Tiger Woods: Is Fred Couples Giving Him False Hope?

The last time anyone saw Tiger Woods he was on a quick-hop to Augusta National for the Tuesday night Champion’s Dinner, a long-standing Masters tradition.

He sat next to his old pal Mark O’Meara who kinda kinda spilled the beans later in thet week, reiterating what we know about the 14-time major champion — “He’s day-to-day,” O’Meara said during his stay where he shot a pair of 78s then bolted for the old guys circuit.

O’Meara fessed up that Woods told him “Some days I have good days, some days I have bad days,” while they were dining with the rest of the Green Jacket winners who showed up at the club.

Woods then jetted back to his Fortress of Solitude on Jupiter Island where maybe he watched 57-year-old Fred Couples shoot 73-70-74-72 to finished one-over par and tie for 18th.  Did we mention that Freddie is now 57 years young?  You wouldn’t figure that from his golf swing, which is still blessed by that buttery tempo of his.

Couples remains amazing.  He’s overcome back problems that have bothered him for most of his career and still do, which may have the wheels turning in Eldrick’s brain, with him asking himself “Why not me?”

Perhaps one thing we need to remind everyone, Woods included, is that Couples never had a back surgery AND, most important, Couples never changed that marvelous swing of his.  It goes up on the outside then drops to the inside and goes WOOOOOOOOOOSH!  Couples still generates a lot of speed and it doesn’t look like it puts much pressure on his back.

Woods has gone through swing changes and coaches about the way the late Liz Taylor went through husbands.

At first Woods kept looking for swing perfection, now he’s looking for something that simply allows him to function on the golf course and that’s not working too well as witnessed by the fact that he still cannot tee it up.

This never-ending waiting game for the return of Woods bring visions of Samuel Beckett’s play — Waiting For Godot.  It’s about two characters — Vladimir and Estragon — who wait for a guy named Godot who never shows up.

There’s a bunch of folks waiting for Woods to show up and his main henchman, the irrepressible Stiney, aka Mark Stineberg, constantly gives assurances that this is not the end for Eldrick Tont Woods.  In fact, look for him perhaps sometime after the Players Championship and certainly he’ll be playing in the U.S. Open.

Bridgestone is waiting for Godot, oops, make that Tiger, as they’ve centered an entire advertising campaign around him.

TaylorMade is waiting for Tiger Godot, still hoping he’ll help them design that set of irons that Godot will use when he plays, if he ever does.

Maybe Couples does give false hope to Woods.  Then again, maybe he doesn’t, maybe Woods, deep in his heart, knows that it’s just not going to happen.

In the meantime, there’s a bunch of people waiting.

They certainly are not waiting to read or buy his book he just put out.  That spent about a day deep down on the New York Times best-seller list, mainly because it was Woods, but apparently no one cares about his latest book.

The wait continues to see if El Tigre can get to the point where he has more good days with his back than bad days.

The sad fact remains that Woods, like everyone else, may be Waiting For Godot.