Tiger Woods 'back into the ballgame' as he heads into the weekend at Masters | Opinion
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods was on his way to falling apart Friday at the Masters when something strange happened. He didn’t.
Struggling on a windy, chilly day that grew grayer by the hour, his face frozen in a pained grimace much of the day, the 46-year-old Woods somehow managed to claw his way through a challenging second round to easily make the cut in his first competitive tournament since the November 2020 Masters.
That is a sentence worth repeating: Tiger Woods made the cut at the Masters less than 14 months after crashing his SUV, shattering his right leg and fearing that he might lose the leg or never walk again.
It wasn’t easy; he started horribly by bogeying four of the first five holes Friday, his worst start in 92 rounds at the Masters going back to his amateur days in 1995. But he said later he was proud of how he fought back, making four birdies in a seven-hole stretch to finish with a 2 over round of 74 for a 36-hole total of 1 over par.
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That was three strokes below the cut line of four-over but a whopping nine shots behind leader Scottie Scheffler, who roared to a five-under 67 in the second round.
"I haven’t played a lot of tournaments of late," Woods said with a wry smile after his round. "It’s just been a little bit rusty, but I’m starting to come around. I felt good about how I fought back today. I could have easily kicked myself out of the tournament today, but I kept myself in it."
Woods said the weather conditions were not easy for him, or anyone. "It was blustery, it was windy, it was swirling all over the place. ... There were so many things that were not going my way. It was partly the conditions and partly me."
Then, as he so typically does at moments like these, Woods looked ahead to the weekend, and how he’s going to challenge for the lead or even win, which he said was his plan this week — best described as the longest of long shots were it not the goal of the incorrigible five-time Masters champion.
"I got back into the ballgame," Woods said of how he fought back during the second round. "I’ve got a chance going through the weekend. ... I’m four shots back of second, but Scottie’s running away with it right now."
Let’s take a step back to the beginning of the second round. As Woods trudged up the hill on the first fairway, it was clear that he was struggling more Friday than he did Thursday. His gait was more labored, his shoulders more hunched.
As Woods has said several times, his biggest challenge wasn’t going to be playing golf this week. It was going to be walking the hills of Augusta National on his rebuilt right leg, and the quick recovery time he needed to do it again the next day.
"Lots of ice, lots of ice baths," he said Thursday, looking ahead to his evening plans. "Basically freezing myself to death, getting all the swelling out as best we possibly can."
The pain was etched on his face Friday. "I expected to be sore and not feel my best for sure," he said. "It’s the combination: I can walk this golf course, put on tennis shoes and go for a walk. That’s not a problem, but going ballistically at shots and hitting shot shapes off of uneven lies, that puts a whole new challenge to it."
It’s not just his right leg and ankle, it’s also his fused back. Tiger is a 46-year-old in a 70-year-old’s body, what with all the injuries and surgeries he has endured over the length of his career.
Asked by ESPN how he was feeling after back-to-back competitive rounds compared to how he thought he would feel, he started out this way: "Well ..." and then laughed heartily. "I don’t feel as good as I like to feel, but that’s OK."
Pretty much everything is more than OK for Tiger these days. He struggled with his game. He struggled walking up the hills. But he was relentless. He made the cut. He will play two more rounds at Augusta National. He is not done. Stunningly, his story continues.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2022 Masters: Tiger Woods easily makes cut; Scottie Scheffler leads
