Tiger Woods’ outlook for Masters changing amid uncertain future

W hy ask a scorpion why it stings, a lion why it eats red meat, or Tiger Woods whether he believes he can win? Woods has been answering that question in the very same way for the last 25 years now. But on Tuesday someone put it to him again. “This time last year, you said you definitely would not be here unless you thought you had a good chance of winning the tournament. Does that still stand?” And this time Woods’ answer was a little different to the one we’ve grown used to. In fact, for the first time in his life, he didn’t really have one.

Woods very deliberately preferred to concentrate on the second part of the journalist’s question, about how his physical condition compared to this time last year, when he scored 71, 74, 78, 78, and finished in 47th place. “I think my game is better than it was last year at this particular time. I think my endurance is better. But my leg aches a little bit more than it did last year.”

Last year’s Masters, Woods explained, was the first time since his car accident that he had really pushed his body. Back then he didn’t really know what it was capable of. Now he does, and the difference in him is clear. He has had to make peace with the idea that he will never be able to play the way he used to ever again. “I just have to be cognisant of how much I can push it. I can hit a lot of shots but the difficulty for me is going to be my walking, going forward. It is what it is. I wish it could be easier.” But “that’s my future, and I’m OK with that”.

Woods talks like a man who is a lot older than 47, but then he has done a lot more living than most men his age. He blamed those two rounds of 78 on the weekend here last year on the cold weather, which caused his body to clam up, and described