AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | Standing behind the Augusta National clubhouse late Saturday afternoon, a drop of sweat hanging off the bottom of his chin, Tiger Woods looked toward the 18th green and the big white scoreboard in the distance.
Three days down, one storm-threatened Sunday to go.
It was easy to wonder if Woods was looking back or looking forward. Back to where he’d come from or forward to where the closing 18 holes of the Masters might lead.
For the first time in a decade – go all the way back to Y.E. Yang in the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National – Woods will tee it up in the final group on the final day of a major championship.
“That was the plan,” Woods said. “Here I am.”
Francesco Molinari will start Sunday with the lead, two strokes over Tony Finau and Woods and three in front of major championship collector Brooks Koepka.
Take emotion out of it and Molinari is the likeliest winner on Sunday. Since he won the Open Championship at Carnoustie last summer, Molinari has carried Europe to a Ryder Cup victory and has since won the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
He’s one strong round from being able to sip wine from the Claret Jug while wearing a green jacket. Molinari could also become the first former Masters caddie to win the tournament, having looped for his brother, Edoardo, here in 2006.
The Masters, though, pulses with emotion and Woods drives it like those lit-up sound meters in loud sports arenas.
The world kept coming to the Masters when Woods wasn’t playing but a piece of it was missing, like a favorite family member who couldn’t make it home for Christmas.
Now he’s back, as hale and hearty as a 43-year-old golfer with four back surgeries can be. It can’t be emphasized enough – this is bonus time for Woods.
Woods knows better than the others what Sunday brings and he knows the pressure that comes with it.
He believed he was finished less than two years ago. His back was so bad he needed a nerve block to attend the Champions Dinner in 2017. When the dinner was over, Woods flew overnight to England to visit a doctor, deciding then that a fusion was the only way to get his life back from the ceaseless pain.
Here he is again, the third consecutive major in which he’s had a chance to win on Sunday. Maybe this is the one he wins, moving one ladder step closer to Jack Nicklaus’ record.
This Masters may ultimately be about Molinari or Finau or someone else, but right now it’s about Woods. It has to be.
The steamy, summer-like Saturday felt flat until Woods nearly dunked his approach shot for a deuce at the par-4 seventh, setting up the second in a run of three straight birdies that forced his name to be returned to the on-course leaderboards after having been removed.
It’s why grown men stacked eight deep leapt to their feet behind the 18th green Saturday afternoon when Woods’ birdie putt went rolling toward the hole. When he tapped in for a closing par, the exodus began with four groups still to finish.
No one has to wait long for the final chapter. Masters officials, cognizant of a threatening weather forecast and a desire to reach a conclusion on Sunday, made the wise decision to play the final round early in hopes of presenting the green jacket around 2:30 p.m., well before the worst of the weather is expected.
Joining Woods and Molinari in the final threesome will be Finau, who watched his first golf tournament in 1997 – seeing Woods win his first Masters. Finau picked up a club that summer and here he is, 22 years later, living a dream.
“I dreamed of playing in the final group of a major championship with him. It will be a dream come true for me,” said Finau, one of three players (Webb Simpson and Patrick Cantlay were the others) to shoot 64 Saturday.
What does Woods need to do to win his first major championship in 11 years?
Play like he did on Saturday when the round gradually built its own momentum and he played the last 13 holes in 6-under par. He putted better from short range Saturday and that will critical. Molinari and Finau are a combined 79-for-79 from 5 feet and closer this week. Woods has missed three times from 5 feet or less and look where it has left him.
Molinari doesn’t make mistakes and Finau is 10-under par on the par-5s this week, five strokes better than Woods on those holes.
If Masters form holds, the champion will come from among Molinari, Finau, Woods, Koepka, Ian Poulter and Simpson because every year since 1995 the champion has started the final round within the top five.
Woods knows better than the others what Sunday brings and he knows the pressure that comes with it.
“The day I don’t feel pressure is the day I quit,” Woods said, still sweating after his round.
This is why Woods refused to quit. To be here. To feel this. To have a chance to make it happen again.
“It’s going to be a Masters to remember for sure,” Finau said.