For Tiger Woods, ruling at Masters a major issue

AUGUSTA. Ga. - More and more, at the National, it is less and less about the golf.

Perhaps it never really was about the golf. Perhaps it was always about a scene, an ethic, a morality; and, lately, a commentary on the glacial pace of change.

It was never less about the golf than this, the 77th edition of the Masters.

The richest and most controversial man in the sport's history added a complex chapter to his legacy, simply by being too masterful.

Other subplots surfaced, or evolved. A 14-year-old amateur taught the world the meaning of true grace. Fan favorites became sidelights. Gender equity was a footnote. The Australian Duck became extinct. Long putters? Please.

Overshadowing it all, as always, was Tiger, charging down the back and finishing at 5-under . . . and unintentionally ensuring his latest controversy will forever live in Masters history.

Tiger finished tied for fourth, four strokes out of a playoff. Four strokes that fate, and ignorance, and sloppy adjudication combined to rob him of a shot at a 15th major.

Woods nailed the flagstick at No. 15 on Friday, a shot too perfect for its own good. The ball ricocheted into the water. He then broke a rule by dropping too far from his original shot. He signed his scorecard - a scorecard later ruled incorrect because Woods admitted violating the rule after the round.

A sympathetic tournament committee deemed the circumstance unfortunate, but not illegal. It effectively ignored the rule of law by which golf usually lives, and legislated with common sense. Justice, if not law, prevailed, in an arena where law is malleable.

The Masters is an invitational tournament with a limited field. Its caretakers liberally apply their own version of the rules to their tournament: Just ask Arnold Palmer and Dow Finsterwald and bitter Ken Venturi.

Now, for 2 months, the Flagstick Drop will be golf's top story. It will reign until Woods visits Merion Golf Club in June for the U.S. Open for the fifth anniversary of his major drought.

For 2 months, he and the rest of the golf world can wallow in what might have been.

"We could do that 'what-if' in every tournament we lose," Woods said.

He then admitted that hitting the flagstick might be the worst break of his career. And, his answer to whether he thinks about Friday's "what-if" was telling.

"Not," he said, "when I'm playing."

At 5:40 p.m. Sunday, the "what-ifs" in Augusta, Ga. became relevant.

What if Tiger didn't hit the flagstick on 15? What if he made the resultant birdie putt? What if that four-shot swing gave him the lead through 15 holes Sunday.

What if Tiger had not been assessed a two-stroke penalty? What if he never said he dropped incorrectly? What if he has those two strokes back? What if he then is tied for second with two others, one behind Jason Day, on the 16th tee?

What if tournament officials disqualified Tiger on Friday night or Saturday morning?

Well, this would all be moot.

Pick your fantasy scenario. Given the myriad variables, it can only be fantasy.

He hit the stick. He was assessed the penalty. He, and everyone else, played on.

Having played on, Woods also would have been within a shot of the lead with three holes to play had he not bogeyed Nos. 5 and 7 on Sunday afternoon, had he not used Saturday's feathery touch on Sunday's sticky greens. He turned at 1-over for the day. He also left a birdie low at No. 16, and Masters winners tend to make birdie putts at 16.

At 6:51, when Adam Scott back-sided a birdie on 18, the four shots Tiger gave up on Friday would have meant a tie.

Would have. Didn't.

What Scott's back-sided birdie meant was that the golf was over for everyone except him and Angel Cabrera, who fired a scud to 3 feet and forced the playoff.

It meant Scott's pretty face no longer would be the face of choking, having lost last year's British Open with bogeys on the last four holes. It meant Jason Day's bogey-bogey gag on 16 and 17 would not make him replace Scott as Australia's new anti-hero. Duck is slang for zero in Australia, as in the zero Masters accumulated by Greg Norman and Australia's other eight major champions, as well as Scott and Day, who came close last year.

By the time Woods posted his score, the Duck remained alive.

The furor surrounding 14-year-old Tianlang Guan, who was issued the first slow-play penalty in Masters history, lingered as a lesson in comportment. The ruling put a partially fluent middle school kid carrying the hopes of a billion people perilously close to the cut line. He made it . . . and, then, as he handled the moment with amazing grace, he made everyone around him look oafish.

The youngest player to start a major and the youngest to make a cut at a PGA Tour event, Guan finished 12-over but never worse than 5-over in any round. His worst round was better than Rory McIlroy's and as good as Phil Mickelson's and Bubba Watson's.

He never said he agreed with the penalty. Asked Sunday how he rated his first Masters experience, Guan replied: "It was pretty good. After the first couple of days."

Grading on a curve, Guan played better than some of the galleries' favorites.

Bubba, the defending champion, eked in under the cut, took a 10 on the par-3 12th Sunday and finished 7-over. Phil's Phrankenwood was, phrankly, awful, and his jumbo putter grip was a big disappointment; he ended plus-9. Bonny young Rory, his Nike britches stuffed with Nike riches, continued to search for his game. He was 2-over.

Augusta National's first female members, politician Condoleezza Rice and financier Darla Moore, neither were available, nor particularly visible.

And, for most of the week, nobody cared that Scott used a putter that helps golfers cheat. OK, not cheat, exactly.

Just like Tiger didn't cheat on No. 15.

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