Tiger Woods’ Stats and Confident Talk Raising Eyebrows and Masters Hope

By Adam Stanley, Sportsnet

Oh to be in Tiger Woods’ head during Masters week.

The most dominant golfer in history returns to Augusta National this week trying to win his fifth green jacket.

He spent Tuesday’s press conference wearing a smirk – like he knows something we don’t. Like he knows this week could be the week.

Like he knows his return to the winner’s circle at a major championship is just a matter of time.

“I don’t really need to win again,” he said.

“I really want to.”

So far this week, he’s been committed to doing just that.

Sunday night, the sun was setting at Augusta National and three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo took to Twitter.

There was only one golfer left on the course.

It was Woods, working on his short game.

Woods, according to Justin Thomas, who played with Woods and 1992 Masters champion Fred Couples during practice rounds on Monday and Wednesday, isn’t being as helpful to his fellow playing competitors as in years’ past.

“At this point,” said Thomas, “he doesn’t quite give as much information.”

The last time we saw Woods on a golf course in Georgia was at last fall’s Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club, the setting for Woods’ 80th PGA Tour win, his first in five years.

That Sunday, the golf world celebrated the sight of Tiger’s Sunday red back in the winner’s circle.

This week Tiger is hoping to pair his red with green one more time.

And there are good reasons to believe it could happen.

According to OddShark, Woods is one of the top betting favourites this week behind only Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, and Justin Rose.

But somehow, it seems like he’s flying under the radar.

Tiger is 43. He’s a broken man – physically, yes, but with emotional scars that may never heel either – and the competition has caught up with him.

He hasn’t won a major in more than a decade, but while he quite literally destroyed Augusta National en route to winning by 12 shots in 1997 (the green jackets then felt compelled to “Tiger-proof” the storied layout), length is no longer his greatest asset: he’s just 44th on the PGA Tour in 2019 in driving distance.

In the 2017 book, “The 1997 Masters: My Story,” with Canadian author Lorne Rubenstein, Woods wrote that Augusta National had changed a lot in the 20 years since his ’97 win.

“It’s changed in just about every way imaginable, except for the routing. That’s why people say it looks the same year after year,” he wrote.

“Well, it does, but it doesn’t play the same.”

Instead of dominating with distance, Woods will rely on experience this week – something he has plenty of at Augusta National.

“I’ve got a pretty good little library in my head of how to play the golf course,” he said Tuesday, flashing that knowing smile.

The contenders around Woods have gotten better, but no one knows Augusta National quite like Woods.

McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are fighting some demons at Augusta and were six and three, respectively, when Woods won his first Masters.

Brooks Koepka won the last two majors in 2018 alone, double the career major totals of Rose, Johnson, Jason Day, Justin Thomas, and Francesco Molinari, but he’s yet to crack a top-10 in three Masters appearances.

There’s Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson with their multiple green jackets but inconsistent form at Augusta.

So this week, there is no clear favourite with Woods returning with a singular focus: winning.

It’s a different Woods than we saw a year ago when he still seemed thrilled to simply be there and competing.

Take his comments at the Masters champions’ dinner the last three years.

In 2017, Faldo said Woods had whispered to another Masters winner, “I’m done. I won’t play golf again.”

A year later Woods was just happy to be competing.

But this week at Tuesday night’s annual dinner, incredibly, Woods was the highest-ranked golfer in the world in the room.

Higher than Spieth, last year’s winner Patrick Reed, Watson, and Mickelson.

“I just feel that I’ve improved a lot over the past 12, 14 months, but I’ve more than anything just proven to myself that I can play at this level again,” said Woods, who finished tied for sixth at the Open Championship last year and was the runner-up at the PGA Championship.

“I’ve worked my way back into one of the players that can win events.”

Augusta National is a second-shot golf course.

Entering this week Woods sits fourth on the PGA Tour in greens hit in regulation.

As for his putter?

“I’ve worked on my putting, and when I have, I’ve putted well,” said Woods, who shot a 7-under-par 65 in a practice round last week, according to an ESPN report.

Woods has given the golf world some of the finest performances in Augusta National’s history.

In addition to his 12-shot win in 1997, he’s also authored the following moments:

In 2001: he completed the ‘Tiger Slam’ by winning the Masters to lay claim to all four major championship trophies at once.

In 2002: he gave the green jacket to himself, defending his title.

In 2005: his chip from the behind the 16th green helped him force a playoff and later secure a victory that would inspire and iconic Nike commercial.

In 2010: He made his long-anticipated return to golf from one the biggest and most surprising athlete scandal in recent history… and tied for fourth.

Despite everything he’s been through since his last major championship win in 2008, Woods wrote in the 2017 book, that ‘compete’ was his favourite word, and it probably would always be.

But he’s not just competing this week.

He’s planning on being competitive.

“I know I can play this golf course,” said Woods.

“I’ve had some success here.”

No one can get inside Woods’ head.

But we can attempt to decipher his thoughts through his words.

And based on what we’ve heard so far this week, Tiger will be the least surprised person at Augusta if he’s wearing more green come Sunday night.