AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods hasn’t been playing very well.
At Augusta National, it may not matter.
“Yeah, someone like him or Phil, I’d never take them out at a place like this,” said Justin Thomas, who played a practice round with Woods, Fred Couples and Bryson DeChambeau on Monday. “I think this course is so unique that you don’t need to play great to have a chance to win. I think you just need to be playing OK if you know the golf course.”
Woods ticks both boxes. With just one top-10 finish in the 2020 calendar year – a T9 at the Farmers Insurance Open – he’s playing just OK. And this being his 23rd Masters, he knows the course. He edged Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele to win his fifth green jacket and complete one of the most improbable comeback stories in sports 19 months ago.
Since then, it’s been a mixed bag. He won the inaugural ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan in the fall and helped the U.S. Presidents Cup team as player-captain in December. Then he went flat, and when the pandemic came he went dormant, not wanting to rush back.
“I haven’t put all the pieces together at the same time,” said Woods, who will turn 45 next month and has made just eight starts since January, most recently a T72 at the ZOZO defense and a missed cut at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.
Part of that has been his surgically fused back; he didn’t realize until the end of 2019 quite what the year had taken out of him. He skipped the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, on a course where he’s won eight times; The Honda Classic, his hometown tournament; and THE PLAYERS Championship, where he is a two-time champion.
Then came the pandemic.
“This year with COVID and trying to be safe, I was hesitant to come back and start playing,” he said after limiting himself to chipping and putting Tuesday. “And that’s why I waited as long as I did and came back at Memorial (T40). From there, I really haven’t, as I said, I haven’t put all the pieces together, and hopefully that will be this week.”
Thomas said he wouldn’t bet against him. Not here.
“You have to be chipping and putting well,” Thomas said, “but you can be hitting it OK and get it around this place more than OK. You know where to hit it, you know where not to hit it.
“There are certain holes,” he continued, “if you’re not hitting it well, it’s like OK, as long as I hit it over here, I’ll be all right. And no one knows that better than Tiger.”
What’s more, he added, while this week’s forecast calls for rain, it also calls for mostly warm weather. That bodes well for those with brittle backs, like Couples and especially Woods, who was preparing to host the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night.
The biggest news of this week so far has been that trailblazer Lee Elder will join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as an honorary starter at the 2021 Masters next April. Elder received death threats when he became the first African American to play in the Masters in 1975.
Woods was asked if he could foresee a day when he and Phil Mickelson – with eight Masters titles between them – are honorary starters.
Woods laughed. “Hopefully that will be us one day, and I’ll be hitting bombs past him,” he said.
But be careful with any suggestions that he’s already a ceremonial golfer. Nicklaus, he noted, contended for the ’98 Masters at age 58.
“Do I expect to contend?” Woods said. “Yes, I do.”
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.
The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.
Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.
He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.
Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.
Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.
Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.
Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Alysha Newman was initially disappointed when her historic season, marked by an Olympic medal and record-breaking performances, came to a close.
The 30-year-old from Delaware, Ont., finished third in the Diamond League final on Saturday, clearing 4.80 metres in the women’s pole vault. That capped a campaign where Newman overcame an ankle injury late in the indoor season to win Olympic bronze.
“The first emotion I had was I was kind of sad,” she said. “With the injury that happened in March, I felt like I was two, maybe four weeks, I guess, behind everyone. So I was still really motivated to compete.
“I know the world rankings came out (Wednesday) and I was second, so my coaches texted me this morning and said, ‘highest finish ever of all time, you deserve a great break.’ And that just made me really excited.”
Newman enjoyed consistency heading into the Paris Games, clearing 4.75 metres or more in three of her last four meets after returning from injury.
Heading into Paris, Newman held the Canadian record of 4.83 metres, achieved indoors on Feb. 22. Her outdoor best was 4.82 metres, set in 2019—the last time she finished a season ranked in the top five, at No. 3.
Before this year, Newman had never medalled on the world or Olympic stage, but she reset her national record to 4.85 metres in Paris to become the first Canadian woman to medal in pole vault at the Games.
Only William Halpenny (bronze at the 1912 Stockholm Games) and Edward Archibald (bronze at the 1908 London Games) had medalled for Canada in pole vault before Newman.
“I was just telling my mom last night … I’m doing so many things, and I haven’t been able to sit. But I did go to Nice three days after I got my medal, and I sat and kind of just enjoyed having that medal and more so what it took to get that,” Newman said.
“Felt like a diploma. It felt like a reward that, you know, here’s hardware for your hard work, and it really was rewarding for me to sit in the moment.”
Newman called it “one of the most unforgettable seasons I’ll ever have in my career.”
“A part of me feels that I needed a season like this to take it even more serious, leading into (the 2028) L.A. (Olympics),” she said. “I think it shows me that this is where my life is supposed to be. I am supposed to be this incredible textbook pole vaulter.”
Newman now has motivation beyond just winning medals; she believes she can break the world record of 5.06 metres set by Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva in 2009.
Outside of competition, Newman is dedicated to helping the next generation of athletes, from raising funds for a high-performance facility in Caledon, Ont., to advocating for better resources and pay in her sport.
“Leading into L.A., I really want to make noise in the sport on helping amateur athletes get paid,” said Newman, who famously supplements her income with an OnlyFans account. “I think we underestimate what we put our bodies through and a lot of us do this for free, but it’s not free.”
“Starting with building the facility to get more athletes to qualify for the Olympics would be my No. 1 goal. And then after that is really having movement and words that will start, you know, getting people more on board and agree for us to get paid better.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
