Díaz: New Tiger has way to go.
New-look Tiger still searching for old golf game at Masters
Tiger Woods 2.0 is jovial. He is charming. He is self-effacing. He is treating reporters like his BFFs. Who is this man? It’s like a Seinfeld Bizarro World episode. Somebody get me Costanza! Hey, maybe it’s working? Tiger teed it up Thursday at Augusta, and fortunately the round of 18 didn’t turn into an episode of dark comedic twists, followed by Tiger going potty- mouth on national TV.
His back held up. So did his golf game.
Progress, baby steps.
Still, Tiger’s personality makeover can’t hide the dark side of his erratic golf game.
Three bogeys on the front nine, mechanics out of whack at times, drives flying into pine needles, and
the occasional whack of the driver onto the grass in disgust.
He rallied nicely on the back nine, with a birdie on 13 followed by five consecutive pars. But he still finished with a one-over 73, tied for 41st place.
“A good day,” Tiger told Jim Nantz of CBS Sports after the round. “I felt good out there.”
For Tiger, there were enough shining moments to stay alive in the Masters bracket. Tiger was taking his first whack at competitive golf in nearly two months, so understandably he could have used a few mulligans.
The day started ominously when his drive went 293 yards, missing the fairway to the right side. He ended up doubleputting for a bogey.
But there some good stuff, too, including the birdie on 13, when he hammered his drive 301 yards and finished up with a seven-foot putt.
“That’s the strength in my game,” he said of his short stuff. “That’s the way it should be and that’s why I worked my butt off all those months to hit thousands upon thousands of shots, to make sure it’s back to being my strength again.”
But Tiger isn’t out of the woods just yet. Thursday’s optimism is tempered by the reality of it all: Tiger Woods isn’t going to make a grand comeback at the Masters. Maybe not in any tournament. Chronic back problems are just that. They don’t go away. His goal of matching Jack Nicklaus and his record 18 victories in majors has been reduced to more simplistic expectations:
Survival mode. Can he make the cut?
It’s a 50-50 bet on most Internet gambling sites, a humbling number for a man competing in his 20th Masters — and a winner in four of them.
Tiger didn’t come back to muddle in the mediocrity of pars. He’s smart to dial down his expectations, but he’s also one of the most competitive athletes on the planet.
Tiger doesn’t do average
He wants to hang with Rory McIlroy, not SangMoon Bae, the guy who is only one stroke behind Tiger going into Friday.
Tiger has been a gamechanger for golf in so many ways: the multicultural wunderkind who grew up to be one of the greatest in the game, married a beautiful woman, had two beautiful children and led a seemingly idyllic life in Central Florida until his personal life unraveled into a series of late-night jokes involving Perkins waitresses.
Suddenly, the charmed life went “poof,” shortly followed by his golf game.
At least the scorecard on Tiger’s personal life is back to birdies, not bogeys.
His girlfriend, worldclass skier Lindsey Vonn, seems to have become a calming influence his in life.
“The good thing is that my soccer game has gotten a lot better,” Woods said, referring to the quality time he has spent with daughter Sam and son Charlie.
Personally, I hope that New Tiger sticks around.
It will help ease the pain, in case the Old Tiger never comes back.