Tiger Woods' absence from The Masters for the first time in his professional career may be bad news for the golfing public, but looks like good news for the rest of the field, and in particular the Irish contingent.
Of the 68 majors played so far in Woods’ career, he has missed only four, and all four have gone on to be won by an Irish player.
After winning the last of his 14 majors to date at the 2008 US Open, Woods took the rest of the season off to have surgery on his knee.
That meant missing two majors, both of which were won by Padraig Harrington. The Dubliner overcame his own injury problems to win The Open at Birkdale, retaining the title he’d won at Carnoustie the previous year, then added the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills the following month.
Woods returned to competition at the start of 2009, and continued to play in every major through the personal troubles which became public at the end of that year.
In 2011 however, leg injuries sustained early in the season resulted in missing two more majors.
The first of those was the US Open, where Rory McIlroy coasted home by eight shots to land his first major title.
Woods still wasn’t back by the time The Open came around at Sandwich the following month, and yet again there was an Irish champion, as Darren Clarke finally ended his much longer wait for a breakthrough major title.
Harrington sadly isn’t in the field for Augusta next week, but McIlroy and Clarke both are, and so is the 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell.
At the very least, this historical quirk is on their side.
