j.d. cuban (2)
issue 4. 2020 | golf digest 75rob mcnamara: Joe does the
same, by the way—there’s no
text back from Joe.
mark steinberg (Woods’
agent, and a partner at
Excel Sports Management):
I could call [Joe] right now
and play the voice message:
Hey, it’s Joe. Leave a message.
If it sounds interesting, I’ll
try and get back to you. If not,
probably won’t...
joe lacava: Truth hurts.
mark steinberg: I respect
that.
joe lacava: Don’t take it
personally—that’s with
everybody.... So I got a text
back. He goes, “I’ll be there
Sunday at 2 o’clock waiting
to go around the front nine
and chip and putt,” Like it
was his idea. I’m like, “OK,
great, perfect.” Anyway, we got
a lot of work done that Sunday
afternoon [hitting the golfcourse at about 4:20 p.m.].
It was nice. It turns out,
Tuesday was a washout, so it
worked out to our advantage.FORESHADOWING
A BIG FINAL-ROUND PUTT
tiger woods: The one smart
decision I think we really
made was on Tuesday, when
it just hosed down rain. All
the guys who went out and
played said it was useless to
go out there because it was
gonna be so much faster
come Thursday. I just did
drill work and worked on
technique.
joe lacava: Wednesday, we
did nine with Fred [Couples]
and JT [Justin Thomas].
You might not have heard the
story, but the pin on No. 9 [in
the final round] was basically
out there on Wednesday, the
same location. Tiger dropped
one on the back of the green
[about 70 feet from the hole]
and challenged JT to a little
putting contest, closest to the
pin. So we basically hit thesame putt on Wednesday
that we did on Sunday. I mean,
you can putt that thing off
the green. You could leave
it up top, which means
you’re going to make a 5 or 6.
Wednesday, it’s a pretty easy
putt. Not on Sunday. You’ve
got to barely carry the ridge to
trickle it down there, and he
did [to within a foot]. Amazing
putt, really.A GOOD START
Woods shoots a first-round
70—matching his opening
score in three of his four
previous Masters wins—and
was T-11, trailing co-leaders
Bryson DeChambeau and
Brooks Koepka by four strokes.
The last Masters winner
outside the top 10 after the first
round had been Woods, who
was T-33 and seven strokes
behind Chris DiMarco after the
opening 18 in 2005.
● ● ●
joe lacava: It’s nice to get off
to a good start by hitting that
first fairway. It sounds weird—
every hole counts just as much
as the others. Make a good
drive on 1, which might not be
his favorite driving hole, and
knock it safely on the green.
A no-sweat 20-foot two-putt
par is kind of nice, you know
what I mean? He just had this
demeanor about him, but
he was still in a mood where
he could talk to people and
say hello. He wasn’t ignoring
people, just a little more
focused than he had been.A NEAR-DISASTER
Woods shoots a second-round
68 and moves up to T-6,
trailing co-leaders Koepka,Jason Day, Francesco Molinari,
Louis Oosthuizen and Adam
Scott by a stroke, but the day
has a scary moment: A security
guard attempting to keep
spectators back at the 14th hole
slips on the wet turf and clips
Woods’ ankle.
● ● ●
tiger woods: He was just
trying to do his job. Look,
it was slippery out there.
He tried to put the brakes on,
and unfortunately my right
knee went around my left.
And that’s what hurt. It did
hurt. My LCL in my right leg,
I definitely felt it. But, I gotta go
play, so off I went [and birdied
the hole].... You know, when
you play in front of a lot of
people, things happen.
joe lacava: Friday is a round
that could have been better.
He birdies 11 [but misses
opportunities at 12, 13, 17 and
18]. You know, you’re just
happy to be in contention, but
I always look at it as we should
be better, if not running away
with the tournament.
nick faldo (CBS): He makes
two birdies out of the left trees
on 14 on Thursday and Friday,
and he [later] makes two pars
out of the right trees on 11.
Now, you give him four crooked
drives, as we know at Bethpage
[2019 PGA], and you’re missing
the cut. Augusta, he can get
away with it.MAKING A MOVE
Woods shoots a five-under-
par 67 on Saturday, his best
round of the tournament,
to move into a tie for second
with Tony Finau (64), two
strokes behind Molinari (66),
the leader at 13-under 203.
● ● ●
joe lacava: We can go back
to 14, making two birdies
from those trees [Thursday
and Friday]. That’s like
stealing. On Saturday, he
came up, hit it right down
the fairway, hit it in there not
close, whatever, 20 feet, but
missed it. I jokingly said we
would have been better off in
the trees.
frank nobilo: He had a few
believers on Thursday, he gotfocus of attention▶ A mass of people at No. 3 (left) and
at No. 9 (below), where Woods two-
putted from 70 feet on Sunday.