Woods, prepping for Masters, back on course he once ruled
THOUSAND OAKS, Ventura County — Along with his five victories and fiverunnerup finishes at Sherwood Country Club, Tiger Woods has finished worse than a tie for fourth only once in 12 appearances.
That one time is a reminder how much time and circumstances have changed.
It was at the end of 2005, and Woods was competing for the sixth time in six weeks. His itinerary took him from Atlanta to China to Japan to Hawaii to the Southern California desert before wrapping up his worldwide, whirlwind tour at Sherwood in his Target World Challenge. He tied for 14th against a 16man field.
Imagine that. Six events in six weeks, even if two of them were 36 holes ( PGA Grand Slam and Skins Games).
Now he hardly plays at all. The Zozo Championship at Sherwood is his sixth tournament in the past eight months.
True, the coronavirus pandemic wiped out three months from the schedule. Even so, Woods waited a month after the shutdown ended in June before making his first appearance. He tied for 40th at the Memorial. He hasn’t played in a month since missing the cut in the U. S. Open. And he likely has only one more tournament — the Masters — the rest of the year.
Woods has made it clear that less is more in a bid to get as much out of his aging body. He rarely plays two weeks in a row unless the circumstances force his hand, such as the FedEx Cup playoffs. Everything is geared toward the majors.
Go back to 2005 to find a 29yearold Woods who was three years removed from knee surgery to remove fluid and a few benign cysts. He now is 44 with seven additional surgeries: three more on his knee, four on his back.
All of which makes Woods more unpredictable than ever at this stage in his career.
Who appears at Sherwood? The 82time PGA Tour winner with his next shot at setting the record for career victories? Or the 44yearold who doesn’t know how his body will react until he awakens, sometimes even later than that?
He can win any week, and evidence of that comes from the Masters he won in April 2019, even if it seems longer than 18 months ago. He isn’t the longest off the tee — that has been the case for years — and doesn’t always putt the way he did. He remains a master shotmaker, the hallmark of his game.
What might help this week is the course.
Woods tied the PGA Tour record last year when he won the Zozo Championship in Japan that finished on a Monday on a rainsoaked course.
This year, the pandemic caused upheaval, especially with travel. The CJ Cup in South Korea opted to move this year to Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, and the Zozo Championship followed by agreeing to move to Sherwood. That can only help Woods. Sherwood doesn’t quite fall into the category of Firestone or Torrey Pines, where he won eight times at each. Though he has five wins and five seconds at Sherwood, most of them were against 16man, nocut fields. The Zozo Championship is a full field.
Nevertheless, Woods has his favorite courses, and Sherwood is one of them.