Woods, McIlroy and Spieth set to clash

Joy Chakravarty 02:44 09/04/2015
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Major players: Woods and McIlroy.

    They are already calling it the past, present and the future of golf colliding this week at Augusta National Golf Club.

    That’s 39-year-old Tiger Woods, 25-year-old Rory McIlroy and the 21-year-old Jordan Spieth battling for Masters glory.

    Just four years separate McIlroy and Spieth, so there might not be much difference between the present and the future, and I am not yet sure whether Woods can already be considered the past.

    Agreed, this is not the Woods we are used to. To begin with, he played the Par-3 Competition this year, and had his kids on his bag. Come on… this is the same man who thought the Wednesday impinged on his preparation. He is smiling, he is hugging his fellow competitors, he is actually making an effort to reach out to the mere mortals on the Tour.

    And for heaven’s sake, he is even dancing while listening to some music and practicing his short game! Either he has rediscovered the secret to chipping like he did on the 16th hole in 2005, or the fourtime Masters champion is in a very happy place, or he just doesn’t care.

    It’s got to be one of the first two, because Woods is not the kind of person who just shows up. His whole DNA is geared towards what he calls ‘W’ – a ‘win’.

    Fellow players can tell. I have had several instances in the past when professional golfers have called out their colleagues as possible winners just on the basis of watching them hit balls at the driving range. On most occasions, they are right.

    A player who saw Woods practice from close quarters at the driving range on Tuesday, felt he was watching the Woods of yore. The driving was solid, and the iron-play was crisp. And everyone agreed that his short game looked infinitely better than what it was at the Phoenix Open.

    Woods himself has been singlehandedly instrumental in changing the demographics of the game. Otherwise, even a couple of decades ago, 39 was considered an age when professional golfers reached the peak of their career. For me, the magic number is always going to be 46, because that is when Jack Nicklaus won his 18th major.

    Unless and until Woods is crippled because of his back injury, we have all seen him do such incredible things on the golf course that we are never going to give up hope of some more similar magic in the future.

    As certainly as Woods is not the past, there is also no denying that McIlroy is the here and now of golf. Fans of the game should consider themselves extremely lucky that they are able to see two legends of the game plying their trade in the same era.

    The arrival of Woods has shifted the limelight somewhat from McIlroy, which should benefit him immensely. And yet, the Northern Irishman has embraced all kinds of pressure situations and has somehow saved his best golf when everything seems to be going against him.

    So, expect McIlroy to be much more competitive than his previous three starts in the US that yielded just one top-10 finish – which is poor compared to the high standards he has set himself. He has unfinished business with the Masters and he is thirsting for revenge for the embarrassment it caused him in 2011.

    And then there is Spieth. Just 21, but with a maturity of someone in his 40s. The American has shown in the last two years that he is the real deal. He has already secured his second win on the PGA Tour and has broken into the top-five of the world rankings with a superb stretch that has included a win and two runner-up finishes in his last three starts.

    Now all that remains for Spieth to achieve in professional golf is win a major. And he can surely do it this week, having shown just what a phenomenon he is when he finished second behind Bubba Watson last year as a rookie. That will truly complete his transition from boy to man.

    Recommended