IS TIGER IN THE WARS... AGAIN?
Fresh doubts over Woods as Masters looms
‘WOODS HAS VERY RARELY SKIPPED THE WGC EVENTS WHILE FIT’
WHEN it comes to Tiger Woods, unanswered questions have always been as much a part of the territory as the dazzling victories. So it is once more, with a little over seven weeks to go before his defence of the Masters, and the most dazzling win of all.
The maestro’s bewildering decision to skip this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship has inevitably raised more speculation about the state of his health. Woods has rarely skipped the WGC events when he has been fit.
Why would you? With no halfway cut, they offer free World ranking and FedEx Cup points.
This year, they come with the tasty bonus of Olympic points too, enticing enough, you would have thought, for a player who has proclaimed his eagerness to make America’s team in what will surely be his last chance to compete in the biggest sporting event of all.
Less than two hours before the deadline to commit on Friday, and Woods still wouldn’t give a straight answer as to whether he was playing in Mexico.
After a disappointing secondround 73 at the event he hosts, the Genesis Invitational, he’d left Riviera when the deadline passed without him submitting an entry.
Woods finished 10th in Mexico last year and professed to liking the challenge of playing at altitude. The warm temperatures also suit.
It should be said there were no obvious signs of distress while he was playing on Friday. He also only played four warm-up events before Augusta last year, and that obviously worked out fine.
But there were enough troubling tell-tale signs to draw, if not a red flag then certainly an amber one.
How many times in his career has Woods started an event brightly before fading badly? If he starts well, he either wins – as at his 82nd PGA Tour victory in Korea last October – or is at least a factor until the end. On Thursday, he was swinging beautifully for nine holes, reaching four under par with two kick-in birdies and an eagle.
Then he couldn’t swing the club at all. The same thing on Friday. After a bright start, he badly missed a couple of greens with a wedge and a sand wedge in his hands. After that wonderful beginning, he was a very un-Tiger-like four over par for his next 27 holes.
Of course, it could just be earlyseason rust, or the vagaries of playing at a Riviera venue where he’s never won in 12 previous attempts. But, if it was the former, isn’t that another reason for playing in Mexico?
The most likely explanation is that this is the new reality for Woods, now 44 and two years down the line following make-or-break fusion surgery on his back.
Is he capable of playing consecutive events any more? At the four day Presidents Cup in Melbourne last December, he was quite plainly the best player on view over the first two days, but then sat out the third day even though America was trailing. Assistant captain Fred Couples later made the sort of disclosure Tiger never would: he said Woods simply didn’t feel supple enough to play.
After Mexico this week it is the Florida swing, where an event near Tiger’s home (the Honda Classic) is followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational – a tournament he’s won eight times – and the PGA Tour’s signature event, the Players Championship. Right now, the only thing of which we can be sure is that Tiger will not be playing in all three.
Woods is not alone in missing out in Mexico. Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose won’t be there either.
But these two have good reasons. Both are presently committed to all four events in Florida, while Rose’s son Leo is on mid-term this week and he wants some family time before his busy stretch. Perhaps Woods wants to spend time with his kids, although wouldn’t you just say that, as Rose did? With Tiger, nothing is ever straightforward.
Woods began his third round at Riviera yesterday nine shots behind the halfway leader, American Matt Kuchar, with Rory McIlroy lurking menacingly just two shots off the pace.
Among a decorated cast looking to make forward moves from five shots adrift were Dustin Johnson, a former winner of this event, Spaniard Jon Rahm and two Englishmen in Rose and Paul Casey.