AUGUSTA, Ga. — It was 1:22 p.m. Sunday afternoon and there was Tiger Woods, in his usual red, launching his final tee shot of the 2024 Masters onto the lush 18th fairway at Augusta National.
He was more than five hours too early. The final-round leaders weren’t even going to tee off for another hour.
After shooting an 82, his worst round in his life in a major tournament Saturday, Woods came back Sunday with a 5-over 77 to finish dead last at 16-over par, all alone in 60th place.
Woods, 48, who barely plays competitively anymore after his 2021 car crash crushed his right leg, said the biggest challenge for him throughout the weekend was the gusting wind that wrecked havoc on shots throughout the tournament.
‘I think that just the wind and what it was doing out here to the golf shots and the balls and putting, how difficult the course was playing,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t take much to get out of position here. Unfortunately, I got out of position a lot yesterday and a couple times today.’
But Woods said all was not lost.
‘It was a good week,’ he said. ‘It was a good week all around. I think that coming in here, not having played a full tournament in a very long time, it was a good fight on Thursday and Friday.
‘Unfortunately yesterday it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to. Today the round that − the way that Tom (Kim, who shot 6-under 66) is playing − I thought I had in my system. Unfortunately, I didn’t produce it.’
Woods said he is planning to play the three remaining men’s majors this season, starting with the PGA Championship at Valhalla in May, then the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in June.
‘This is a golf course I knew going into it,’ he said of Augusta National, ‘so I’m going to do my homework going forward at Pinehurst, Valhalla and Troon (the British Open), but that’s kind of the game plan.
‘It’s always nice coming back here because I know the golf course, I know how to play it. I can kind of simulate shots. Granted, it’s never quite the same as getting out here and doing it. Same thing, I heard there’s some changes at the next couple sites. So I’ve got to get up there early and check them out.’
After his miserable weekend, there was no use looking back, so Tiger Woods did the only thing he knew to do, and that was to look ahead.