The morning light framed the picture perfectly. Tiger Woods, standing on the 14 tee with the iconic 13 green at Augusta National Golf Club in the background.
It was a scene that could have occurred only under these circumstances — an unfinished round because of a weather delay Thursday, an early morning start Friday — but it was one that nonetheless exuded the inexplicable thing about Augusta that Woods would later describe as “aura” and “mystique.”
With the patrons still trickling onto the grounds, the crowd around Woods at this corner of the property that usually resembles a stadium tour felt more like an intimate acoustic session. The chirping of the morning birds colored the silent air before the sound of Woods’ driver cut through it. At 7:50 a.m. Woods was off and the grind had just begun.
By the time it was over — nearly 10 hours and 23 holes later — Woods had made history. He finished at 1 over and made the cut for a record 24th consecutive Masters. When asked about it after his second round was over, however, the 15-time major winner was uninterested in basking in history.
“It means I have a chance going into the weekend, I’m here,” Woods said of his record. “I have a chance to win the golf tournament. I don’t know if they’re all going to finish today, but I’m done. I got my two rounds in. Just need some food and some caffeine and I’ll be good to go.”
If it seems like you’ve heard that kind of sentiment from Woods before, it’s because you have. At the few tournaments where Woods tees it up these days, the question always comes at some point: “Do you feel like you can win this?”
Woods sometimes smiles, sometimes doesn’t, but he always says some version of what he said this Tuesday.
