This masters have news about Tiger Woods. But there is no Tiger Woods

Augusta, Ga. – A dozen club employees gathered at the second-floor restaurant at the Augusta National Club Club on Tuesday afternoon to prepare for the championship dinner. A woman sits on a long rectangular dining table with a white tablecloth engraved with a cozy rectangular room, portraits and books on the walls. Yellow floral arrangement is ridiculed and fluffy. Young man in uniform in club is moving heavy wooden chair. All of this is solemn and absolutely orderly. Dinner will be 33 years old (or 34 years old). During this hour, to the club’s on-site staff, Tiger Woods might be one. He is often one.

For the Army officer’s son, this is part of his SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). He lets us guess. Regarding his game, health and business plans, he has never shared many people alone. There is nothing to gain in the mindset of the United States and the world. Just like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus is not busy at all. This is their nature. Woods is the opposite.

On Monday afternoon, the club’s social activist chairman Fred Ridley came to the news building and provided journalists with coverage and extended the world, a detail of the collaboration between Augusta National and Augusta National and five-time master winner Augusta National. If these plans unfold as announced, young students in Augusta will have more and better opportunities to learn science and mathematics, and the Public-the Public-tharge will have new and improved race conditions and more race opportunities at Patch Patch, the historic public golf course in Augusta. Talk about win-win. In addition to the president’s traditional Wednesday press conference, it is very rare for the President of Augusta to hold a Monday press conference. The club hopes the announcement has its own spotlight throughout the day.

On the day at the press conference, club officials wanted to know one thing: Will Woods sit next to Ridley to announce the news? Woods might be one until he didn’t.

Tiger Forest is not easy, and working with Tiger Woods is not easy. These statements do not mean general statements, but all available evidence, they are true. For most of Woods’ career, his custom is to wait until the last minute (Friday, 5pm) to work on next week’s PGA Tour. He has his own reasons, the tournament organizers and sponsors have no choice but to live according to the tiger’s rules and the tiger’s way. Woods will stick with it for as long as possible. Is he going to recover in Valspar? perhaps. Maybe, maybe, maybe. It creates drama, attention and headaches.

Tigers will do whatever they want. It has always been part of his Mo: Do ​​whatever you want – indeed a practice in power. Because I can.

In a press release on the club’s partnership with Woods, nothing is known about Woods’ absence at the press conference. Woods in recent weeks meeting Despite his recent injury, he is still playing in this year’s Masters. Five minutes later, he added this: PS April fooled me Achilles is still a mess :).

(Appendix is ​​the custom of these matters. After Sidd Finch, the swing pitch prospect of Metropolitan Metropolitan Metropolitan, the fastball 168 miles per hour, appears in Sports Illustrated On April 1, 1985, the next issue of the magazine had a footnote, a week later: Sidd Finch was retired.

On pgatour.com, there is a brief news story about the Woods-Augusta National Partnership, which is close to the end: “Woods, a five-time Masters champion, did not attend at a press conference on Monday as he continues to recover from Achilles’ surgery.”

Other news outlets similarly suggest that his recovery somehow prevented Woods from attending Monday’s press conference. Woods said in a statement on March 11 that the tendon of his left heel had ruptured. Through various medical websites, recovering patients can usually walk one month after this surgery, but often wear medical boots to fix their feet.

Woods has a complex relationship with Augusta National. He didn’t talk about clubs and their courses and their social history as many others did. You won’t hear him using phrases like “Cathedral among Pines”. Four-time Masters winner Arnold Palmer respects Augusta National and becomes the first professional to become a paid member. Later, Jack Nicklaus, who has six championships, joined the club. There is always dance in these things in elite clubs. The club must want candidates and vice versa. Woods almost never plays the role of a pleader. He doesn’t need it often. Privileges of success.

Woods has some relationship with club members at the club. Last year, Ridley played golf with Woods, when Ridley first mentioned the patch’s renovation project. The conversation was the spark that led to Monday’s announcement and it all came with it.

More obviously, Woods has a warm playful rapport with multiple club employees who often do the same thing year after year. He has some nicknames. Woods once saw a tournament employee at this moment, getting off work and walking with his young daughter. Woods later asked the visiting shift worker’s daughter’s name and family’s home address. A few weeks later, a sleek photo of Woods signed by Woods, without advance notice.

Stories like this abound. He likes people who want him to know nothing. He didn’t meet many. From all the evidence available, his love for Bernhard Langer was partly made by Langer’s quiet, respectful manners, work ethics that matched Woods’ work ethics, and anything he didn’t want Woods.

Like Arnold Palmer, USGA will be excited to be the nine-time champion of the USGA event for the organization’s official and public cronies. This may be good for USGA, Woods and golf. But having him commit to his role has been a constant struggle.

Woods attended and hosted his first championship dinner in 1998, the last ever Sarazen attended. In many ways, he loved dinner with stories, jokes and club atmosphere. A Hoplin Woods attended a 2017 dinner when his back was so bad that he told people privately that he didn’t know if he would play competitive golf again. That night, he struggled on the steps to reach the second floor dining room. Later that Tuesday night, he flew to England where he consulted a defender expert.

In April 2021, he missed the championship dinner for the first time after he was undergoing surgery after an inexplicable, nearly fatal car accident. That year, it was hosted by Dustin Johnson, who was the winner of the 2020 Masters Championship. Woods posted this sarcasm via Twitter: “I’ll miss a run @djohnsonpgaBill at tonight’s Champions Dinner. This is still one of my favorite nights of the year. “Woods attended the dinner in 2021 (at the time there was no competition), 2022 (40th place), 2023 (not completed the second round) and 2024 (60th place).

Here you can see Fred Ridley from the Tour office to the clubhouse in an early hours Tuesday morning driving a golf cart. night! There was Jose Maria Olazabal, who went to his car in a parking lot near the clubhouse and retrieved his shoes. Not long after, the champion parade began, entering the clubhouse and following the winding stairs to the second floor, with dinner served by Scottie Scheffler. No Vijay Singh – He told the club that he did not participate in this year’s Masters due to recent injuries. But others. almost.

Later Tuesday night, the club released a photo of the dinner. The head count was 33 – Tiger Woods did not participate. Thirty-two former winners of the club’s president, plus customs. Woods’ X account or elsewhere has no absence about his absence.

Woods’ long-time manager Mark Steinberg and Woods’s Company executive Rob McNamara were asked Wednesday morning why Woods didn’t attend Monday’s press conference or championship dinner. No response, no response. This is the SOP of this type of query. When Tiger Woods wanted to make a statement, he made a statement. When he doesn’t, he won’t.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments via michael.bamberger@golf.com