Sports reporter Grantland Rice once wrote of a broken Ben Hogan, “his heart was simply not big enough to carry his legs any longer”.
Little did Rice know, but 70 years on he could have written the same sentence, with a tweak, and rolled it out for Tiger Woods.
Like Hogan did in 1950, Woods returned to the PGA Tour after surviving a near-fatal car crash. His mind is willing, but his body is letting him down. He moves around Augusta National as a sporting deity, but struggles to walk. The more he limps, the more his legend grows.
The unforgiving hills of the famous course, not easily detected on television screens, mean Woods measures wins at Augusta National not in green jackets any more, but whether he makes it up the 72nd hole in one piece.
It was put to Woods on Wednesday morning (AEST), whether merely finishing last year’s tournament a little over a year after he almost lost his life, was as good as any of his five wins at Augusta National, including the fairytale comeback of 2019.
Woods had the look of a man who wanted to say yes, yet the competitor in him wouldn’t allow it.
Tiger Woods during a practice round at Augusta.Credit:Getty
“I didn’t win the tournament, but for me to be able to come back and play was a small victory in itself,” Woods said.
The forecast for this week’s Masters is horrid. It’s supposed to be wet, and temperatures are not expected to climb above 12 degrees in Saturday’s third round. Woods’ leg, with all sorts of rods and screws holding it together, buckled during the cold weekend of last year’s Masters.
“I’ve said to you guys before, I’m very lucky to have this leg,” he said. “It’s mine. Yes, it has been altered and there’s some hardware in there, but it’s still mine.”
How much hardware?
Woods just smiled.
“A lot.”
On other topics, he was expansive.
He said it was a matter of when, not if, Rory McIlroy would win the Masters and become just the sixth man to complete the grand slam. He said the PGA Tour should still look at having cuts in elevated events, rather than following the LIV Golf model of guaranteeing cheques for weekend appearances. He supported the rule-makers’ proposal of limiting the distance a ball travels in elite competitions.
Tiger Woods is trying to win a sixth Green Jacket.Credit:AP
But it all seemed subservient to his health, and the inevitability of a fast-approaching final act.
On Tuesday morning, Woods zipped around the course in a practice round with Fred Couples and McIlroy. They both marvelled at his shot-making ability, the hardest part of the game, and lamented he couldn’t perform simple tasks, walking from A to B, without discomfort.
“If he didn’t have to walk up these hills and have all of that, I’d say he’d be one of the favourites,” McIlroy said.
Woods added: “I think my endurance is better [than last year]. But it aches a little bit more than it did last year just because at that particular time when I came back, I really had not pushed it that often.
“I can hit a lot of shots, but the difficulty for me is going to be the walking … It is what it is. I wish it could be easier.”
Woods won’t be a Bernhard Langer, Larry Mize or Vijay Singh, turning up to the Masters every year because he can. When it’s time, he will go, and go swiftly you suspect.
So, is this the last time?
“I don’t know how many more I have in me,” said Woods, who wants to play at all four majors, and little else in between, this year.
“It’s been a tough, tough road, and again, it’s the appreciation of being able to play this game. And then to be able to come here and play at Augusta National, it’s such a special place, and it means so much to me in my heart to be able to come here and play this golf course and just appreciate the memories that I’ve had here.
“So much of my life has been here at Augusta National.”
So much of Augusta National’s life has been about Woods, too.
Maybe there’s only one last time his heart will be big enough to carry his legs.
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