Why Augusta National isn’t hard enough for Tiger Woods (yet)

When the Masters announced its move to November, the golf world’s expectations for Tiger Woods moved with it.

The 15-time major champion had won his fifth Masters a little more than a year prior, but as far as the sport was concerned, a November Masters spelled doom for Tiger and his surgically-repaired back.

“I look at Tiger and I look at cold venues, potentially cold venues as being sort of problematic on an aging, injured or prone-to-injury back,” Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said. “From a physical standpoint, it’s like his body is like a wet grocery bag filled with jugs of milk. You just never know when it’s going to burst.”

Woods’ performances at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open did little to dispel the pessimism surrounding his return to Augusta National. With colder temperatures, Tiger’s struggles at the Masters were an inevitability. After all the chips fell perfectly into place for his triumphant green jacket win in 2019, the most consequential one (his health’s fragility) made contention little more than a pipe dream in 2020.

And so the narrative was written. In November, Augusta National would be too hard for Tiger Woods.

After three days of play at the Masters, it seems something funny has happened. Very decidedly, Augusta National hasn’t been too hard for Tiger Woods. Instead, Augusta National hasn’t been hard enough.

Woods comfortably made the cut and sits firmly in the mix heading into the weekend. But therein lies the problem. After an early-week rainfall compounded the effect of Augusta’s annual ryegrass overseed, Tiger might be the only thing sitting firmly at the Masters all week.

“The golf course is playing long right now,” he said. “The air is heavy.  The ball is not really flying like it was yesterday.”

In this unseasonable Masters, conditions at Augusta National have been seasonably slow. Rain on Thursday only added to the problem. Even as the grounds crew runs the course’s supersonic SubAir system day and night, Augusta is only beginning to resemble its usual self on the weekend.

“Greens were the same when it comes to firmness. A lot quicker, though, a lot, lot, lot quicker,” said Jon Rahm of Saturday morning’s conditions. “The speed of the greens are getting towards more what we’re used to seeing at Augusta National.  So it’s going back to putting from memory, I guess.”

For Woods — whose Masters strategy relies as much on his capacity to outthink his competitors as it does to outplay them — that’s bad news.

“There’s no wind drying [the greens] out,” he said. “Obviously, they have the SubAirs on, but there’s no wind.  With it as humid as it is right now, with no wind, they’re still going to be receptive, but they’ll get quicker, but certainly nothing like what we’ve had in the past.”

Perhaps the prognosticators were right, this isn’t his weekend.

But if Tiger doesn’t win, it won’t be because Augusta National was too hard. No, it’ll be because Augusta National was too soft.

“[Augusta National] always plays more into the past champions here if it is firmer,” Woods said. “A lot of our experiences are with the greens firmer and faster and balls breaking.  They were breaking just a touch more today. The [practice] greens were both faster than they were yesterday, but the greens were faster than the [practice] greens. I think nothing is going to change.”