Deep within his Fortress Of Solitude on Jupiter Island, holed up in his magnificent man-cave, Tiger Woods we imagine how Woods might have watched Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth crumble like old cookies at the 80th Masters.
So we believe.
No doubt, Woods took notice of the world’s top players and can imagine him going over to The Medalist and start hitting shots, imagining that he was back at Augusta National, re-living his FOUR titles and thinking to himself:
“I’ve got this!”
Day, McIlroy and Spieth have no doubt given hope to Woods that he can muster up the Ghosts of Greatness and actually win again at Augusta, sometime in the next three years.
Here’s why:
Jason Day is great when he clicking on all cylinders, like he was at the PGA last summer. But Day has shown that he is vulnerable physically and he’s simply not consistent enough to be a threat every time he tees it up in a major. He was never really in the hunt at Augusta, yes, he was within striking distance on Sunday, but where was the 66 that a guy with his talent can shoot? Day is really, really good when everything is going for him. Other than that, he hasn’t shown he can take a major with less than his “A” game.
Rory McIlroy is groping in the dark, looking for a putting stroke. McIlroy is starting to think too much about completing that career Grand Slam. The longer he goes without winning the Masters, the harder it will get. Right now, he would be hard-pressed to win anything with the way his flat stick is acting.
Jordan Spieth needs to get away for a while. He erased Greg Norman from the “Ultimate Disaster” list at The Masters. At the 12th hole last Sunday, it was The Edmund Fitzgerald meets The Titanic. Simply the biggest one-hole disaster in Masters history by a Sunday leader. Greg Norman took nearly the entire round to melt down. Spieth did it in 10 minutes.
This wasn’t the first major he’s blown. At St. Andrews last summer, he stood over a seven-footer at the 71st hole, The Road Hole. He missed that par putt. Had he made it, he might well have birdied the final hole to win the Open Championship. The putt he missed Sunday at 11 was virtually the same length. Had he made that and headed to 12 feeling confident, he would have had an easier time just hitting one in the middle of the green. Instead, he was a nervous wreck and you saw the result.
The simple fact is that all three of these players are fragile in their own way.
Woods knows it. He knows that if can just put himself back together and be a little more than half of what he wants was, it might just be good enough for one more serious run at Augusta.
