And that sore body was evident Friday when he had to play 23 holes — five to finish his first round after storms shortened Thursday’s opening day, then 18 in the second round.
But he battled windy conditions to stay in contention at the 16th major and received a standing ovation from spectators gathered around the 18th green when he finished.
He then smiled and said he would contact Fred Couples to “give him a bit of a needle” to move away from 1992 Masters winner and three-time champion Gary Player, who both made 23 consecutive Masters cuts.
Woods is tied for 22nd and will know that history is against him, with only one of the last 28 Masters champions outside the top 10 at this point – South African Charl Schwartzel, who was also six when he won in 2011.
At the start of the week, Woods said he was capable of winning “if everything falls into place” and so far he has put in two solid rounds of golf. Now he needs something spectacular if he’s going to live up to Nicklaus.
Rory McIlroy and defending champion Jon Rahm also need spectacular weekends, but they also refuse to admit defeat – despite falling 10 and 11 shots behind the leader, respectively – and spoke of their chances of scoring victories of return very unlikely.
World number two McIlroy, who scored a 77 out of five to drop to four, noted: “I won out of 10 in Dubai at the start of the year. But obviously the Dubai Desert Classic and the Masters are two golf courses very different tournaments.
“We’ll see. Hopefully the conditions will be a little better. I still think I can go out and take a low shot, get back into the red numbers and have a half chance before Sunday.”