‘Brutal’ days
Ahead of The Players Championship, an emotional Tiger Woods talks about loss of father, breakup with Vonn,
Tiger Woods is in a dark place. Woods has returned to the PGA Tour for the first time since finishing in a tie for 17th in the Masters, but his mind wasn’t completely on the task at hand as he played a practice round Tuesday morning at TPC Sawgrass ahead of Thursday’s start of The Players Championship.
His three-year relationship with skiing star Lindsey Vonn mutually ended Sunday, May 3. And this time of the year is always difficult for Woods, whose father, best friend and mentor, Earl, died May 3, 2006.
“This three-day window is really hard,” an emotional Woods said Tuesday morning. “I haven’t slept. These three days, May 3rd through the 5th, is just brutal on me. And then with obviously what happened on Sunday, it just adds to it.”
But Woods knows he has a job to do. He returned to the driving range after speaking with the media and has today to sharpen his game, which was clearly off as he played nine holes with Jason Day. Woods, ranked No. 125 in the world, had a two-way miss going, losing balls on the first and ninth holes. He also said he lost three other balls to water hazards.
“I’ve always had to deal with stuff outside the ropes, and once you’re inside the ropes it’s time to tee it up and time to play,” said Woods, who will play in a group that includes Martin Kaymer and Adam Scott (1:49 p.m. ET Thursday). “You go out there, and for me I focus, I get into my little world, my little zone, and do the best I possibly can for that, well, it used to be four hours. Now they’re five-hour rounds, a fivehour time period. You grind it out and win golf tournaments be- cause, at the end, to me that’s what I want to do at that particular week is win a tournament.”
Woods won the last time he played here, in 2013 when he captured his second Players title. Last year he missed the tournament after having back surgery. But Woods says he’s healthy — the right wrist he injured in the last round in the Masters is causing no problems — and ready to get after it.
Earlier this year he had to get away from it after missing the cut in the Waste Management Phoenix Open and withdrawing after 11 holes in the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego. His game was in such disarray, including alarming problems with his chipping, that he took a nine-week hiatus to work on his form and body.
Spending hours on the range and course pounding golf balls with swing consultant Chris Como by his side, Woods gradually became more comfortable with his new swing. And slowly his chipping woes disappeared.
While the Masters was just his third start of the season, the fourtime Masters champion was tied for fifth in the first major of the season before a poor final round dropped him down the leaderboard. But he was ecstatic with his form compared to where his game was in Phoenix and San Diego.
“I’ve had some pretty good practice sessions,” Woods said. “My short game still feels really good. We made a couple little swing tweaks since then to keep improving, to keep working on it, to keep getting it better, so that part is still a little bit fresh. I’m going to start playing a little bit more now. … I’m able to start playing a regular schedule now and start getting after it.
“To go from where I was to being in contention like that, that was a big step. Some of the swing changes we’ve made are a little bit fresh, so that’s going to take a little bit more time. But I’m very happy with my short game and where it’s at and the way I’m putting, the way I’m feeling.”
And soon, he says, he will be feeling better as this three-day stretch that is occupying his mind and heart begins to fade. He’s confident his game will get better with each passing day spent on the course.
“I’ve made some huge, huge strides since what I was at Torrey and what I was at Phoenix. As I said, to go from that to what I was at Augusta, I worked my ass off to get to that point. I really did,” Woods said. “Now I just keep building on that, keep chipping away at it, keep getting a little bit better. I’m on the right road.
“I’ve made all the big changes. Now it’s just incremental changes, incremental implementation. Eventually it’ll click in and I’ll have a little run here, and some runs are like two years ago when it was five wins. I can get on runs like that.”
“I haven’t slept. These three days, May 3rd through the 5th, is just brutal on me.” Tiger Woods, on the anniversary of his father’s death