Tiger Woods Still Has Some Work To Do before Heading to Augusta

It took all of three tournaments for Tiger Woods to make his way back onto golf’s center stage in dramatic fashion. 

When Woods rolled in that 16 foot putt on the 72nd hole in near darkness at Bay Hill to match the largest comeback of his career, it appeared more like an ending to a typical feel-good Hollywood movie rather than a real-life event that was being covered on national television.

Woods’ tournament-winning putt followed by his characteristic upper-cut first pump was shown on just about every local and national news station in the country. Golf was even the main story on ESPN.com’s homepage...well, at least Tiger Woods was, ESPN doesn’t really cover golf after all.

With all of the hoopla understandably surrounding Woods’ tournament-winning putt at Bay Hill, it is easy to forget that there are actually other players on the PGA Tour, some of whom might even be putting on a green jacket next week rather than Tiger Woods.

Let’s remember that although Woods did show that he is already physically and mentally able to bring his game to that next level coming down the stretch, as if there was ever a doubt about that in the first place, he did not play particularly well at Bay Hill. 

Throughout the first two days of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, it appeared as if Woods’ golf ball was programmed not to land in the fairway and he hit no more than 50 percent of greens in regulation. 

Woods had to rely almost solely on his short-game and putter just to remain in the tournament over the first few days.

Woods played decently on Saturday and pretty well on Sunday at Bay Hill, but nothing that would have you saying to yourself, “Wow, he has really got his entire game back in order already.”

Woods had to grind it out like the common folks on the PGA Tour on Thursday-Saturday, and then, as he has done time and time again, he flipped on that switch and took his game to the next level on the back-nine on Sunday.

Woods might have been able to remain in contention at Bay Hill on Thursday-Saturday while playing with a game far less than his best.  But he will have a significantly more difficult time remaining in contention at Augusta if he is constantly missing fairways and hitting no more than 50 percent of greens in regulation.

With a ninth place finish at Doral and a win at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, Woods’ comeback has certainly been far better than anyone could have imagined. 

However, despite a stronger than expected comeback, Woods still has some kinks to work out if he wants to contend at Augusta next week.

Woods relied on excellent ball-striking to finish within the top-10 at Doral and relied on an incredible short-game to remain in contention and eventually win the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week. 

In the three events since the start of his comeback, we have yet to see Woods put together all aspects of his game during one single round.

With recent modifications to drastically lengthen Augusta National, it is unlikely that Woods will be able to rely solely on one aspect of his game as he did for the first few rounds at Bay Hill. 

Woods will have to bring his A-Game in two weeks if he wants to contend with red-hot players such as Mickelson and Ogilvy.

Can he win without his A-Game? 

Of course, he can. We have seen it before and we’ll surely see it again. 

However, the odds of him winning without his A-Game would have to drop considerably on a course as difficult as Augusta National and with a field as strong as the Masters. 

Woods is clearly moving in the right direction and he is doing so at a far quicker pace than would have been expected. 

On a major championship stage, which Woods obviously thrives under, next week might just be the time that he finally brings everything together; in which case, we could see a complete thrashing of the field.

But even the best player on the planet has some work to do on his game if he wants to win his 15th major championship next week.