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The entire golf world is excited to watch Tiger Woods defend his Masters title at Augusta National Golf Club this weekend. Well, everyone except Nick Faldo.

Faldo, a three-time Masters champion himself, doesn’t think Woods has a chance against the stacked field this year. Woods hasn’t had his A game in recent months, and Faldo doesn’t believe he’ll be able to find it this weekend at Augusta.

Tiger Woods is off his game

Tiger Woods won The Masters in April of 2019, but his game has taken a bit of a nosedive since then. He played well to finish the year after winning his fifth green jacket, but his game has gone missing.

In 2020, Woods finished the PGA Tour season placing 68th, 40th, 37th, 58th, and 51st in his last five starts. He’s only played two events since September. Woods missed the cut at the U.S. Open and finished T72 at the ZOZO Championship last month.

The 15-time major winner just hasn’t been sharp recently, and Faldo expects that to continue this weekend.

Nick Faldo doesn’t give Tiger Woods any chance at the 2020 Masters

Nick Faldo was the one who graced Tiger Woods with his first-ever green jacket in 1997. He knows as well as anyone how dominant Woods was in his prime, but he also knows the toll Woods’ body has taken over the years. Faldo doesn’t believe he’ll it’ll be able to hold up this weekend.

“Unfortunately, things are just more difficult for Tiger,” Faldo told Sporting News. “He’s a little bit older and the back hasn’t been good. His back rules his everything — golf and life, probably. It rules his practice — that’s very important. He cannot stand and hit putts like he used to, he can’t put the work in. He certainly hasn’t put the competitive reps in and he hasn’t had the results. Everything is a challenge this week, the weather conditions, a physical walk. The bottom line is it’s an extremely difficult test for Tiger this week to rekindle that amazing magic from last year.”

Faldo believes it would be a miracle if Woods was able to ‘flip a switch’ and compete this weekend.

“Can you flip a switch and say, ‘I’ll just have the greatest emotional week of possibly my career,’ showing his children he could still be a champion? I don’t believe he could flip the switch on that,” Faldo said. “There’s too many good players. There’s 10 guys or more who are very long hitters, which is going to be key.”

Who does Nick Faldo like this weekend?

Faldo might not like the greatest player of all time to win the 2020 Masters, but is there anyone else catching his eye? Sure, and it’s the same guy seemingly everyone will be watching this weekend — Bryson DeChambeau.

“[DeChambeau] is a completely different animal, literally right now,” Faldo said. “He’s spearheading the whole distance debate. But I’m a fan of his. He’s done it physically and he’s applied the science.”

Can Woods keep up with the bombers like DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Dustin Johnson and prove Faldo wrong at Augusta this weekend?

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Staff Writer

Jack Dougherty

Writing professionally since 2015, Jack Dougherty spent six years as a sportswriter with publications such as GoPSUSports.com, the Centre Daily Times, and the Associated Press before joining Sportscasting in 2020. He covers the NBA, the NFL, and the world of golf extensively and has added expertise on any team located in or around his hometown of Philadelphia. Yes, that includes the Philadelphia Eagles, the Philadelphia 76ers, and Philadelphia Phillies.

When Jack isn’t writing about sports, he’s watching them or playing them as he regularly heads to the gym for some pickup basketball or the golf course to hit the links. He’s also an avid participant in the sports betting scene who worked at a casino sportsbook for a year and learned the ins and outs of the industry before bringing his expertise to Sportscasting with one excellent gambling recommendation after another.