Tiger eyes Masters comeback
As the world’s top golfers tee off at the Masters, Ben Monro-Davies asks whether Tiger Woods can overcome his personal problems to don the green jacket once again.
There should almost be nothing to say. Tiger Woods heads to another Masters as the favourite. He has won it four times before. It is where he became golf’s first ever superstar after winning the tournament by a record margin, at his first attempt, aged just 22.
The Tiger Woods of 2012 may be the same person as the one who has won 14 major tournaments, but he is far from the same personality. He is the genius turned scoundrel. His clean-cut image proved such a distortion that he provoked resentment and disgust, even from fans well aware that sportsmen are not priests.
The most unsurprising divorce in history followed. Sponsors fled. Graceless media appearances countered the golfer’s claims of a new-found humility. And most importantly of all for Tiger Woods PLC, his game collapsed.
On the course he was not only mortal but often plain bad. The personal appeared to have destroyed the professional. Then, slowly, the form has returned. And in his last tournament, he at last won again. It is ridiculous that a lone US tour victory and generally improved play should elevate him to favourite status.
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But the bookmakers are surely dancing to sentiment too. For Tiger has recently begun to evoke sympathy, not so much by his own actions but by those of others. His ex-caddie racially abused him. His one-time coach has published a tell-all memoir widely perceived as the ultimate betrayal by a teacher of his pupil.
And so on the final day of the Bay Hill tournament last month, as he advanced towards victory, the TV ratings were up an astonishing 120 per cent. All those who had gawped at his descent were as fascinated by his resurgence.
If he wins this week it will be the greatest comeback in the history of golf. Not only will his self-belief need to be at the levels preceding his humiliation. He will also have to see off a younger generation of players who have made hay during his wilderness years.
Chief among them Rory McIlroy, the new wunderkind seeking redemption himself at Augusta after blowing a four-shot lead in the final round last year. Which of the two will prevail? Or will someone else from the field profit from the distraction and sneak a green jacket? Whoever it is, however well they play, Tiger Woods will be the one everyone is watching.