DeChambeau, Cantlay, Scheffler Prep for Masters, Talk about Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods once again caused all other golf news to be obliterated when he arrived at Augusta National with hopes of playing in the Masters. Many of his fellow competitors who became friends through Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup are excited to see him on the grounds of the famed golf course.  That includes the 2021 PGA Tour Player of the Year, Patrick Cantlay.

“I hope that he is able to tee it up this week and play well and obviously that’s the greatest thing for our sport,” Cantlay said about Woods’ arrival. “There’s definitely a different feel in tournaments that he tees it up in.”

Cantlay called Tiger Woods superior to all golfers since Jack Nicklaus and said he admired Woods’ dedication to the sport. He thinks Woods has come as close as anyone to actually mastering golf.

Tiger Woods’ presence at the Masters could help some slip under the radar

Meanwhile, Woods’ return, if he is able to play on Thursday, will actually help other golfers in a strange way.  Whenever Tiger Woods shows up, the spotlight is 100 percent on him, no matter what he does or how he plays and no matter what anyone else does. A first-round 63 or 62 by someone in the field would get media attention away from Woods, but it would take that kind of performance to turn the cameras away right now.

As newly minted world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler said it makes things easier on the field.

“To have Tiger anywhere deflects a lot of attention,” he explained to Golf Channel. “It’s definitely easier for us to fly under the radar.”

But Scheffler, who played a practice round at Augusta National with Tiger Woods in 2019 is also in the camp that hopes Woods will be able to compete.

“You know, we’re all excited. Hopefully he can come out and play this week. It should be a fun week if he does,” Scheffler added.

Less than a month ago, at his World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Woods walked across the stage with a noticeable limp.  It was not shown on camera.

At that time, he did not look as though he was ready to walk the demanding hills of Augusta National’s challenging course once, never mind practice rounds plus tournament rounds.  But Woods has proven himself to be superhuman before, most notably when he won the 2008 U.S. Open with stress fractures in his leg.

So, everyone waits to see what will happen.

While Tiger Woods makes his decision, Scheffler, Cantlay, and others are going through their own practice routines and strategy sessions.

Bryson DeChambeau has been doing his own rehabilitation and recovery from a broken hand and a torn labrum. He first saw Tiger Woods at Augusta National while they were both playing a practice round.

“I was teeing off on 3, and he was walking down 17. He just, like, jumped up and raised up, and we were both kind of air high fiving,” Bryson DeChambeau said about seeing Woods. “Coming back off that injury, we’ve had some conversations, and man, I don’t know how he’s done it. It’s very impressive.”

DeChambeau’s injuries were less serious than Woods’ but still kept him off the golf course for weeks.  The hand injury happened just before his match against Brooks Koepka last November.

“There was something on my hand that just kind of like popped, and I was like, Ah, that’s not normal,” he said.

The next day he was fine, but unfortunately, it got worse as he hit balls.  By the time he got to Torrey Pines for the Farmers Insurance Open, his hand was very sore.  He went to Saudi Arabia and things escalated.

“I was playing ping-pong against Sergio and Joaquin Niemann. And we were on some marble floors, and they just wiped it,” he explained. “And me, not paying attention, I Charlie Brown’d myself and went horizontal and then hit my left hip and my hand at the same time, and that really just took me out.”

DeChambeau went for a CT scan, an MRI, and X-rays and got the bad news.

“I had a torn labrum, a partial tear ( in his hip). And then in the hand, I had a hairline fracture in the hamate bone,” he noted. He said that baseball players often get that injury from excessive hitting.

The hamate bone is in the lower part of the palm, one of 27 bones in the hand.

Although it was supposed to heal in six to eight weeks, his doctors were not sure he should play the Masters. Still, he was convinced that what he needed to do was to improve the muscle strength in his hands.

“I feel like, okay, I can hit balls for a decent amount of time and feel like I’m not going to do anything to it,” he said.

If nothing else, it has certainly given him a new perspective on things outside the ropes.

“Taking six weeks off, realizing that golf isn’t everything in life,” he said. “I’m not going to be here forever, so I might as well do my best to give back to the game of golf and give back to the kids as much as possible.”

But this week, at least, he will be focused on conquering a very difficult golf course.