Tiger Woods Is Back. He’s Still a Work in Progress.

That is true. Arnold Palmer played his 50th and final Masters in 2004, when he was 74. Gary Player appeared in 52, his last when he was 73.

This week in California, moments after Woods made clear he would not be looking to match Player or Palmer at Augusta, a reporter asked Woods to peer into the future. “If you’re 60 and you don’t wake up with the irrational belief ‘I could win this tournament,’” the question went, “could you still enjoy any of it?”

Maybe — maybe — someday, the response effectively went.

“If I’m playing in the event I’m going to try and beat you. I’m there to get a W, OK?” he said. “So I don’t understand that making the cut’s a great thing. If I entered the event, it’s always to get a W.”

Reality looms, though, and his next sentences showed it.

“There will come a point in time when my body will not allow me to do that anymore, and it’s probably sooner rather than later,” he said. But, he said, simply acting as an ambassador for the game is “not in my DNA.”

Until then, his research and development will continue. He started Thursday’s round with a 4-foot putt for a birdie. Three bogeys surfaced as the afternoon progressed — and so did three consecutive birdies to end the afternoon.

“As soon as I get back to the hotel, it’s just icing and treatment and icing and treatment, just hit repeat throughout the whole night,” Woods said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/sports/golf/tiger-woods-genesis-international-pga.html