Tiger Woods faced disaster at the Masters. He got stuck anyway.

Augista, Ga. – Tiger Woods had three holes in the Masters on Sunday when he stood in the tee box at number 18. Some people sitting around the 17th green did not bother to look.

This was no charge towards the sixth green jacket. It was Sunday’s final act unlike any other in Woods’ quarter-century around Augusta National Golf Club: he scored 76, the equivalent of his worst in any Masters. Yet the score was a far bigger achievement than that, or his tie for 38th place, equal to one, would suggest.

“This game is seldom isolated,” Woods said. “You have to fight it. Nobody will take you off the mound nor call in the sub. You have to fight it. This is why this game is so unique and so difficult mentally. “

Some of the figures in the game could be pushed to a great extent like Woods, who appeared intent on saving some even when he saw some. He won five of the final six and outscored the other – showing better late than new champion Dustin Johnson, who finished at under 20. Expressing the experience that he had made a particularly important decision in the Masters, Woods collected a rough performance, usually a swell of ground in the roar.

But it came to number 12 after an undeniably catastrophic turn, The very hole that Woods used as a springboard His Masters victory last year only.

In his ritual Sunday red, he rose to the hole, a par-3 around Rye’s Creek made even more dazzling this year by the soft colors of autumn, after the coronovirus epidemic postponed the traditional April chief . He had the confidence to earn another tournament, which equalized there in his first two rounds and birdies on Saturday.

Swing. To knock The ball rolled into the water.

“The wind was right for the first two people,” Woods said, and then when I stepped in there, it switched off. “” I was not committed to the wind, and I also got ahead of it and pushed it too, because I felt the wind would come more from the right and it was closed from the left side, and that’s where the problem started. “

“From there,” he said, “I shot too many shots and had too much experience at Rye’s Creek.”

From the drop zone: swing. Beat the beat Roll backwards in water.

Again from the drop zone: The ball remained dry, but it landed in a back bunker. Then, with Woods’ feet forming part of a quadrilateral on the sand, he struck the flagstick and into the water. He tried again from the bunker and finally reached Hare safely.

One put just missed. Then, finally, the 10th stroke to a conclusion between technically kind and wrench. He emptied the hole with 56 on the day and had his worst score on any one hole during his career on the PGA Tour. His gallery had already shrunk significantly, also escaped because of the Augusta National epidemic.

“That was a bit of a disaster at that hole, wasn’t it?” Said Shane Lowery, who was in the Woods group. “Look, this is the same August when the wind is like this. It is a pity that we did not stay in it all day as it would have been a good chance for some to shoot a good score and take the leaderboard too far. “

Woods certainly tried. But there is so much to do on the last six holes when, even at the start of the day and before suffering in the hole known as Golden Bell, Woods needed the biggest comeback in Masters history if he could get his green Had to keep the jacket for another year.

Observers became more thin. Woods is invisible on almost all scoreboards, around this course. No problem.

Birdy. Par. Birdy. Birdy. Birdy.

Then at number 18, the place the champion has seen is filled with pride. He dropped a 465-yard hole, the last Test of a tournament.

He drove it to the center of the fair, right in front of the second bunker. Then a push came on the green. A nifty put clap for birdie but there is nothing like thunder.

A reporter later asked about his motivation – is he worried, at the age of 44 and with a career of triumph, pain and scrutiny, that it might go away for some time.

“No matter how much I try, things just don’t work the way they used to and how much I push this body, it doesn’t work,” Woods said. “Yes, it is sometimes more difficult to be motivated than others.”

But he was on Augusta on Sunday, insisting on finishing, assessing the past, talking about the future. Later, he emerged to present a green jacket to Johnson.

On this Sunday, at least, it was someone else’s turn.