Fantasy, arrogance or champion’s certainty? Maybe a little of all three. Although it may seem incredible, Tiger Woods He believes he is capable of winning the Masters for the sixth time. “If everything goes well, I think I can get one more. “Do I need to describe that or are we fine?” the star smiled before journalists in advance of the first major of the year, which will begin this Thursday at Augusta National. “I keep thinking that I can [ganar]. “I haven’t gotten to that point where I think I can’t,” reinforced the 48-year-old Californian, who in the first round will share the start with Jason Day and Max Homa from 2:24 p.m. in our country.
However, beyond his projections of success, Woods is the first to recognize his physical ailments: “It hurts every day.” It refers to the consequences left by his horrible car accident in February 2021 in Los Angeles. More than his battered ankle, other parts of his body are hurting him today because that is where he puts his weight on while executing his swings: areas such as the knee, back and neck. The problem becomes more acute when you have to hit from a surface that is not flat. “Any shot other than off the tee here is a bit of a challenge for me,” he explained with a steady smile.
Aside from illusions, Tiger pursues a more tangible brand, more at hand with its possibilities: He could make 24 consecutive cuts at Augusta National, which would break the 23 that today equal him with Gary Player and Fred Couples. He hasn’t missed a cut since his participation as an amateur in 1996; It should be noted that for various reasons he did not play the Masters in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021. According to his view, such a record has to do with consistency, longevity and understanding of how to play this golf course. “That’s one of the reasons you see golfers in their 50s and 60s making cuts here,” he said. The bad new: 50 millimeters of rain are announced for this Thursday, which may complicate movement on the field.
The other plot line of this Masters revolves around Rory McIlroy, who will once again look for the major that is missing to complete the so-called “Grand Slam”. But beyond the missing piece of his puzzle, the Northern Irishman has not triumphed in a major tournament since 2014. To end the 10-year drought, he is trying to show a positive mentality, after having tried all kinds of formulas: “I know that I have to enjoy it like when I came here for the first time when I was 18, when everything seemed special to me, I liked everything. The idea is to value the fact of being here, to feel lucky for it, even appreciate the smell of the azaleas,” he explained. But he also has a second strategy: “It’s about trying not to win the Masters from the first tee shot. It’s something I had to learn; It is a 72-hole golf tournament. I won from ten strokes behind going into the weekend, there are a lot of different ways to do it.”
Rahm’s defense
Meanwhile, the flagship of the LIV Golf, the Spanish Jon Rahm, aspires to revalidate his Masters champion title this week. On Tuesday night, the Barrika native hosted the traditional dinner for the green jacket winners, in which he remembered his emotional victory a year ago, buttoned up on the anniversary of the birth of his idol Severiano Ballesteros.
“It was incredible. It’s something I’m going to value and look forward to next year. “I don’t think anything I’ve experienced in golf comes close,” Rahm said of the food. The Basque golfer, No. 3 in the world ranking, has been winless for a year since his feat at Augusta. Now, he is the great reference of the Saudi Arabia tour, which he joined in December with a contract close to 500 million dollars.
Thirteen of the 89 golfers who will compete starting this Thursday are members of LIV Golf, which has already snatched a dozen major champions from the PGA Tour. Rahm’s goal is to become the fourth golfer in history to have consecutive successes in the Masters, after Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02).
Grillo’s return
Angel Cabrera, Masters champion in 2009, had the dream of playing again at Augusta National, but his visa for the United States was denied due to his judicial record, even though he served his sentence. In this way, the only Argentine representative will be Emiliano Grillo, who will play the competition for the fourth time, after their performances in 2016 (17th), 2017 (51st) and 2019 (62nd). On all three occasions he passed the qualifying cut, but he still has a bitter taste and understands that he can perform better: “I have more bad memories here than good ones, but it is a course that demands a lot from you: you have to be with your best game and you have to play from the fairway. It is a course that allows you a little more off the tee than some others, but penalizes you a lot if you don’t hit from the ideal places. It demands you in all areas and you must have all the shots.”
Grillo, 31 years old and who qualified for the Masters after having won his second PGA Tour title last year in Fort Worth, Texas, showed the joy of returning to the first major of the year after four years of absence: “It is always It’s fun to come back here, the field is incredible, I think it’s greener than ever. It is a special place where you always want to return, so I am happy.” Furthermore, he told what he needs to feel like a protagonist: “It’s a bit what’s been happening to me this year: I’m missing that fourth round, adding one more. It is either starting in the best way or closing the tournament better,” he noted. The Chaco native will start at 12:42 in our country with the Fijian Vijay Singh – champion in 2000 – and the South Korean Si Woo Kim. For now, this Wednesday he enjoyed the par 3 tournament with his wife, Alexia, and his son, Andre.
The incredible precision of Bubba Watson’s daughter
In the traditional Wednesday par-3 tournament, which precedes the start of the Masters, Bubba Watson’s daughter surprised with her precision on the green. Dakota holed out from all sides and left the crowd speechless on the small 9-hole course.