Woods considers new twists in farewell
Tiger’s foundation fails to find sponsor for 12-year-old event
POTOMAC, Md. — Tiger Woods is playing the Quicken Loans National for the last time, and so much about this year feels new.
Woods played his first 18-hole round at the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm during the pro-am Wednesday, and it didn’t take long to realize why the course rated as the fourth toughest to par last year on the PGA Tour, behind only three majors.
“It’s certainly a lot more difficult than what I had envisioned,” Woods said. “They’ve got the rough up, fairways in. It’s like a mini-Open here.” Also new: his putter. Maybe.
Woods has been struggling with just about every aspect of putting since March, when he made a brief charge in the final round at Bay Hill until tying for fifth. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open two weeks ago, and last week in the Bahamas he began tinkering with a new putter. The one he used in nine holes of practice on Tuesday, and in the pro-am, was a mallet variety.
“I’m trying to find something that I can feel again like the swing of the putter, getting my body in the right positions and seeing the lines again,” Woods said. “Once I start to get that ball rolling on my lines, then I’ll be back to putting like I was. I just have not been rolling it on my lines.”
Whether the new putter goes in his bag on Thursday remains a mystery.
Woods is the only two-time winner of the National, both times at Congressional a few miles down the road. He hasn’t played the 12-year-old event since 2015, when he was struggling with back issues.
This is the final edition of a tournament that began in 2007 with high hopes, with Woods as the tournament host at Congressional, held around the Fourth of July with a theme built around saluting the military.
Quicken Loans decided not to renew its contract with Woods’ foundation, instead sponsoring a new PGA Tour event in Detroit that starts next summer.
Woods couldn’t find another sponsor, and now there isn’t room on next year’s schedule. His foundation still runs the Genesis Open at Riviera in February and the unofficial Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in early December.
“The support has been fantastic. We just haven’t got the sponsorship dollars,” Woods said.
This will be his last tournament until the British Open at Carnoustie, and while Woods has played 10 times already, he is running out of time. He is No. 82 in the world and needs to get into the top 50 after Carnoustie to be eligible for the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, a World Golf Championship he has won eight times.
The Bridgestone Invitational is moving away from Firestone after this year, and Woods wants to be part of another finale.
He’s just not willing to add tournaments as he approaches 18 months since fusion surgery on his lower back.
“I don’t want to play too much, but I need to play enough,” Woods said.