Tiger Woods to Be Tested at Augusta

Tiger Woods to Be Tested at Augusta











Rick Woelfel April 4, 2013 11:25 AM




COMMENTARY | A major championship is always a rigorous examination. Over the course of four days the field is required to answer a series of challenging questions.


Tiger Woods is in a unique position, however. When the Masters gets under way, he will find himself dealing with a series of questions that only he himself can answer.

Among them:

Is His Driver Still Reliable?

Time was when accuracy didn't matter very much at Augusta National Golf Club because there was no rough. Since rough was added in 1999, it's become more important to keep the tee ball in the fairway.

For all he has accomplished over the last year, the driver has been the most problematic club in Tiger's bag. As of this writing, he stands 145th on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy. If he's going win his fifth Masters, he'll have to do better than that.

Does His Putter Still Make Magic?

If Woods is to be a serious contender, he'll have to do well on the greens. That means taking advantage of birdie opportunities on the par-5s but, more important, sinking putts in the 4-6 foot range. Woods will be a much more aggressive putter from long range if he's confident in his ability to sink a par putt, whatever the distance.

Does He Still Wear a 'Cloak of Invincibility'?



A decade ago, Woods could beat over half the field at any tournament merely by showing up. There was an aura about him that his foes found all but impossible to penetrate, and his physical skills took care of the rest.

Much of that aura is gone in the wake of Woods' off-course difficulties and the injuries he's suffered in recent years. When he's at his best, he's the best player in the world. But his peers/opponents aren't in awe of him as much as they once were. They're more apt to take on the challenge of confronting him as opposed to shying away from the challenge.

Can He Still Meet the Challenge of the Moment?

This may the most difficult question to answer. Woods has always done his best work from the front of the pack. How will he fare if he has a one- or two-shot lead Sunday with nine holes to play? For much of his career, it was assumed his challengers would fold and Woods would go on to victory.

That's no longer the case.

Is He The Best Who Ever Was?

Is Tiger Woods the best who has ever played the game? Jack Nicklaus has an 18-14 edge in major championships, but a case could be made that Woods has a more well-rounded short game and is competing against deeper fields than Nicklaus did in his prime.

Let me make my position clear: I still regard Jack Nicklaus as the greatest player in history, and in any case, comparing athletes from different eras is risky business. A win at Augusta would not indicate Woods has surpassed Nicklaus in a listing of the greatest players of all time. It would, however, add legitimacy to the discussion.

But that's a subject for another day.

Rick Woelfel is based near Philadelphia. He's a member of the Golf Writers Association of America and has covered the sport for more than 25 years.

Why Tiger Woods Will Win the Masters

Why Tiger Woods Will Win the Masters
World's No. 1 Golfer Peaking at Right Time to Recapture Magic at Augusta











Mark McLaughlin April 4, 2013 12:11 PM







COMMENTARY | There's nothing like a comeback to vault a star athlete back into the good graces of sports fans.

With his ascent back to the top of the Official World Golf Ranking, powered by six wins in the last 13 months, Tiger Woods has just about turned the corner on his fall from grace.



Winning the Masters will complete the makeover. And quell the roar of pundits claiming Woods can no longer win the big one.

Don't get me wrong, the doubters have a case. Woods has spit the bit in several major championships over the last two years, most notably coughing up the halfway lead at last year's U.S. Open and falling back over the weekend at the Open Championship.

I'm giving Tiger the benefit of the doubt for those close calls for two reasons: He was still in the midst of swing change No. 3 with instructor Sean Foley, and he was playing courses in national championship rotations that he only sees every decade or so.

Woods is as familiar with Augusta National as you can get, and the trend of his recent resurgence has been winning on his favorite courses: Torrey Pines, Doral, Bay Hill and Muirfield Village. He tends to get well whenever he drives down Magnolia Lane and into the surreal world of green jackets, patron's badges, hand-operated leaderboards and pimento cheese sandwiches.

For all the harping about not having won at Augusta in eight years, keep in mind that Tiger has contended in all but one Masters since he last won in 2005. Back out his T40 last April, and Woods has finished no worse than sixth in the first major of the year. His record includes back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2008.

Even in his first tournament back from his scandal-driven exile in 2010, he pulled off a T4. That's like a heart surgeon coming out of retirement to perform a quadruple bypass. And he managed a similar feat in 2011 with another T4, his only top 10 finish in a season riddled by injuries.

Over his 70 rounds at Augusta National, Tiger has the all-time lowest scoring average of 70.87. That just edges three-time winner Phil Mickelson and is more than a stroke better than six-time champion Jack Nicklaus.

Suffice it to say, Tiger will be in the mix come the back nine Sunday. And while the vision of the red shirt and black cap doesn't inspire the same fear among his competitors that they once did, you've got to believe that there will be some choking up in the final group should Tiger be chasing the lead.

More likely, however, Woods will win from ahead. He's held the lead after three rounds in each of his four Masters victories and that's been his preferred winning style throughout his career. But this trend also suggests that Tiger has to be leading heading into Sunday to have a chance. For all his accomplishments over a storied career, he has never come back to win a major.

I don't think Tiger has the firepower to change that statistic, but his swing is now back in rhythm and his putting has never been better. Just think about that for a second: Tiger's 100 putts in winning at Doral last month were his fewest ever as a professional. That includes the glory years of the Tiger Slam and nine-win seasons.

It's obvious that Woods, now 37, has grown nerves over the years. But unless Steve Stricker undoes the magic he placed on Tiger's putting stroke in Miami, we're looking at the world's best golfer peaking at just the right time to finally cash in again.

Another depressing fact for his competition: Tiger is back to being comfortable in his own skin. He's no longer seeking forgiveness from ex-wife Elin Nordegren or the golfing public. And he made a pretty confident statement by coming out about his relationship with Lindsey Vonn. Quite simply, he's as happy a camper as the world's most obsessive golfer can be.Armed with a repeatable full swing that he can now fix on the fly, a smooth putting stroke and a ton of confidence, I don't see anyone getting in the way of Tiger winning his fifth Masters.



Mark McLaughlin has reported on the PGA Tour for FoxSports.com, the Greensboro News & Record, Burlington (N.C.) Times-News and New York Post. He is a past member of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association. Follow him on Twitter @markmacduke.

Henrik Stenson cracks top 50 to earn Masters invite

Henrik Stenson cracks top 50 to earn Masters invite











PGA.COM April 4, 2013 5:31 PM

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Sweden's Henrik Stenson regained his form at the Shell Houston Open and played his way into the 2013 …


By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer


HUMBLE, Texas (AP) -- Henrik Stenson didn't get the trophy at the Houston Open. He gladly settled for an invitation to the Masters.

Stenson, who eight months ago was No. 133 in the world, closed with a 6-under 66 on Sunday in the Houston Open and was the leader in the clubhouse when the final round was delayed because of thunderstorms. D.A. Points closed with four pars and wound up with a one-shot victory.

Both were among four players added to the field at Augusta National -- Points as a PGA Tour winner, Stenson for getting into the top 50 in the world.

Stenson needed to finish at least in 13th place alone to break into the top 50, although he didn't know the math. Stenson figured a top 10 would do the trick, and he didn't feel comfortable until he blistered his tee shot on the 18th hole and hit his approach into about 10 feet for birdie.

"I said to my caddie walking up 18, `No matter what, we're playing for a green jacket in a couple of weeks,'" Stenson said. "That will be nice. That was the main goal coming here. And when I played as well as I did, put myself in a good position."

On the other side of the Atlantic, Marcel Siem of Germany won the Hassan Trophy in Morocco. That moved him to the cusp of the top 50, but Siem fell short when Russell Henley closed with a 68 at the Houston Open to tie for 45th, just enough to earn points and stay a fraction of a point ahead of Siem, who went from No. 72 to No. 51.

Henley already is in the Masters from winning the Sony Open in January.

Fredrik Jacobson of Sweden and Richard Sterne of South Africa got into the Masters by being in the top 50. Neither played this week.

Charles Howell III, the Augusta native who started the year outside the top 100, needed to finish no worse than fourth place alone at the Houston Open. He hurt himself with middle rounds of 72-70 at Redstone, but put together a late charge. Howell closed with a 66, but likely fell at least three shots short of having a chance.

"It was a nice finish," Howell said. "Probably not quite good enough for what I need to go to Augusta, but I played well. I gave myself a chance. It was a good effort, but good efforts don't get that invitation to Augusta."

Geoff Ogilvy, who played 10 out of 11 weeks trying to get into the Masters, started the week at No. 50 and missed the cut for the second straight week. Ogilvy withdrew Sunday from next week's Texas Open, ending his hopes of returning to the Masters. The winner of the Houston Open and Texas Open earn a trip to the Masters.

Ogilvy last year fell one shot short of ending the year in the top 50 and assuring his spot at Augusta.

Howell is not playing the Texas Open, either.

"I thought my best chance of getting in was the top 50," Howell said. "I played a ton of golf. I'm a little tired, to be honest."

Howell finished third at the Sony Open, and he lost in a playoff the next week at the Humana Challenge. What hurt even more was closing with a 78 in the Honda Classic and a 73-75 weekend at Bay Hill, costing him valuable ranking points. Howell said there was no point in looking back.

"I'm not going down the road of disappointment," he said. "I played good. I would love to be in the golf tournament. So would 300 million other golfers. I played well this year and I'm going to watch the tournament on TV. It's just horrible to watch on TV, to be honest."

The addition of Stenson, Points, Sterne and Jacobson brings the Masters field to 92 players expected to compete. There are no more than two spots available for the winners of the Houston Open and Texas Open if they are not already eligible, meaning this will be the smallest field at the Masters since 90 players competed in 2006.

Stenson began his turnaround last September when he tied for fifth in the Dutch Open. He took a big leap with his win at the South African Open, and then a tie for seventh in the season-ending event in Dubai on the European Tour. Last week, he tied for eighth at Bay Hill, which moved him up five spots to No. 53 and gave him a good chance at cracking the top 50 in Houston.

And that he did. With so many players in contention in Houston -- 20 players separated by four shots going into the final round -- he needed to pile up birdies. Stenson was worried when he failed to birdie the reachable par-4 12th, and then hit a tee shot against the lip of a fairway bunker and wound up making bogey on the par-5 13th. But he birdied three of his last four holes to sew up his spot at the Masters.

"Just been a great turnaround these last two weeks," he said.

©2013 by STATS LLC and Associated Press.