Tiger Woods: 5 Keys to Redefining Himself at the Players

Tiger Woods had a rough go of it at The Players in 2011.  On Thursday morning, he shot a 42 on the front nine, re-tweaked his left leg and withdrew.  Woods had a bogey on the first, a triple on the fourth, another bogey on the fifth and a final one for good measure on the ninth.

He immediately went to the physical therapy trailer and left the golf course.

It was a shock to everyone who had seen Woods win the 2008 US Open basically on one leg. 

Woods issued a statement saying that it was a re-injury of something that had happened at Augusta National where he had finished fourth.  No one knew that he had injured himself at Augusta National.  Experts in the therapy trailers said that someone with an injury similar to the one Woods had, although not ascribing anything in particular to Woods, could return to nearly 100 percent with physical therapy.

Now, a year later, Woods’ body has healed enough for him to practice and play.  But his golf swing is not yet 100 percent predictable and he’s going to take it to a golf course that is absolutely demanding in terms of shot placement.  

That’s not to say that a golfer has to be totally accurate to win The Players. Craig Perks won it seemingly without hitting a green in regulation in the final round with an extremely impressive short game.  He got up and down from every place but an alligator’s mouth.  

Davis Love won it from the pines on the 16th after he pulled his drive into trouble.  Hal Sutton surprised everyone but himself by playing to his strength and accuracy and defeating Tiger Woods in 2000, during what has been regarded as Woods’ best season.  

Last week, Woods missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, a tournament he has won in the past.  That was a surprise, since earlier in his career, Woods went 142 tournaments without missing a cut. He has only missed the cut eight times as a professional with two of those being WD, one this year at the WGC Cadillac. 

Therefore, the first key for Woods will be a better performance in the first round followed by a second round that gets him into the weekend.

The second key will be Woods’ driver.  If he hits it off line at TPC Sawgrass, it will most likely be findable if it is dry and not in palmettos.  But there is trouble in many locations in Ponte Vedra.  The only “easy” driving holes might be the seventh, 15th and 16th, simply because the landing areas are broad although they may not look that way from the tee.      

Third, iron shots.  They have been uncharacteristically erratic this season, and that is one area he will need to have under control at TPC Sawgrass.  The par threes on the back, the 13th and the 17th have too much water for a whoopsie iron shot.  

A bad second shot at the fourth is an easy road to a big number, and Woods tripled the hole in his last playing of it.  The course is just not a good place for anyone who doesn’t know exactly where his golf ball is headed.        

Fourth, short game.  Nobody gets four rounds in at TPC Sawgrass without missing a green or two or eight.  With the hazards around the green complexes—sand, pot bunkers, grassy swales—a good short game is essential to keeping a score from ballooning.  

Finally, patience.  Woods’ showed a startling lack of patience with himself at August National when he drop kicked his iron on the 16th tee. Not that we haven’t all felt that same way.  We have.  Be we are not Tiger Woods. 

The key to Woods' success is going to be having the patience necessary to wait until the hours of practice add up to muscle memory that does not falter under pressure.  At Bay Hill, it looked like Woods had “it” again.  But his shots were not quite as ingrained as we all believed.   Perhaps they were not as ingrained as Woods believed. 

The battle with impatience is tough for any golfer at any level.  He is as impatient for victory as his fans are.  That mental strain is as difficult to overcome as any physical move in the golf swing.

Only a couple of days remain before the next examination of Woods' game.  Should he miss two cuts in a row, it would be as historic as a victory.