Andy North, Curtis Strange, Scott Van Pelt on Tiger and Masters
Nobody expected Tiger Woods to make a stealth visit to Augusta National this week, but he did. And he played some golf. Nobody knows how much. We only know that he came and went the same day.
Naturally, that led to speculation by ESPN’s broadcast team and everyone in the world as to whether Tiger Woods is playing the Masters next week. The question on every golf mind now is will he or won’t he play.
“I was texting with a player yesterday and joking that if Tiger plays you guys could play nude and no one would know you were there. And I’m kidding,” ESPN Sports Center’s Scott Van Pelt said about what would happen if Woods actually tees it up.
“No, you’re not!” Curtis Strange, two-time U.S. Open champion, retorted. And Strange is right.
But the obvious reason Woods came to Augusta National was to determine if he is able to walk the course and play on the slopes.
“I was texting with a player yesterday and joking that if Tiger plays you guys could play nude and no one would know you were there.” — ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt
“How else would you test yourself other than to go walk and play and get up there and play some practice rounds and see if you can walk the golf course, see how the leg holds up?” Strange suggested.
Andy North, twice a U.S. Open Champion as well, wondered if Tiger Woods could get out of bed this morning after that effort.
“It’s one thing to do it that one day, but to do it four days in a row, on this golf course…” North paused. “I struggled on this golf course all the time walking around.”
Could Tiger Woods once again accomplish the seemingly improbable?
While no one yet knows the answer to will he or won’t he, or what shape he might be in after that one round, it did beg the question, could Strange or North recall anyone, save Ben Hogan, who had tried to play after that bad an injury. They were flummoxed.
“I think Andy and I might be stumped because it just doesn’t happen. Ben Hogan was as tenacious a competitor as there’s probably ever been, and Tiger Woods is right there with him,” Strange finally added.
After being hit by a bus in February of 1949, most people thought Ben Hogan would be lucky if he walked again. Hogan, it was determined, had a broken left collarbone; his pelvis had two fractures; his ankle was broken, and he had a damaged rib. Afterward, he developed complications. He had chest pains and started to get blood clots in his legs and in one lung. He had surgery to tie off a large and important vein, one that carried blood from his midsection to his heart. Mrs. Hogan asked a doctor she had known when Hogan was in the Army to piece him together.
While many originally thought the bones would mend and he would resume his golf career, the complications put a big dent in his progress. He was too weak to play golf. Walking was hard for him to do. He had chronic pain and leg swelling because of the vein that was removed. Fatigue was also a problem.
Hogan finally played his next round of golf in December of 1949 at Colonial CC. He returned to competition in the 1950 LA Open, now the Genesis Invitational, where, amazingly, he was in a playoff with Sam Snead. Snead won.
However, Hogan went on to win two additional Masters titles, two more U.S. Opens as well as the 1953 British Open.
Neither Strange nor North could think of anyone who was tough enough to have fought through that kind of injury or even one similar.
“I think Tiger and Ben Hogan are probably the two players that have had the most severe situations that anybody has had to deal with,” North added.
Strange said he had to withdraw from the Masters one time with a wrist injury. It was in the middle of a first round, and naturally that meant his week was over early. He still remembers how devastated he was when he left his group on the 8th hole and walked up the hill to the clubhouse.
North admitted he had back and knee issues many times and really struggled at Augusta National because the uphill, downhill and sidehill lies would put stress on his body during a swing. Downhill lies were the worst for him. He couldn’t drive through the shot because of his left knee. He even admitted some of the lies were so severe, he was afraid he might hurt himself. It didn’t stop him from going, though.
North wanted to play in the Masters so badly the year after winning the 1985 U.S. Open that he went with a broken hand, cast on, hoping he could figure out a way to participate. He characterized that as just a dumb move on his part, but it shows how much PGA Tour pros want to play the tournament.
Other players have played through injury to be a part of the Masters.
Brooks Koepka played through pain last year just to have a chance to be a part of the tournament.
Dustin Johnson was at the top of his game in 2017 until he fell down some stairs in his rented house at Augusta, and he had to withdraw because he was in so much pain that he couldn’t play.
And Tiger Woods most recently pulled out of the field of the Masters in 2016 with back problems. He had back issues in 2014 that kept him from playing, too.
Next. Decade by decade, the best of the Masters. dark
“To be in this position where people are actually talking about this guy might actually play in the Masters, I think that’s amazing,” North added. “There’s a lot of guys that go there that aren’t 100 percent; let’s say that. But when you look at what Hogan came back from after his accident, what Tiger is trying to come back from after his accident, that’s a whole ‘nother level.”
ESPN will carry the first two rounds of the Masters, as well as the return of the Par 3 contest. ESPN and ESPN+ will have 115 hours of live coverage of the tournament from Augusta National Golf Club.