Tiger focused on the bigger picture
Woods determined to remain a force on course in his 40s
The downside of being Tiger Woods, if you can see the downside in more than $1 billion (U.S.) in career income and all-time-great status, might be the microscopic media scrutiny of the struggle.
At least, this is what Woods was saying the other day, speaking to reporters about how much things have changed since he first emerged as a sport-transcending superstar in the late 1990s. It’s sometimes forgotten that Woods didn’t emerge from the womb and dominate golf without interruption. Rather, in the wake of his stunning 12-shot victory at the 1997 Masters at age 21, he underwent the first in a long line of swing overhauls that didn’t immediately bear fruit, winning just once in 19 PGA Tour starts in 1998.
“Don’t forget when I first made these changes back in ’97 through ’98 and (it) didn’t click in until ’99, we didn’t have cameras designated from when you arrived at the golf course and every shot I hit throughout the entire round,” Woods said in a teleconference to promote next month’s Deutsche Bank Championship. “We didn’t have a Tiger Tracker where everything is tweeted up there about every shot I hit and where it’s placed.”
There’s no reason to follow Twitter’s Tiger Tracker this weekend, of course. Despite Woods’ status as an eight-time winner of the World Golf Champion- ships-Bridgestone Invitational, the former world No. 1 wasn’t invited to the tournament he has so often dominated. And whether or not that makes sense — Jordan Spieth, among other pros, has argued Woods should have been given an exemption to the event based on track record — it speaks to the current reality of the Tiger-wise struggle.
We all know the broad strokes of a decline that’s coincided with scandal and surgeries, how it’s been more than seven years since his most recent major championship victory.
So in the midst of a summer that has seen him play some of his worst golf as a professional — when you combine his final two rounds of June’s Memorial Tournament with his opening two rounds at the U.S. Open you get 31-over par for 72 consecutive holes — his progress is being measured by the most modest of increments.
This week, for instance, he jumped from world No. 266 to world No. 262 after a tie for 18th at the Quicken Loans National. See? Progress. Certainly there are those who’ve lost faith in the prospect of a renaissance. Greg Norman, a world No. 1 of the pre-Tiger era, recently said he doesn’t see a day when Woods wins another major. Still, there have been signs — albeit incremental ones — that he might be finding something resembling the right track.
This weekend marks the two-year anniversary of his most recent PGA Tour win — coincidentally, at the WGC-Bridgestone.
That weekend, it’s worth remembering, was one of Woods’ best as a pro. He began his second round with a frontnine 30 that had him, for a stretch, in the hunt for a PGA Tour-record-tying round of 59. He ended up with a 61 that day. He wrapped up the tournament — his fifth victory of the season — with an unremarkable even-par round of 70. Even on cruise control he lapped the field, winning by seven shots.
So that’s the hope-giving angle for a golf industry that would love nothing more than to see him rise again — it’s only been two years since Woods was a dominant performer who could slay a world-class field.
There’s another reason Woods’ perpetual optimism might have more substance to it than empty positive self-talk. Since that bottoming out at Chambers Bay, Woods has shot in the 60s in six of the 10 rounds he’s played, this according to numbers compiled by Randy Robles of the Elias Sports Bureau. And while Woods made his name as a front-runner — he famously never came from behind to win any of his 14 majors — he is showing something of a penchant for comebacks.
Witness the first round at last week’s Quicken Loans National, when Woods found himself three over par through four holes. Certainly it looked, at that point, like another 80-something was in the offing. But Woods rallied to shoot a three-under-par round of 68. According to research by Robles, it was just the third time in his career he’d shot three shots under par after being at least three shots over par earlier in the same round.
So that’s progress, too. And it certainly doesn’t seem like the work of a man who’s lost interest in the competitive grind. There’ve been myriad theories about the root of his troubles. There are those who say he doesn’t play near enough, nor practise as obsessively as he once did. This week he recounted some of the many pieces of unsolicited advice he’s received since his fall. He’s been told to “swing slower,” to “make more putts,” to “just quit and retire.”
“I’ve had people at restaurants say ‘Hey, all you need to do is just eat a little bit better and you’ll feel better, and that’ll make you play better,’ ” Woods said. “I’m like ‘OK, great, I’m having fish and broccoli; how much better does it get than this?’ ”
How much better can he get this year? One of the current downsides of being Woods is that, outside of next week’s PGA Championship, where it was announced Friday he’ll play in a group with Martin Kaymer and Keegan Bradley for the opening two rounds, Woods likely doesn’t have much of a season left. He currently resides outside the cutline for PGA Tour’s FedEx Playoffs. But Woods has said again and again that he’s planning for the long haul, that success in his 40s is within reach.
“(Coach) Chris (Como) and I, and the guys I’ve been working with, we look at it more as not just a week to week thing. We’re trying to build something for the future,” said Woods. “I know that people are looking at it for the season, for a major championship. I’m looking at it more as in years.”
In other words: Long live the Tiger Tracker.
All signs point to golf’s most scrutinized specimen making himself available for yet more micro-analysis for a long time to come.