Masters 2018: Tiger Woods has dodgy putter but match with Ian Poulter excites fans for Ryder Cup showdown
Four-time Masters champion is fortunate just to be playing golf again but is eyeing showdown against Europeans later this year
TIGER WOODS may call himself a “walking miracle” but he cannot summon up great scores with a wave of his putter any more.
His return to Major championship golf for the first time in three years has had golf fans bursting with excitement.
Sadly, it was a damp squib — but typically Woods, 42, refused to see it that way.
His bullish attitude after barely making the cut on four over par — 13 shots off 36-hole leader Patrick Reed — had to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Woods insisted: “Even though I’m a lot behind, if I play a special weekend, shoot two rounds in the mid-60s, you never know.”
But deep down, we did know.
And after just two holes Woods was also facing up to the reality that, for now at least, he should be grateful just to be playing again.
That is following four back operations that could have ended his career.
He described his recovery as nothing short of miraculous.
The same description could never have been applied to the golf he has played on a course where he has won four times in the past — the distant past, to be brutally honest.
No Green Jackets since 2005, even though there have been a few golden years since then — most recently in 2013, when he won five times.
But Woods has had no Majors to add to No 14 at the 2008 US Open.
He needed a fast start yesterday to back up the defiant Woods of the previous night.
It did not turn out quite the way he planned.
His bogey at the first followed a 340-yard bullet of a drive down the fairway — his approach from 106 yards out was at least 20 yards short.
It landed in a bunker in front of the green and, when he failed to make a ten-footer for par, the writing was already on the wall.
It was printed in very large letters when he also made a mess of the par-five second.
He found two bunkers this time and failed to avoid another bogey from six feet.
From that point on, the main focus of interest switched to his “match” with playing partner Ian Poulter, another 42 year old out to recapture past glories.
Poulter’s victory in the Houston Open last weekend revived his hopes of a Ryder Cup recall in September.
And if Woods can show more of the form that brought him two top-five finishes before Augusta, he should be lining up in American colours.
The two old scrappers traded punches, with Poulter landing the first blow.
He was unable to better Woods’ five at the first hole but he played a gorgeous bunker short from just off the second green and sank a six-footer for birdie. One up to Europe.
The USA — sorry, Woods — levelled at the par-three fourth.
Poulter failed to get up and down from another greenside bunker and Woods two-putted from 20 feet for his par. Yet Poulter made amends at the next short hole, the sixth.
He sunk a ten-footer for birdie but Woods followed him in from three feet closer.
Classic match play, and still level pegging.
The Englishman’s wild drive at the seventh saw him trail for the first time and he did well to avoid a double bogey, thanks to a sublime chip.
But Woods’ sank an eight-footer for par to go ‘one up’.
Woods made it back-to-back birdies on the long eighth, while Poulter three-putted from inside 30 feet for another bogey. Woods two up.
Woods was clearly delighted to avoid dumping his ball into Rae’s Creek for a third day running on the 12th.
Poulter got back into it with a birdie at the par-five 13th — with Woods again failing to cash in on a hole he loved in his prime. USA now one up.
On 15 it got even better for Poulter, who knows a bit about miracles having inspired 2012’s Ryder Cup win at Medinah.
Woods air-mailed his third shot over the green and a bogey six left him just one under for his 12 par fives here.
A par for Poulter levelled it again, who would blink first?
Woods delighted the home, crowd nailing his tee shot on the short 16th, leaving a five-footer for the birdie that took him back into the lead.
Poulter bogeyed the 17th and it was over, a 2&1 Woods win.
In reality there was the 18th left, which both finished with pars. Woods signed for a 72 to stay four over par, while Poulter’s 74 put him seven over.
Just wait until the rematch in France in September.