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Tiger Woods understands how the visuals came across on social media and TV. He looked completely broken in Saturday’s relentless rain, as if all the injuries and surgeries were conspiring against him in that very moment, leaving him no choice but to walk away.
Only Woods didn’t exactly walk out of Augusta National after the storms suspended play. He staggered off the course, moving like a man nearly twice his age. At 47, Woods was smart enough to tell his cornermen that he couldn’t answer the bell for the next round against a heartless opponent — a hilly, 29-hole Sunday at the Masters, which was heavily favored to deliver the knockout.
But man, that decision had to hurt him to the core. It’s one thing to withdraw from the PGA Championship, which Woods did last year. It’s quite another to withdraw from the Masters, the Super Bowl of golf.
Last April, 14 months after what a moderator in Tiger’s Tuesday presser called “that horrific accident,” Woods somehow made the cut, an achievement equal to any of his five tournament titles. And yet in that same presser, Woods maintained that his severely damaged right leg “aches a little bit more this year than last year,” a truth hammered home by Sunday morning’s announcement that Tiger was going, going, gone.
“I am disappointed to have to WD this morning due to reaggravating my plantar fasciitis,” Woods tweeted. “Thank you to the fans and to @TheMasters who have shown me so much love and support. Good luck to the players today!”
Given the alarming optics — Tiger could barely walk to his golf bag before exiting stage left — and the fact Woods conceded that every Masters could be his last Masters, it’s natural to figure he is done as a competitive force.
