AUGUSTA, Ga. — They gathered around the first tee full of hope and nostalgia, a powerful, if often fruitless cocktail for golf fans. By the time their hero hit Amen Corner, amid a stiff breeze and gathering darkness, he was met with a standing ovation.
This is the Masters and that was Tiger Woods in the middle of another throng of fans, craning their necks to see him smack a drive 272 yards up the hill of the first fairway of Augusta National or save par from some mulch behind 12 or punch out from the pine straw on 13 or so on.