He's lame and he's 47, but he's Tiger Woods

How can a lame 47-year-old man ranked 1,001 in the world believe he has a chance to win the Augusta Masters?

There is only one answer: because that man is Tiger Woods.

The golfer who has undergone five knee surgeries and five back surgeries, who shattered his right leg in a car accident, who suffers simply by walking, is happy to play golf again.

That battered bodywork only allows him to enlist in a few dates a year, maybe just the big four.

But above all, Augusta, his house.

More information

Golf at 300 kilometers per hour

“I appreciate just the fact that I can play.

And to be in Augusta, which is such a special place in my heart.

Much of my life has been spent here," says Tiger, today less fierce, more human, no longer the robot that didn't look at anyone in the field, as if he were alone in his world, but a veteran who gives advice and who inside Three years old can already enroll in the veteran circuit.

“I don't play as many tournaments or practice as much as before.

What I can do is very limited.

But now the joy is different.

I have been able to spend more time with my son and create our own memories.

And share with him some things that I experienced with my father.

The truth is that I am very lucky to have this leg, it is mine.

Yes, it's been altered and there are some irons in there, but it's still mine.

It's hard and it always will be, I'll never be the same.

I understand".

Augusta as the beginning and end of everything.

There where he won his first big one, the Masters of 97, the one of the revolution;

where he won in 2019 in one of the most amazing comebacks in the history of the sport, his 15th Grand Slam title;

there where he now returns, and not even he knows for how long.

"I think this may also be the last time he plays here, I don't know how many I have left," Woods resigned.

“My game is better than last year and my stamina is better, but my leg hurts a little more.

I can hit many many shots, but the difficulty for me is walking.

It is what it is.

I have always been stubborn, stubborn, I have worked very hard, I have been through many operations and I have come back.

The desire to win is always there, I have always believed, ”he adds.

Rory McIlroy and Tiger, in Augusta. CHRISTIAN PETERSEN (AFP)

Tiger only played three tournaments last year after a 2021 between the operating room and a hospital set up at home.

He was 47th at the Masters, withdrew from the PGA Championship and missed the cut at the British Open.

This course has only participated in the Genesis (45th).

Without filming, limping and approaching fifties, logic does not invite betting on the Tiger in the midst of the punchers who today burst the ball, the boys who grew up admiring the idol.

But it's Augusta, and Woods has the field plan burned into his mind.

He could almost walk these meadows with his eyes closed.

At 21 years and 104 days, he was the youngest winner in history, in 1997. A victory now would see him surpass Jack Nicklaus (46 years old in 1986) as the oldest.

And just when he celebrates 25 editions of the Masters disputed, including the first two as an amateur.

TV:

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber