This is the 2011 version, a 35-year-old divorced father of two, for whom the Masters is make-or-break. But this isn’t the magnificent Tiger who announced his arrival at the top of the game with a stunning victory on the Augusta course in 1997, on his way to earning an astonishing $1 billion from the sport. Certainly not on the eve of this week’s Masters, the most prestigious tournament in American golf. The young Tiger Woods – who seemed invincible – would never have said such a thing. ‘I may be playing with friends, family, whatever,’ he continues with a mournful note, ‘but at this level?’ But here is the most successful sportsman of our age returning my gaze with weary eyes and doing just that. Great athletes can’t afford to contemplate failure, so they rarely admit that the end is in sight. It takes a moment to realise what he’s saying. 'I’m not going to be doing this forever,’ says Tiger Woods. That's very important to me,' said Tiger Woods
