Relish Tiger Woods at the Masters — because the end is coming sooner than later

Tiger Woods stood atop the 18th tee box at Augusta National at 12:46 p.m. on Saturday. Rain hammered his black puffy vest and the white sweater covering his arms. He shimmied the head of his driver twice. Reared back and fired. His torso twisted, the “hardware” (his word, not mine) inside his right leg, back and elsewhere holding his body together like a muscled-up erector set.

The ball ripped off the heel of the club, headed dead for the left side of the fairway and into the trees and pine straw. Woods hung his head. The gallery clapped. Pain.

Raindrops dripped off the bill of Woods’ white Nike hat when he pushed a last-ditch par putt from a mile away just right of the 18th hole. The crowd sighed. Woods finished bogey-bogey to move to 3-over for the tournament. He was slotted to miss the Masters cut for the first time in his 20-plus years as a professional — and everyone knew it.

“I was just trying to hit some kind of low cut out there (on 18),” Woods said begrudgingly. “And I hit it right off the neck.”

Woods glared into the ground as he waded through the gallery behind the 18th green. He didn’t look so much annoyed as sad. It showed in his sullied eyes. Rain continued to fall. Course architect Alister Mackenzie’s tears, perhaps?

Reporters were told Woods would answer only three questions after his round. He spoke 178 words. It took 77 seconds. And then he was gone, into the clubhouse and out of sight.

Nobody asked. There wasn’t time. But gosh it felt feel like the last time we’d ever see Woods as a competitor at Augusta National.

Well, until it wasn’t.

Woods made the cut right on the number. (You can thank Justin Thomas and his bogey at 18 for that.) He’s now tied the all-time record for consecutive cuts made at the Masters (23). Another prolific bullet point in a career riddled with them.

Exhale. Tiger Woods is still alive, for now, at Augusta National. Appreciate that much.

“I’ve always loved this golf course and I love playing this event,” Woods said after his second round wrapped up. “Obviously, I’ve missed a couple with some injuries, but I’ve always wanted to play here.”

There’s nothing easy about walking these grounds. The course itself is long — 7,510 yards. That’s more than four miles. The elevation changes, too, can be maniacal. Now try trekking that layout on a surgically restructured leg exacerbated by cold, rainy conditions while swinging a golf club at a world-class level.

That’s the Tiger Woods experience in 2023.

Woods is wholly aware of his situation. He can no longer physically play a full PGA Tour schedule. His body won’t allow it. He prioritizes the tournaments that matter most to him. The Masters sits near the top of that list.

It’s special watching Woods play at Augusta National. The galleries go bonkers for this 47-year-old who was 15 shots behind leader Brooks Koepka at the end of two rounds. Patrons contort their bodies, necks and backs for any kind of glimpse of Woods through droves of umbrellas as he makes his labored walk around the course. These same crowds roar when Woods connects on a swing that reminds of days past — that past in which he won 14 major championships between in an 11-year stretch. Nostalgia and whatnot.

Vintage Woods is still there on occasion. It just takes squinting a little harder to see it.

Take his second-round approach on the par-5 15th. Woods clipped the top of the flagstick before cashing in a birdie putt. The shot should feel familiar. Ten years ago, a back-end-of-his-prime Woods hit the same flagstick, but that ball ricocheted into the water. Saturday’s shot stuck. Woods made his putt. Cheers all around.

Still, these moments of brilliance are brief distractions from Woods’ stark reality, one in which his body can’t quite keep up with his competitive aspirations (“Stubbornness,” as he calls it).

Taking aim at the 15th green after a layup shot during the start of his third round on Saturday afternoon, Woods flipped the ball onto the front left portion of the green, only to watch it spin back toward him, drift down the hill and dunk into the creek.

“I still love you Tiger,” a patron along the ropes yelled. Woods, who was 6-over on the seven third-round holes he played in the afternoon, didn’t hear him. He may well have ignored the comment. Woods held his spot for 13 seconds, staring at the grass with melancholy eyes, before noticeably limping his way toward the drop zone.

The heavy rain. The temperatures that held in the high 40s and low 50s. The 12 holes he’d already played that day. It caught up. There’s only so much he can do when his body is part Terminator, part jalopy.

“I mean, he’s got all of the shots,” Rory McIlroy said on Tuesday. “It’s just that physical limitation of walking 72 holes, especially on a golf course as hilly as this.”

Woods has become increasingly self-aware with age. Somewhere along the line, he understood he was perceived as a jerk. Perhaps it was turning 40. Maybe it was the surprise win on these grounds in 2019. It may also have been his brush with death and near-amputation of his right leg following his 2021 car crash.

Whatever the impetus, Woods is more open these days. He jokes about being closer with players on the Champions Tour than the PGA Tour given his age. He shares how much joy he finds in late night putting sessions with his son, Charlie. He also knows his days in competitive golf are numbered.

“Yeah,” Woods said Tuesday, “I don’t know how many more I have in me.”

There’s something solemn about the way Woods moves around a golf course. He’s a legend taking some of his final steps around these grounds. He looks like a ghost of a player that was.

His swing can be a portal through time. The crowd support is definitely still there (the galleries perked up through torrential rain when Woods’ group came into view). Even the fire that’s flashed through fist pumps and victorious exultations over the years at Augusta National is there at times.

But Woods is not the threat he once was. He’s the product of a failing body, battered by surgeries and age, among other things, trying to make his way around the slick and steep hills scattered around the world’s most famous golf course. That’s OK. We can still appreciate the greatness that was.

There’s a day coming in which Woods won’t be in the field at the Masters. It sure felt like Saturday afternoon might have been it. At this point, it may always feel like that when Woods tees it up.

But Woods is still here.

Relish that, because the end is coming, eventually. And everyone knows it.