McIlroy’s moment: Why winning the Masters this year would mean more

Imagine you are 41. Or 71. Or 101. Now imagine life has lately felt like a 1,000-piece puzzle of white space. It’s not supposed to be white space; it’s supposed to be a vivid picture, bursting with color and texture. You’ve just got to see it in your mind’s eye, and so you keep working, piece by agonizing piece, because it’s there, somewhere, and you’ve still got something left to give. Much ink has been spilled on the appeal of Tiger Woods, who this week at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas makes his first competitive start in 10 months. But the appeal of late-career Woods boils down to this: He thinks he still has something left to give, and who among us can’t relate? Regardless of age and circumstances, we ALL think we have something left to give. “I think Tiger will definitely win another tournament,� Hank Haney, one of his former coaches, said on his SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio show on Monday. “I think he’s got a good shot at winning a major. If he practices part-time and he is healthy enough to play 15 to 18 tournaments and is not on pain-killer medication and is able to move freely like he is now, I think he can win golf tournaments.� Woods has 79 TOUR victories, including 14 majors, and we all know these numbers by heart because they have been frozen in time. But could there be more? Tom Brady and Peyton Manning won Super Bowls at 39, Manning after having undergone cervical neck fusion. Jack Nicklaus won the Masters and Johnny Miller the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at 46, Miller after being chased into semi-retirement by the yips. “Handsome� Harry Gant was NASCAR’s oldest to take the checkered flag at 52, his left-turn signal no doubt blinking the whole way at the 1992 Champion Spark Plug 400. You think Woods has no chance? Consider: When he came back at least year’s Hero, his surgically repaired back still not quite surgically repaired (as we now know), he paced the field with 24 birdies. On Monday, news began trickling out of the Bahamas regarding his latest Hero-ics: Woods was outdriving his practice-round playing partner, Patrick Reed, by anywhere from 10-20 yards. Haney went on the air with praise for Woods’ latest swing, and Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee took to Twitter with similarly positive reviews. The pessimist in us says to give it up, seeing as how Woods has made just one PGA TOUR start in the last two years, and he hasn’t won since 2013. The optimist reminds that he won five times that year. And the heart says that it’s better to dream. Always. That might sound preposterous, but then so did the idea that Nolan Ryan would pitch his sixth ho-hitter at age 43, and Sam Snead would win the Greater Greensboro Open at Sedgefield Country Club for the eighth time at 52, and, well, you get the idea. Doug Ferguson of Sports Betting News points out that this marks the 10th time Woods has returned from layoffs of 10 weeks or longer. All but two of those layoffs have been injury-related—balky knee; ruptured Achilles; bad back—and not all of the comebacks have gone well. Last year, despite making all those birdies at the Hero, and shooting a second-round 65, Woods finished 22 shots behind the winner, Hideki Matsuyama. Of the 17 players who finished (Justin Rose withdrew), Woods beat only Russell Knox and Emiliano Grillo. Still, Woods had big plans for 2017. Then he missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open, shot an opening 77 and withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic a week later, pulled out of his next two scheduled starts, and had surgery in April. So here he comes again, and what are we to think? Should we decry our own stupidity for falling for this old ruse again? Nah. Today is a day to appeal to our better selves and remember that Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run at age 40, and Pablo Picasso painted “Guernica� at 55. To accept that Father Time is undefeated, yes, but to accept, too, that we all have something left to give, and the essence of life itself is finding out exactly what that is.

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PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Jordan Spieth is having problems with his putting. Rory McIlroy is struggling with his full swing. Those are usually their strengths, but not this week at the Valspar Championship. Both players finished at 5-over 147 at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course to miss the cut. Spieth finished 10 shots behind playing partner Tiger Woods after shooting 76-71. McIlroy fired 74-73. This was McIlroy’s sixth consecutive over-par round, the second-longest streak of his PGA TOUR career (he had eight consecutive over-par rounds in April 2010). McIlroy has finished 18 strokes behind Woods in six rounds since leaving Riviera. Spieth and McIlroy, winners of two of the past three FedExCups, find themselves farther down the standings than they’d like at this point in the season. Spieth started this week at No. 52, while McIlroy is 175th. McIlroy is scheduled to play next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, while Spieth will take a week off before the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Championship in his college town of Austin, Texas. McIlroy began the year by shooting 40 under par in two top-three finishes in the Middle East. He has two missed cuts in four PGA TOUR starts and is coming off a T59 at The Honda Classic. He’s 14 over par in his past six rounds. “It’s hard because when I play my weeks off or practice, it feels pretty good,� McIlroy said. “When I get out on the course it isn’t quite the same.� He hit just half his greens through 36 holes and 14 of 26 fairways. “I’ve shown signs of good play this year already and I just need to see a couple of good scores and I think that will maybe give me a little boost going forward,� McIlroy said. Spieth thought he was making progress with his putting, but admitted that this week was a “step back.� It’s his first missed cut at the Valspar Championship. He won in 2015 and had finished no worse than T20 in his previous four starts here. He had finished in the top 25 in five of six starts this season; a missed cut at the Waste Management Phoenix Open was the exception. He made just three of 16 putts from 7 to 15 feet this week. “When I look up, I’m looking right of where my putter is pointed and therefore there’s just not much of a commitment and not much consistency,� Spieth said. He points to his win at last year’s Open Championship as inspiration. He was struggling with his setup but started rolling putts once he started addressing the ball properly. “I don’t want it to be streaky,� he said. “I’d rather be consistent but the good news is my confidence can flip into a pretty elite level once that kind of clicks. I’ve just been searching for that.� NOTABLES Corey Conners – The PGA TOUR rookie who unsuccessfully tried to Monday qualify for the Valspar Championship held onto the lead with a 2-under 69 on Friday. Conners, who got into the field after the qualifier, is two shots ahead of five players: Paul Casey, Brandt Snedeker, Tiger Woods, Ryan Palmer and Kelly Kraft. He made four birdies and a double-bogey (on the par-3 fourth hole) on Friday. Conners has made 10 of 11 cuts this season but has yet to record a top-25 finish. He is 133rd in this season’s FedExCup. Tiger Woods – He held the solo lead after a birdie on his 14th hole, but he made his lone bogey of the day at the last hole. He’ll start the weekend in a share of second place, two strokes behind Corey Conners. Click here for more on Woods’ round. Brandt Snedeker – The former FedExCup champion is having his best week since suffering a rib injury last July. He’ll start the weekend in second place, two shots behind Conners. Snedeker, No. 74 in the world ranking, needs a high finish to qualify for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. He also must crack the top 50 in the world ranking to qualify for the Masters. Snedeker will play with Woods in Saturday’s second-to-last group at 1:45 p.m. Justin Rose – The winner of this season’s World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions sits at 3-under 139 (70-69) after making just three bogeys over 36 holes. He’s in contention, despite hitting just 12 of 26 fairways and 19 of 36 greens through two rounds. Sam Burns – The Web.com Tour member got in the field with his T8 at The Honda Classic, where he outdueled Tiger Woods in the final round. Burns is back in contention, sitting in 12th place after two rounds. He could earn special temporary membership with a T3 finish this week. Five years ago, Jordan Spieth earned that status at the Valspar Championship. Burns also is in the field for next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. Patrick Reed – Three years after losing a memorable playoff here to Jordan Spieth, Reed finds himself in contention once again after shooting a second-round 69. Reed sits at 2 under par, four shots off the lead. He made just one bogey Friday. Tony Finau – The seventh-ranked player in the FedExCup missed the cut after shooting consecutive 74s. It’s just his second missed cut in 10 starts this season (Waste Management Phoenix Open). QUOTABLE I want him to win again because I want these kids to see what we dealt with for a long, long time. SUPERLATIVES Longest drive: 406 yards. Seamus Power on the par-4 10th hole. It was the day’s longest drive by 36 yards. Longest putt: 77 feet, 10 inches. Tyrone Van Aswegen holed that long birdie putt on the par-3 17th. He also made a 35-foot birdie putt and 32-foot birdie putt. Lowest round: 65, Van Aswegen. His bogey-free round jumped him 90 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 12th. Hardest hole: The 456-yard, par-4 16th played to a 4.29 stroke average Friday. Easiest hole: The 571-yard, par-5 11th played to a 4.67 scoring average. Sam Burns made one of two eagles on the hole Friday. SHOT OF THE DAY

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This week we head to Silvis, Illinois, and birdie-friendly TPC Deere Run, for the 20-year anniversary of John Deere’s title sponsorship. Designed by Illinois native and former TOUR pro D.A. Weibring, TPC Deere Run is set on an old Arabian horse farm along the Rock River. The scenic course features ponds and ravines, elevation changes and hardwood trees—and lots of red numbers. Players have made 30,042 birdies over the last 17 years at TPC Deere Run, the most of any course on TOUR. Six weeks and eight events remain until THE NORTHERN TRUST and the start of the FedExCup playoffs. With time running out to get into the top 125, some of the players hanging on just inside the cut line include Bubba Watson, Zach Johnson and Stricker. No one plays TPC Deere Run better than Stricker and Johnson, who are a combined 307 under par there since 2000. Could this be a get-well week for them? And keep an eye on this week’s winner, as nine of the past 10 John Deere Classic champions have gone all the way to the FedExCup finale, the TOUR Championship at East Lake. RELATED LINKS: Tee times | Field | Course | Past results PGA TOUR LIVE is scheduled to air from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. After Featured Groups, the coverage will switch to Featured Holes at 4 p.m. The Featured Holes are the 361-yard, par-4 14th, which plays downhill and will tempt the longest hitters to try to drive the green, and the picturesque, 158-yard, par-3 16th, where players will aim for the green on a bluff 40 feet above the Rock River. PGA TOUR LIVE can also be viewed on Twitter from approximately 8 a.m. to 9:20 a.m. Thursday and Friday. (Note: All times Eastern; FedExCup ranking in parentheses.) THURSDAY Brian Harman (11), Wesley Bryan (28), Cody Gribble (74): Right-handed Bryan is the odd man out in this lefty-friendly group. Harman is enjoying his best season after a win at the Wells Fargo Championship and a T2 at the recent U.S. Open at Erin Hills. He’s hanging tough at 10th on the Presidents Cup points list. Bryan became one of four rookies to win on TOUR this season at the RBC Heritage, but has struggled since and is coming off a T46 finish at the Quicken Loans National. And Gribble, who last October won the Sanderson Farms Championship, is trying to snap a streak of three consecutive missed cuts.  Tee time: 8:50 a.m. off 10 tee Zach Johnson (103), Daniel Berger (9), Charles Howell III (17): This group features one of the most popular players in the field in Johnson, a Cedar Rapids native who played for Drake University of Des Moines. Johnson is also the 2012 John Deere champ, has finished T3 or better in five of the last six years, and sits on the tournament’s board of directors. Berger already has one win this season at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, where he went back-to-back, and at fourth in Presidents Cup points he has locked up a spot on the U.S. team. Howell nearly won the recent Quicken Loans National, falling to Kyle Stanley in a sudden-death playoff, despite the fact that he was coming off a nine-week break due to a rib injury.   Tee time: 9 a.m. off 10 tee FRIDAY Ryan Moore (61), Kyle Stanley (14), William McGirt (77): Five-time TOUR winner Moore is the Deere’s defending champion, and is coming off a banner season in which he nearly won the TOUR Championship and finished a career-high seventh in the FedExCup. Moore will try to continue a streak of 23 consecutive sub-par rounds at TPC Deere Run. Stanley’s last start saw him notch his first victory in five years, an emotional win at the Quicken Loans National in the nation’s capital two weeks ago. And McGirt is coming back to the Deere after a one-year hiatus; he shot four straight 69s and finished T41 in 2015.     Tee time: 8:50 a.m. off 10 tee Steve Stricker (121), Bubba Watson (118), Kevin Kisner (8): This group features three-time Deere winner Stricker (2009-2011) along with Watson, who is going for his 10th TOUR victory, and Kisner, who collected his second win at the recent DEAN & DELUCA Invitational in Texas. Stricker, 50, who finished T16 at the U.S. Open, is still competitive on TOUR amid his preparations to captain the U.S. Presidents Cup team at Liberty National in September. Watson, who finished T6 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, is making his first start at the Deere since 2010 (MC). His best finish there is a T17 in 2006. And Kisner has already amassed six top-10s this season, including a win at the DEAN & DELUCA and a playoff runner-up at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. At fifth in Presidents Cup points, Kisner, like Berger, has locked up a spot on the U.S. team that will take on the Internationals at Liberty National in September. Tee time: 9 a.m. off 10 tee

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