Tiger Woods Graces Latest Cover of Sports Illustrated Ahead of Masters

Tiger Woods won’t be playing in the Masters this year – at least he isn’t at this point in time – and barring some sort of miracle recovery over the next week he won’t be in the Masters field for the second time in three years.

Woods finished tied for 17th in last year’s tournament at Augusta. He played well and was six-under entering the weekend, but couldn’t quite hold it together on Sunday and closed out his final round with a 73.

Ahead of the Masters this year, Sports Illustrated is placing Woods on the cover of their latest issue. Alan Shipnuck wrote a great piece entitled, “What Happened? It Remains The Most Vexing Question in Sports,” regarding Woods’ fall from the top of the sport.

The article includes quotes like this:

"“We chummed the water for seven or eight hours, but there’s not a shark to be seen,” Howell recalls. “Tiger is bored out of his mind. He’s wearing a wet suit to dive into the cage in case any sharks come, and suddenly he just jumps into open water. He’s decided to swim over to the island and get up close to the seals. The guys on the boat are going nuts, shouting for Tiger to come back, but he just keeps swimming, through all the chum. The seals start hopping around and hollering like they do. Tiger is having a great time. After what seems like an eternity, he swims back and casually gets on the boat.” Howell pauses for a moment, lost in the story. “He’s just different from normal people,” he adds. “Completely fearless.”"

Fearless.

It’s been 11 years since Tiger last donned a green jacket at Augusta, and in that time we’ve seen plenty of guys rise to the top of the sport. While we, the media, love Tiger Woods because he constantly gives us snippets of content, this year’s Masters is all about the young guys.