No Tiger, but his news dominates Masters week

There was a story two days ago when the tournament was about to begin that lamented Tiger Woods, the man who wasn’t there, of course. But if Woods is not in the field or on the property, he’s still the biggest golf story of this Masters week.

With the exclusion of Japan, certainly because three rounds into the 2021 Masters the leader, by a good margin, four strokes, is Hideki Matsuyama of Japan.

Matsuyama, coming out of a one-hour-plus storm delay Saturday, played the final eight holes 6 under par and shot a 7-under 65.

And yet by accident — the pun is intentional — the news in the sport belonged to Woods.

It’s all about recognition, about headlines, and for better or worse, over a decade those have been earned by Tiger, both for his achievements — 82 wins, sharing the record with Sam Snead — and difficulties.

It’s always been that way in sport and life.

There are big names, and there are huge names. In New York, on the day Lou Gehrig hit his record 23rd grand slam, Babe Ruth announced his retirement. The Babe got the attention.

So it has been this week with Woods.

After the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced it determined the cause of the February 23 car crash, from which according to some, Tiger was lucky to survive, the information had to remain private. There are legal protections.

Then almost inexplicably, Woods gave permission for the information to become public. That it was released the week of the year’s first major golf championship, the event Woods won five times including unexpectedly, and spectacularly, in 2019?

Only Woods and his advisors would know.

Matsuyama on Sunday could very well become the first from Japan to win any major, and wouldn’t that be poetic justice for the anti-Asian violence and comments of late?

Still, except for golf purists, it doesn’t compare with anything involving Woods.

Matsuyama might get the cover of a golf journal; in an earlier time (say, five years ago before the magazine changed), even the cover of Sports Illustrated. Tiger, on course or off, gets everything.

Woods is no mere sporting hero, he’s an A-list celebrity. If only just for one of the most famous single names in the world. People who don’t know an unplayable lie from a politician’s lie know Tiger.

What none of us knows at the moment is why Woods went public with the crash investigation results, but in the end the choice may be beneficial to Woods and as a warning to others.

The determination was that Woods was driving too fast. Way too fast. Something like 85 to 90 mph in a 45 mph zone in a residential area near Los Angeles.

Woods always pushed the limits, wherever and whatever, channeling his late father, Earl, a Green Beret. Tiger skydived, bungee-jumped, went through military training.

Although not quite the same, he took his chances in golf, going for the green instead of laying up. That Tiger would step on the gas would not be unexpected.

Woods’ nature was never to ease up. He won the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines despite playing with a virtual broken leg that caused him to wince with pain after a swing. He never conceded, to his body or to other competitors.

The Genesis SUV that Tiger was driving hit the center divider and rolled several times. He was critically injured and after first going to a medical facility in southern California is now recovering at home in Florida.

USA Today is covering the Masters, if not quite with the urgency and depth it has covered Tiger — hiring forensic analysts who criticized the conclusions of the L.A. County Sheriff’s report.

Controversy sells, we’re told. But if Matsuyama holds the lead in the Masters, there should be no controversy.

He will have earned the victory that in itself may not make him as famous — or infamous — as Tiger Woods.

But he’ll be a Masters champion, which should be enough.