical, Woods, who for a quarter-century has been famend for saying that his solely aim at any competitors is to win it, was requested if simply displaying up at Augusta Nationwide was a victory.
“Completely,” he answered. “Completely sure.”
It was a revealing confession for Woods, nevertheless it elucidates the picture of him slowly ascending the hilly terrain on Sunday, usually wincing. He completed nowhere close to the leaders, however he completed nonetheless.
After his ultimate spherical, Woods mentioned he was grateful, in spite of everything he has been via, to have performed this 12 months on the event he has gained 5 occasions, and that continued to imply a lot to him. He mentioned the week was his best achievement for a event that he didn’t win.
“The people who find themselves near me perceive, they’ve seen it,” Woods mentioned. “A few of the gamers who’re near me have seen it, and have seen a number of the footage and the issues that I’ve needed to endure, and so they recognize it most likely greater than anybody else. As a result of they know what it takes to to do that out right here at this degree.”
He added: “It’s been a troublesome street and you realize, one I’m very grateful to have the chance to have the ability to grind via plenty of various things might have occurred. However in 14 months, I’m capable of tee it up and play within the Masters.”
It’s seemingly that Woods is not going to play once more till the P.G.A. Championship in mid-Could in Tulsa, Okla. Woods has mentioned his schedule going ahead may be modeled after the strategy Ben Hogan took when he returned to golf from a automotive wreck in 1949. Hogan had fractures of his collarbone, pelvis, a rib and an ankle, in addition to different severe accidents. Hogan gained the U.S. Open the following 12 months and two extra main golf championships in 1951 however skipped many different tournaments.
In November, in his first public feedback since his accident, Woods evoked Hogan’s comeback as a paradigm to comply with.
“I believe one thing that’s reasonable is enjoying the tour at some point — by no means full time ever once more — however choose and select, similar to Mr. Hogan did,” he mentioned. “Choose and select a number of occasions a 12 months and also you mess around that.”
On the tenth tee on Sunday, Woods took yet one more ferocious swing of his driver. He held on to his membership and leaned on it as his ball hooked left into the woods.
Then Woods used the membership like a cane to help his proper facet as he descended the steep slope that led to an 80-foot elevation drop from the tee field to the distant fairway. When he reached flatter floor, Woods handed his driver to his caddie, Joe LaCava, and soldiered on.
