THE MASTERS ALWAYS HAS A MCILROY AND A SCHEFFLER, FAR BEYOND A DISTANT TIGER WOODS
After Woods flew to Zurich for “comprehensive inpatient treatment,” another week has arrived at Augusta National, where notable stories are forming — what is better than a massive name winning again?
The mood is heavenly on a bucolic Georgia afternoon until screeching, from a vehicle, overwhelms an undeniable Augusta National buzz. Here comes an SUV, rumbling onto the green and forcing patrons to run for their lives before it rolls over. “Stay back! Stay back! Security’s coming!” Tiger Woods shouts as he escapes the wreckage.
It is time to ignore the AI animation. No computerized caricature will bring him back to the Masters, nor should it. Woods was last spotted arriving in Zurich, where all golfing hope has been replaced by dope. He is a sick man. Winning tournaments has been replaced by banishing toxins. His accomplishments are far removed. When will we see him again?
Ever?
The present tense includes stories that remind us why this tournament always stands true. Scottie Scheffler now has two kids, to go with his two green jackets, and if anyone can make us forget Woods, it’s the man who has won 23 times in four years and has been ranked No. 1 for almost three years. He blundered at the Ryder Cup, but then, so did Woods. He must win more majors — he has four — to make a run in his thirties at double digits or Tiger’s 15. He is a wonderful father.
“We just liked it,” Scheffler said of Remy, who was born March 27. “We didn’t have many good boy names, to be honest with you.”
And older brother Bennett, who splurged at a bash? “We were leaving a Nike party and he somehow ended up with two sugar cookies and he hadn’t eaten his dinner yet,” Scheffler said. “It was like, ‘All right, buddy, if you eat these sausages, I will give you this cookie.’ He’s like, ‘Cookie!’ I’m like, ‘If you eat this.’ My buddies are sitting there watching going, ‘Yep, I’ve seen this movie before.’ ”
Until Numero Uno triumphs again, we will look at Rory McIlroy. He was handed his own green jacket — his first — and wore it in front of the media Tuesday. Is it possible he’ll resume greatness this weekend after winning a career grand slam last April? He had fun with his menu at the Champions dinner, trying to avoid Irish food because, “I want to enjoy the dinner as well.” He did not show up just to eat wagyu filet mignon, nor did he show up to answer questions about Alan Shipnuck, the journalist who writes in a book that McIlroy’s wandering eye ruined his relationship with Caroline Wozniacki and almost wrecked his marriage to Erica Stoll. He came to win, again.
“I feel so much more relaxed,” McIlroy said. “It doesn’t make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win the tournament, but yeah, just more relaxed about it all. I know that I can do it now. So that should make it a little easier for me to go out and play the golf I want to play.”
The best player at the moment is Bryson DeChambeau, though he claimed two playoff wins in Singapore and South Africa. He continues to immerse himself in LIV Golf, meaning he is forgotten in America until he threatens to win a major. Jon Rahm is in the same boat, declining to pay fines after taking a jackpot from the LIV people. Wasn’t he supposed to be a superstar when he rarely contends at majors? “I’m going to try my best and hope I can get a second green jacket,” he said. That’s the goal.”
How about the courage of Gary Woodland? While winning the Houston Open in March, he struggled and thought “people were trying to kill me.” He battles mental health issues after a lesion was found on his brain in 2023, forcing doctors to slice a hole from his head. Here he is at the Masters, trying not to feel “hypervigilant” on the course.
“I spoke to security that night and told them what I was going through,” said Woodland, referring to the Friday before his victory. “And every time I looked up on the weekend, my security team was behind me. Any time I got startled on the weekend, I turn around — last year I didn’t talk to (PGA) Tour security. I fought this on my own. It was awful. Turning around and knowing I’m safe, having somebody there with me? It’s the only reason I won.”
Rally around one of them, all of them. Woods had dominated the scene since 1997, when I visited a clubhouse restroom and heard Augusta workers railing about his skin color as he finished 18-under par. We’ll never forget how he overpowered the sport and changed mindsets. It’s weird walking around knowing Woods and Phil Mickelson aren’t playing, for the first time in 32 years. Some colleagues are speaking out, knowing Woods possessed hydrocodone pills when he was jailed after his latest DUI arrest.
Nick Faldo, the three-time Masters champion, said Woods shouldn’t be “welcomed back to the sport with open arms.” He has seen enough. “I feel sorry for Tiger that he is living 24-7 in pain, but it has all been self-inflicted,” Faldo said. “There are two sides to this right now. There’s one side that’s: Let’s care for Tiger. And then there has to be a responsibility and an accountability side as well. This is a serious thing that he has done.
“I look at the PGA Tour statement, it was so predictably weak. The Tour will look after him, as they always have done. But then you’ve got Jack (Nicklaus) saying it has tarnished the entire sport. There has to be some accountability. Forget about golf. We are not meant to be on the streets with two pills in our pocket. The bottom line is that I really think that this is a serious issue and something should be done that is a little bit more serious than waving him off to a tropical island and saying ‘welcome back’ in three or four months or whatever it might be.”
Jason Day wonders why Woods was driving an SUV, as he always does when he’s in trouble. “I look at it and go, ‘He’s just a human being like everyone else, and we have struggles.’ It’s unfortunate. The only thing that I don’t understand is that it’s a little bit selfish of him to drive and put other people in harm’s way, as well,” he said. “When you’re the player that he was and how strong-willed he is, he thinks he can do almost anything, and that’s probably why he’s probably driving and a little bit under the influence.
“He’s my hero. The reason why I play golf is because of this tournament (the Masters) and Tiger. It’s hard to see him go through what he’s going through, and especially under the microscope. It must be hard to be who he is and have everyone look kind of down on him. Some people want him to fail. Some people want him to succeed. It’s really difficult for me to go through that and watch him, and I know that he’s getting the help now, which is good. I’m just hoping he comes out on the other side and is better.”
Bubba Watson thinks so highly of Woods, he asked Masters champions to congratulate him on the 18th green when he won in 2019. “I could care less about Tiger’s golf. I told him from day one that we started hanging out back in (2006), somewhere in there, that I’m pulling for him as a human being. Forget his golf — I could care less about his golf. Anybody that’s struggling with anything, I feel for him because I’ve (gone) through a lot of mental stuff. So yeah, I always pull for him. ... Nothing but love for him, and hopefully he can come back stronger.”
Said Patrick Reed, who won a green jacket in 2018: “Let’s be honest, without Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the events, in golf, when they both step away, honestly I feel it hurts the game of golf. But at the same time, we want them to come back and be healthy and ready to go.”
Before his Champions dinner, McIlroy paused. “Unfortunately, there will be a couple of guys that won’t be in that room, which is a shame, but I want to make sure that they’re acknowledged as well,” he said. “They’ve been two of the greatest champions that the Masters has ever seen.”
Tiger Woods is 50. He is clinging in a narcotic daze. Someday, a trip to the Masters will help cure him. For now, he’d better be in serious rehab.
And another man will win the tournament he once commanded.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.