In a hypothetical world, what do you think would happen if Tiger Woods were to stay away from golf completely(not touch a club, chip in the backyard, or putt on the carpet), until the 2009 Masters. I mean absolutely no practice until the morning of his Thursday round, where he would stretch, hit a bucket of balls, and practice putt for an hour or so.
I think this would be the greatest test of natural ability for the best golfer ever, and in my opinion Tiger would shoot in the low 90s. He has a lot of talent but he practices harder and smarter than anyone and that's why he's the best.
I think high 70's would probably be the worst he would shoot. I think I could put down my clubs for a couple years and still break 100 first time touching a club, and I am far from being the best player in the world.
It's Augusta though, par has been a great score there the last few years. I would say he shoots 80. Probably some wazoo drives and no feel for the greens you see. Just kidding, he would still place top five. Now if he had to play on one leg after a year lay off.....
I think his course management skills, and his caddy, would contribute greatly to keeping him below 100, but I can't imagine he'd be better than that. Muscle memory doesn't work that great after a year- takes awhile to build that back. Endurance is another factor.
I think he could go low and win. He'd struggle at first, but his heart, desire and focus combined with his past experience at Augusta would let him dig deep and pull it off.
Its polls like this that Tiger would see and go " not break 90?!, watch this..." and proceed to win by a larger margin than he did in '97. The man is a machine and if you stick a carrot like this in front of him, he will catch it.
MNGolfer
Damn right. He would be under par if he got to warm up and putt, for sure. Add in the motivational factor of people saying he cant do it and see what he shoots then. I think he would win.