TIGER’S SUNNY DELIGHT
Woods warms up for the Open in sweltering Scotland
TIGER WOODS suffered in the cold during the third round at the Masters and at the US PGA Championship in May. So how nice of Scotland to provide the warmest of welcomes in every sense to help him at the Open at St Andrews.
The best weather Woods will experience all year at a major will fall this week at the Home of Golf and it began with a day of almost surreal heat yesterday that left him sweating profusely.
It is something we are used to seeing in Florida but hardly Fife and will help considerably as he tries to go the distance and somehow contend at this special 150th edition.
Mind you, the benefits appeared non- existent over the opening holes, where Woods’s movements were distinctly stiff and laboured. In fact, he was hitting it all over the shop. You would not have given much for him making it through to the end of yesterday, let alone the final round on Sunday. But gradually the warmth of the sun worked its magic and a body that has taken so much punishment finally loosened up.
It says everything about what this event and this course mean to Woods that, for the first time this year, he played a practice round that went the full distance. By the end, there were even a couple of drives that recalled the awe and majesty of his two victories here in 2000 and 2005.
After his playing partner Justin Thomas had almost taken out former R&A CEO Peter Dawson with a wild drive at the 17th that finished in the Jigger Inn where the latter was relaxing, Woods showed him the correct line over the corner of the grounds of the Old Course hotel to the middle of the fairway.
The tee shot at the 356-yard 18th was even better. Woods crushed a drive that bounded over the crumpled fairway, through the Valley of Sin to finish 20ft from the flag. By this stage, around 2,000 people had joined the couple of thousand more who had revelled in his presence over the back nine.
You could see Woods was ticked off at leaving the eagle putt a fraction short. Even for him, even in practice, it still means something to get a two at a finishing hole with a grandeur all of its own.
As on every other hole, he then practiced chip shots and putts from places where his drives might finish if not struck so true. If he was in real discomfort, he would not have done that, would he?
Woods politely turned down requests to talk afterwards. He said he was scheduled to speak after the four hole Champions Challenge today, followed by a formal press conference tomorrow. It was left to his great friend Thomas to answer a couple of stock questions. Asked if he would be surprised if Woods challenged this week Thomas, funnily enough, did not say he would be shocked at all. ‘I’ve learned better than to challenge anything about him,’ was his predictable response.
Woods arrived on Saturday afternoon. When he decided late last year that he wanted to go through the pain and rehab to try to play competitive golf again, this was the week he had in mind.
He is clearly determined to make the most of it, perhaps in case there are not any more. Armed with a putter, a couple of short irons and Thomas for company, the 46-year-old had only been in town for a couple of hours before joining the other evening strollers permitted to walk the links before the turnstiles opened yesterday.
The two Americans enjoyed themselves so much, revelling in one of those blessed sunlit summer evenings in Scotland, that it was almost 11pm before they played a couple more chip shots on the 17th and then headed back to the hotel.
Will Woods contend? It is clearly a long shot. But the links is fast and firm and the sunshine is not going away, so those two things that he needs to have any chance are in place. For sure, it is going to be epic watching him try.