Tiger ready physically for major
ST. LOUIS – Following a listless, lost weekend in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, where he looked slow, sore and out of sorts at times, Tiger Woods did exactly what he needed to do on Monday. He took a couple of baths in ice. It was a chilly part of a recovery day during which Tiger did as little as possible ahead of Thursday’s start of the 100th PGA Championship.
While it was a bitter choice, it wasn’t a tough one. At 42, Woods is wiser, but his body has become the main voice in his head when it comes to figuring out how far to push himself physically.
After four surgeries to his back and four to his left knee, Woods is well past his heyday years when he would run 10 miles, lift a ton of iron and hit golf balls for two hours just to cool down.
So despite not seeing Bellerive Country Club since the day after 9/11 and despite tumbling to a tie for 31st with weekend rounds of 73-73 at Firestone, Tiger chose to take time off instead of trudging to the course to play a practice round and work on his swing ahead of the final major of the year.
It was the proper decision, a perfect couch potato day, even if part of it was ice cold.
“I needed that day off,” Woods said Tuesday after an abbreviated practice round.
“I spent a few times in the ice bath just trying to get some inflammation down and just trying to get ready for the rest of the week. And I did a lot of stretching. Did a leg lift, as well.”
His physical well-being is paramount these days, especially with a schedule that could call for him to play seven events in nine weeks.
He’s also still mindful of his fused back and all the other aches and pains. Yes, reconnaissance of Bellerive is important, but his recovery is indispensable.
“There’s going to be certain days that I’m just not going to have the speed and the flexibility and the movement that I once did,” said Woods, who is playing in his 80th major this week. “So things are going to be different from day-to-day, and it’s just about managing it. Before, I didn’t really have any of those issues when I was early in my career because I didn’t have a fixed point in my back. My knee used to hurt a lot, but I could play around that.
“Playing around my spine’s a little bit different.”
As he walked to the clubhouse after storms halted his practice round on the fifth hole, he was joking around and smiling a lot under an umbrella.
He wasn’t overly concerned about fixing the flaws in his swing that caused him to lose control of the ball last weekend.
In a remarkable year in which he’s racked up six top-12 finishes in 13 starts, he has made tweaks and changes before to the betterment of his results.
Sure, it would have been ideal to get in a full nine holes as he chases his fifth Wanamaker Trophy, his 15th major and his first since the 2008 U.S. Open. He’ll try to get 18 in on Wednesday. But with Bellerive extremely soft and nowhere near having a chance to reach firm and fast status this week, his homework is much easier.
Tee shots are basically rolling out minuscule distances due to forgiving conditions, so the fairways will play wider and won’t trigger the ball to bounce and bound into the thick rough.
And the greens are large dartboards, with even long irons stopping on a dime. And they’ll be on the slow side, which used to cause problems for Tiger. But with his new putter and the weight in the head of the putter, he said there are no issues.
The long course in its current state – and it likely won’t change seeing what the forecast could deal up – favors players who carry the ball a long way and hit the ball way up in the air. Tiger does both.
While he’s changed his stripes in how he goes about it, Tiger’s preparation for a major has always been the same – to be mentally and physically fresh come Thursday.
After Monday, he is.