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AUGUSTA, Georgia—The gates to Augusta Nationwide opened just a little after 7 a.m. Monday. It didn’t really feel as if Masters week began till simply earlier than 3 p.m.
Tiger Woods was on the primary tee, and this was no time to be purchasing for shirts and caps or standing in line for pimento cheese sandwiches. That a lot was evident by the largest golf crowd this 12 months on one gap apart from the circus par-three sixteenth on the Phoenix Open.
Woods consumes consideration at each Masters he performs. It’s been that approach for the reason that first of his 5 inexperienced jackets he received 25 years in the past.
Now it’s even higher below these uncommon circumstances.
He hasn’t performed towards the most effective in 17 months, not for the reason that 2020 Masters in November, whereas recovering from a automobile crash that when seemed as if it’d finish his profession. And nonetheless to be decided is whether or not he performs this one.
Woods has stated it will be a “game-time” resolution whether or not his battered proper leg and ankle can deal with strolling and competing over 18 holes at Augusta Nationwide.
“There’s at all times buzz round this place,” Billy Horschel stated. “However there’s simply one other degree of buzz to see him and see him play. I’ve thought of it prior to now, and I could also be on the primary tee watching him tee off if my tee works out and all the pieces, simply because it’s a particular second.”
It’s not as if this Masters was devoid of drama.
Rory McIlroy will get one other crack on the profession Grand Slam. He spent Monday in an Irish fourball alongside Shane Lowry, Padraig Harrington and Seam Energy. They’ve eight majors amongst them—Energy is making his Masters debut.
Bryson DeChambeau is again, though he says his docs don’t suggest it.
DeChambeau stated he first damage his left hip two years in the past whereas pace coaching—swinging as quick as his physique allowed—and slipping on concrete.
Then, he didn’t work on finger energy, and that led to a popping sound in his wrist earlier than his TV match towards Brooks Koepka in Las Vegas final November. That led to a hairline fracture of his hamate bone in his left hand. After which he slipped on marble whereas taking part in desk tennis is Saudi Arabia in early February, went horizontal and landed on his hand and his hip.
He declared himself 80 p.c, although he appreciated the way in which he felt coming into the Masters. DeChambeau hasn’t made a 36-hole minimize since The Northern Belief in late August—then once more, he has performed solely eight occasions since then, six of these tournaments with no minimize.
“The previous few weeks have been very, very troublesome on me, not taking part in effectively and never hitting it anyplace close to the place I do know I needs to be hitting it,” he stated. “Yelling ‘Fore!’ off the tee each time is simply not enjoyable. It’s very troublesome in your psychological psyche as effectively.”
Taking part in the Masters was a “enormous danger” a number of weeks in the past and a choice he stated his docs didn’t suggest. He was everyday till he felt snug giving it a go.
“Totally different state of affairs than Tiger, clearly, but it surely was positively a day-by-day strategy of determining if I might do that,” he stated.
A lot goes again to Woods, who had damaged bones in his proper leg and ankle from the automobile crash exterior Los Angeles in February 2021 that left him immobilized for 3 months and never swinging a membership till final November.
Brooks Koepka is aware of a factor or two about taking part in with harm, even when not as many have been folks have been paying consideration.
Koepka had surgical procedure on his proper knee three weeks earlier than the Masters final 12 months and nonetheless was decided to play. It was so dangerous he couldn’t crouch to learn putts. Koepka is lastly again at full energy, although he nonetheless hasn’t received for the reason that Phoenix Open greater than a 12 months in the past.
He’s extra involved along with his personal recreation that what Woods has happening, although Koepka can admire the stroll Woods is dealing with higher than most gamers.
Picture credit: AP
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