With no clear successor, Tiger Woods continues to consume the golf spotlight

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tiger Woods is the biggest story at Augusta National this week because he is Tiger Woods, and because nobody else has even come close to performing a passable imitation of Tiger Woods since he won the Masters 25 years ago.

Woods has opened the door to imitators and successors with injuries and scandals. Many have opened that door. None have walked through.

Woods spawned a generation of young golfers who can drive it farther but can't walk 18 holes in his shoes.

If golf had produced another king, or prince, Woods might be more of an oddity and less of an obsession this week.

With the first round of the Masters scheduled to commence on Thursday morning, Scottie Scheffler is the top-ranked player in the world on the strength of three recent victories. He's never won a major.

Jordan Spieth won here in 2015 and has finished in the top three four times since. He also hit the ball into Rae's Creek twice on the 12th hole in 2016 to finish with a quadruple bogey and blow a second straight green jacket, so how do you trust him?

"I've had so many close finishes and top finishes that I'm honestly a little frustrated at not having more than one, just given I think I finished in the top three like five or six times now out of eight starts," Spieth said.

Rory McIlroy needs a Masters win to complete the career grand slam. He missed the cut at the Masters last year. His last three first-round scores: 75, 76, 73. The last time he had a realistic chance to win on Sunday morning, he played in the final twosome with Patrick Reed and shot a final-round 74 to fall to fifth as Reed won.

"I was always a little uncomfortable that day," McIlroy said. "Some days you wake up like that, but I think I could have done a better job mentally.''

Jon Rahm is probably the best overall player in the world right now, but he's fighting his putting stroke on a course designed to test your nerves on the green. Rahm was ranked No. 1 in the world for 43 weeks but has won only one major.

"That's the beauty of the game we live in now," Rahm said. "Anybody can be No. 1 at any point."

Justin Thomas might be the most talented player in the world. He has won one major and he's finished higher than 12th at the Masters once — in 2020, when he shot 71-70 on the weekend to finish fourth.

"I have not even come close to performing well in my entire career in majors," Thomas said. "I feel like I've performed very, very poorly."

Woods was last ranked first in the world on May 17, 2014. Since then, 10 golfers have reached No. 1. They have combined to win 18 majors, 1.8 per player.

Of those 10, three have won three majors or more: Brooks Koepka (4), McIlroy (4) and Spieth (3). Each won majors in a flurry and threatened to dominate the golf world, then receded.

Koepka isn't one of the more popular topics of conversation at Augusta National this week, but his résumé might be the most promising. He won four majors in essentially two calendar years from 2017-2019. While he hasn't won one since, he has finished in the top seven in six of the past nine majors in which he has competed since his last win, even while dealing with injuries that caused him to read putts while creating new yoga positions.

Perhaps no one in the field other than Woods displays confidence externally like Koepka. He loves playing in majors and expects to win. That can't be said of many other golfers these days.

Koepka, like Woods, has played on a bad knee, and has competed while injured without altering his goals.

"It's a major championship," he said. "It's Augusta. Doesn't matter how much pain you're in, you figure out a way."

Sounds like something Tiger would say.