Frustrated Tiger no Masters favourite

As another second Sunday in April transformed from warmth to cool, and majestic Georgia pines cast sprawling shadows, “Masters roars” crescendoed from one corner of Augusta National to the other and the thought occurred: will they ever again ring out for Tiger Woods?

It’s hard to consider, is it not? He should, after all, still be in his prime and he’s not that many years removed from that day when he stood between Jack Nicklaus (six green jackets) and Arnold Palmer (four) and heard incomparable praise come his way.

“He might win that many green jackets combined,” it was said that day. By The King? By the Golden Bear? It’s so hard to remember, for this was when Woods was a heralded amateur who would turn out to be better than advertised. He won in a landslide when he first played the Masters as a pro, 1997, and by the time he had played in six of them, three green jackets hung in his closet.