Tiger Woods nonetheless writes historical past on the Augusta Masters | Sports | EUROtoday

Who is the primary to reach on the follow discipline? The one who has gained probably the most. It's barely daybreak in Augusta and Tiger Woods warms up earlier than seven within the morning. The champion of 15 majors has a tricky day of 23 holes forward of him, the 5 remaining to finish a primary spherical suspended resulting from lack of sunshine and the 18 of the second stage. For a 48-year-old man who has gathered a dozen visits to the working room and a physique stuffed with scars, the train requires a really positive set-up. The chilly seeps into the bones, particularly in that proper leg that was shattered in a visitors accident in 2021. Even then he was dragging a really broken physique. And since that new creak he has by no means been the identical. Only an infinite ardour for the sport and an incomparable thirst for victory preserve him going. Even when?

The Tiger can barely roar, he’s not able to the claws of yesteryear. He strikes slowly throughout the sphere, like an outdated predator who is aware of he solely will get one likelihood to eat. He walks with some issue, struggling is drawn on his face. A bogey on the 14th and one other on the 18th they anticipate the sweat on a wind-swept day at their beloved Augusta National. It doesn't matter, he gained't quit. Between the tip of 1 spherical and the beginning of the following, Woods solely has 50 minutes. He can't keep chilly, so no mendacity right down to relaxation. Tiger devours a sandwich and hydrates whereas rehearsing within the follow space. And again to the ring.

What comes subsequent is a curler coaster: birdie in 3, bogey within the 4, bogey within the 5, birdie within the 6, bogey within the 7, birdie on the eighth and par on the ninth after saving two swerves, to the left between the beginning bushes and to the fitting among the many public with the second shot. The sequence portrays a golfer with magic in his palms however who doesn’t totally management his recreation. Tiger clings to the sphere with nails and delivers a remaining rating of +1, sufficient to make the minimize at Augusta for the twenty fourth consecutive time in his profession. He is the report holder within the Masters, forward of the 23 of Gary Player and Fred Couples. Every time he has turned skilled, since his breakthrough debut in 1997, he has made the weekend (he failed in 1996 as an novice).

The emotions are higher this yr than final yr, when he retired on the third day because the final labeled amongst those that made the minimize. He was a totally lame man who headed to the working room to restore a battered proper ankle. From then till this Masters, Tigre had solely competed within the Hero World Challenge final December (18th place) and the Genesis Invitational in February (withdrew resulting from sickness). Not even that modest objective of taking part in one match a month has been in a position to develop into a actuality.

An ovation greets him at every gap, folks standing as much as embrace the legend. As within the sixteenth gap, the scene of that great chip in 2005 and the Nike ball falling within the final thousandth. Today, for the primary time in his profession, Woods doesn’t put on the enduring brand of the sports activities model, breaking their relationship after 27 years and 500 million in contracts. On the champion's chest he now sports activities a Tiger with 15 stripes (for his 15 large ones), the picture of his personal clothes line. He would give something so as to add at the very least yet one more, since it’s virtually inconceivable to achieve Jack Nicklaus' 18 crowns. “If everything goes well, I think I can win another Masters,” Tiger mentioned earlier than the match. His final bingo was the resurrection at Augusta 2019, one of many best returns to the highest within the historical past of the game. The place you dream of returning to.

Augusta Masters classification.

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