Bob Lutz: The Masters starts Thursday but will Tiger Woods be masterful?

Does Tiger Woods play golf? Does anyone “play” golf or do they just golf? I get confused.

The Masters begins Thursday and that’s real golf. The best golf of the season, perhaps, on the most plush, beautiful course in the world.

There are a bunch of young guns on the PGA Tour and the Masters’ green jacket would look fine on any of them.

Yet we’re still obsessed by Woods, who was last seen in late-January shooting an 82 at the Phoenix Open.

Woods couldn’t chip to save his life and as a lifelong member of the “Can’t Chip to Save My Life” club, it’s great to have someone of his notoriety as a member.

Unless Woods has fixed that problem, he doesn’t have a chance this weekend.

Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Justin Rose – the list of young long hitters goes on and on. Watson has won two of the previous three Masters and this grand spectacle of a golf course cannot contain him. Word around Augusta is that he’s been seen knocking 9-irons 190 yards. That’s a club with no other members.

Woods has won four Masters championships but none since 2005, when he was 29.

Time stops for no one, of course, and Woods is now 39.

He’s been injured. He hasn’t won a major championship in nearly seven years and there’s no telling what goes on inside his head because he refuses to make us privy to that kind of stuff.

Woods is compelling now more for his failures than his successes. Not that there aren’t those who believe he is capable of pulling off the kind of miracles he pulled off regularly back in the day.

One Las Vegas bookmaker has Woods at 20/1 to win this week in Augusta. Only four have better odds: McIlroy (11/2), Spieth (9/1), Watson (11/1) and Dustin Johnson (14/1).

Woods is still in our heads. We can’t stop thinking he’s what he used to be and not what he’s been lately. You’d be a fool to put money down on Woods this week, yet you want to. I know you do. Admit it.

You think there’s something left in Tiger’s tank. You believe him when he says his mind is right and his game is finely tuned. And if so, well, there’s nobody on the planet with Woods’ ability.

Except there is. This planet has been invaded with a lot of guys who can hit the ball far and who have the mental capacity to go nose-to-nose with Woods and not quiver every time he takes back his driver.

That’s not to say Woods is just another guy. He has the capability to be much more than that. But there are no recent indications that Woods can take center stage in Augusta. It’s more likely he’ll be on one of the auxiliary stages, battling to make the cut.

Woods did win five tournaments as recently as 2013. It’s not like the guy can’t still hit a golf ball. Thing is, though, others can hit it farther and straighter and Woods doesn’t beat them with mind games and wedges anymore.

By all accounts, Woods has been chipping tremendously while listening to hip-hop music on headphones during practices at Augusta this week. If Woods is indeed successful around the greens at Augusta, don’t think every hack in America won’t buy up Iggy Azalea’s song book.

Woods was so bad two months ago that it defies logic to think he’s resolved his short-game issues. He was bumping the ball all over the place in Phoenix, unable to land the ball close to where he was attempting.

His new swing coach, Chris Como, could be easy to spot in Augusta this week. He’ll be the guy jumping the fence if Woods’ shots are going this way and that way but rarely the right way.

Woods obviously wants to prove those who doubt him wrong. That drives many great athletes and those who succeed in any endeavor. “You think I can’t? Well, watch this.”

Golf is confusing for me since Woods lost his luster. I used to want him to win. Now I want him to lose. The stark difference in my feelings for Woods pre- and post-messy divorce is vast. I don’t like the guy and I’m ambivalent about the golfer.

Part of me wants to see him in contention Sunday because, well, it would be riveting.

And part of me wants him to fall off the face of the earth. I want him to chip a ball into the parking lot and make those in his group giggle at his ineptitude. That’s what the golfers I play with do and I want him to experience the humiliation.

The real star of the weekend, though, is Augusta National. No matter how Woods performs, the golf course will thrive.

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: The Masters starts Thursday but will Tiger Woods be masterful?."