Game’s young stars get kicks out of Tiger time
Even though Tiger Woods hasn’t played a PGA Tour event in almost seven months, he still has a huge impact on the game.
As he recovers from his fourth back surgery and from an infamous DUI arrest and subsequent rehab for prescription pills, Woods now finds joy in his connection with the up-and-coming stars of the game he once dominated. That includes PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas, who found it“surreal” that Woods wanted to hang out with him in Florida after the victory — which meant quite a bit to the 24-year-old Thomas.
“I probably got just as much joy out of that as I did winning, which is just bizarre to say and probably for you all to hear me say,” Thomas said Wednesday, a day before the start of The Northern Trust, the first FedEx Cup playoff event held at Glen Oaks Club in Old Westbury.
“It’ s just really cool. [Woods] has taken an unbelievable role with some of us young guys and wanting to help us if he can.”
That also includes Thomas’ good friend, Jordan Spieth, who was getting texts from Woods after every round of the British Open in July.
Spieth won the Open for his third major championship and now is just 11 behind Woods.
“It’ s amazing ,” the 24-year-old Speith said. “I was getting texts from him each round at the Open
Championship after each round, like ‘good start kid’ and then it was ‘keep it going’ and ‘you’ve got this, stay focused,’ whatever it may be.” As a Northern Irishman, Rory McIlroy has a strong rooting interest for Conor McGregor, a native of the Republic of Ireland, in his fight against Floyd May weather on Saturday night. McIlroy said he has me t McGregor, and although he might not always agree with his bragg a doc ian style, the golfer does like McGregor’s approach to “visualization” and “the law of attraction.”
“I’m a believer in that stuff, and I’m a big advocate of that,” McIlroy said. “And some of the stuff he does wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but he believes 100 percent in himself and he believes he’s going to go out t here on Sat urday night and shock the world.” Hideki Matsuyama has come in second three times to Thomas this season, including in the PGA Championship two weeks ago. At least from Thomas’ perspective, it could be a budding rivalry — one that continues with their star-studded grouping with Spieth, going off the 10th tee at 8:26 a.m. on Thursday.
“If you told me the beginning of every week I could beat one guy, [Matsuyama] is up there, because he’s always going to be in the top 10, top 15, if not the top 5,” Thomas said. “It’s been fun to battle it out with him, just because he’s such a competitor. His game is so, so good.”