AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods was once all about the W, as in win. He would set his jaw, lower his gaze and explain that he was here for the W – it was why he practiced, worked out and endured the travel and fame. The W was his motivating force.

Today, Woods, 47, is a capital-R Realist. He has teed it up only four times since the February 2021 car accident that did so much damage to his legs, especially the right one. The W? Yeah, his surname needs one. Woods himself – not so much.

“Whether I’m a threat to them or not, who knows,” he said Tuesday at the Masters Tournament at Augusta National, where he was asked if his fellow competitors should fret the prospect of him slipping into his sixth green jacket Sunday evening.

“People probably didn’t think I was a threat in 2019, either” he added, referring to his fifth Masters victory, one short of Jack Nicklaus’ total, “but (that) kind of turned out OK.”

It was not a warning, just a reminder that he won here not long ago. It remains a nice memory. So does the monomaniacal character who captured 15 majors among his 82 PGA TOUR titles. Could there be more? Hard to say. Woods seems to have moved into that hard-to-define place on the competitive map between victory circle and memory lane.

His arms and shoulders look smaller, his shirt bigger. He likes the word “buggy” – as in golf cart, which he will be using in three years, when he joins pal Fred Couples on PGA TOUR Champions. The comment drew a few knowing laughs from the scribes, who could relate.

No one (save for Nicklaus) could relate to peak Woods, who talked mostly about results. Now there aren’t enough results to keep the conversation going: a T45 at The Genesis Invitational in February, his most recent start, and a mixed bag at the 2022 majors: Masters (47th), PGA Championship (WD after the third round), and Open Championship (MC). Most golfers aren’t sure which game is going to show up from day to day; Woods is never sure which leg is going to show up.

Which is to say he still talks easily about golf; he just sounds different.

Woods spoke Tuesday of fatherhood and practicing into the evening with his son, Charlie, the way he did with his late father, Earl. He mentioned having played his home course, the Medalist in South Florida, with an old persimmon wood last week. He brought a couple balata balls to the course Monday to show to Rory McIlroy, Couples, and Tom Kim.

“I threw them over to (McIlroy) and had him hit a couple putts with them, and he said, ‘Oh, my God,’ Woods said. “I said, ‘Yes, exactly.’ This is – we’re not going to roll the ball back that far, but it’s kind of neat to be able to see the golf ball do different things.”

He will try this week to make his 23rd straight cut to tie a record shared by Couples and Gary Player. He spoke of learning how to chip with a 4-iron at Augusta, courtesy of Raymond Floyd, and invoked the passing of course knowledge from one generation to the next. “Hey, I was lucky enough to have played with Freddie and Raymond my first year, and Seve and Ollie,” he said. “That was incredible. And then Jack and Arnold, the Par 3 Contest ...”

That first year, by the way, was 1995 – Woods was an amateur and finished T41.

When he won his first Masters in 1997, Kim was still five years from being born; in scoreboard terms, you’d say he was minus-5. McIlroy was plus-7 but already a big Woods fan.

“He looks good,” said last year’s runner-up McIlroy, who needs only to win the green jacket to complete the career Grand Slam. “You know, if he didn’t have to walk up these hills and have all of that, I’d say he’d be one of the favorites. I mean, he’s got all of the shots.”

Woods said his game is better and his endurance is better than it was at last year’s Masters, when he made the cut (71-74-78-78). His leg, alas, might be worse.

“It aches a little bit more than it did last year just because at that particular time when I came back, I really had not pushed it that often,” he said.

He called his made cut at Augusta last year “a small victory in itself.

“…I know the golf course,” he added, “and I know where to miss and I know where to hit it. I was able to do that and somehow shoot under par and make it to the weekend.”

And there it is, the radical new talking point for one of the most decorated players of all time: Weekend is the new W – unless and until Tiger Woods shocks the world again.