AUGUSTA, GA. – Golf has reached a turning point. Like most turning points, this one offers the chance to reminisce or regret, to hope or worry.
For the first time in 20 years, they held a major championship at Augusta National and neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson played on the weekend. If they weren't missed for much of the Masters, as youngsters and seniors vied for attention, they were missed Sunday afternoon, when their play inevitably draws the eye, whether they're making eagles or rinsing golf balls in Rae's Creek.
Their old selves might be missed for a long time.
Woods hasn't won a major since 2008 and is recovering from back surgery, perhaps the most devastating procedure a golfer can undergo. He no longer holds his old advantages of length or intimidation, and he has dedicated at least part of his life to raising his children, raising questions about whether he will ever regain the fierce dedication that separated himself from so many of his peers.
Mickelson, at 43, is past his prime and, as Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee noted this week, has lost club-head speed, robbing him of distance.
Neither is what he once was, and that's a shame, because they never became, together, what we had hoped.
Either could win another major or win another Masters, but the odds of them appearing again at the same Masters ceremony have greatly diminished.
We hoped for a rivalry, for two players who vied for so many of the same majors and who never liked each other to duel on back nines for decades. It rarely happened anywhere, and it never really happened at Augusta National, and that's strange and sad.
