‘BETTER’ BELIEVE IT
After getting around Augusta, Tiger feels up to PGA challenge
TULSA, Okla. — Tournamentweek Tiger Woods over the past two-plus decades has always been about the end result. Win or fail. Here’s the routine:
Woods shows up at the tournament, is asked if he believes he can win and he gives whomever is asking a look like, “Are you kidding me? I don’t show up at a tournament unless I think I’m going to win.’’
Five back surgeries later and that February 2021 car crash that nearly cost him his right leg, and tournament week expectations have been at least slightly altered.
Woods simply playing four rounds at the Masters last month at Augusta National was an accomplishment perhaps more remarkable than the five green jackets he’s won. His tie for 47th that week be damned, the fact that he was even playing was something to behold.
On Tuesday, two days before the PGA Championship is to begin at Southern Hills, Woods, who’ll be paired with Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth in the first two rounds, was asked “how confident’’ he is that he can contend this week and possibly win.
“I feel like I can, definitely,’’ Woods said. “I just have to go out there and do it. I have to do my work. Starts on Thursday and I’ll be ready.’’
Woods, who’s won four PGA Championships including in 2007 when it was last played at Southern Hills, is buoyed by how much better he feels physically than he did at Augusta.
Woods said physically he feels “better than the last time I played a tournament.’’
Woods said he told himself of hilly Augusta: “The first mountain you climbed was Everest. That’s the steepest golf course you’re going to play and that was the first one [and] you climbed it. It’s going to get flatter and better.
“I feel like I’m doing better,’’ Woods said of his physical state. “I’m having more days in which [I’m] better, more positive. [I’m] able to practice a little bit longer. I’m able to do activities and things that I was hoping to do.’’
Woods shot 1-under 71 in the first round at the Masters and followed it with a 74, making the cut comfortably, which was a significant accomplishment considering the state he’d been in physically just months earlier. But he was visibly gassed on the weekend, shooting a pair of 78s.
Even though he didn’t see it that way at the time, it was one of the few times in Woods’ career where simply participating was winning.
“Everyone around me was very happy and ecstatic that I got around all 72 holes,’’ Woods said. “I did not see it that way on Monday. I was a little ticked I didn’t putt well, and felt like I was hitting it good enough and I wish I had the stamina. You know, it’s a normal, typical golfer, the ‘what ifs, if I would have done this, I would have done that, would have done this.’
“But taking a step back and looking at the overall big picture of it, it was an accomplishment. But that other side of me that says if I would have done things differently, I could have challenged for that thing. And I know that golf course, and I just … maybe next year will be different.’’ Maybe this week will be different. Justin Thomas was one of the few in the inner circle who visited Woods at home in Florida once he was released from the Los Angeles hospital after he crashed his SUV, so he has a pretty good perspective on how far Woods has come and what an accomplishment it was for him to play Augusta last month and be in Tulsa this week.
“It was very big,’’ Thomas said Tuesday when asked about Woods playing the Masters. “I think it was in the back of his head like it would be great, but I don’t think he never really knew until it maybe got close. But it was awesome. I was happy for him.
“I’ve seen how hard he’s worked. At the same time, he’s not a normal person. If he needs to have two or three sessions a day to have a potential being ready a week earlier, he’s going to do that, whereas a lot of people, they don’t really make it a priority. It’s cool to see him there and again here this week.’’
I feel like I can, definitely [contend.] I just have do it. I have to do my word . Starts on Thursday and I'll be Ready ". - Tiger Woods