Tiger Woods' Simplistic Approach to the Game Yields Best Results in Long Time
It’s the new Tiger Woods normal.
Rather than making headlines for winning or contending at PGA Tour events, the 14-time major champion’s future these days becomes fodder for diagnosis after nearly every swing he takes.
A 17th-place tie at the Masters set optimistic wheels spinning in April, before an ugly round of 85 at the Memorial and an equally unsightly 80 at the U.S. Open prompted Paul Azinger to label him "a hack."
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The tumult was similar at the Quicken Loans National, where the positivity of Woods’ 68-66 start was soon ebbed by a Saturday 74. He then returned somewhat, thanks to a final-round 68 that both provided his second-best finish of the year (tied for 18th) and had him insisting even better days remain imminent.
“It’s a process,” he told CBS analyst Nick Faldo after Sunday’s round. “The goal is to eventually get into contention week in and week out and then eventually start winning golf tournaments again. That’s how I’ve done it throughout my career, and I’ve had some pretty good years.”
Aside from the buoyancy, it was the least convoluted the 39-year-old has sounded in a while, too.
Coincidentally (or not), Woods made news by arriving to the suburban Washington, D.C., event without swing consultant Chris Como, with whom he began working eight months ago in the latest bid to regain major-winning mojo he’s not possessed since capturing the U.S. Open seven years ago.
Butch Harmon was Woods’ coach at the outset of his pro career before he made a switch to Hank Haney in 2004. Sean Foley replaced Haney in 2010 and remained in the fold for four years. Tiger hired Como in November.
Woods insisted Como’s absence did not mean a split had occurred or was anticipated, but the three rounds in the 60s at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club featured some of his most highlight-worthy shots in recent memory and none of the excuse-sopped jargon that’s followed subpar efforts.
He was inches away from a hole-in-one—and a cool million for a fan—on the par-three 16th hole Saturday. He then followed an out-of-bounds drive and an errant approach on the 18th with an impossible chip that sailed over a bunker, dropped onto the fringe and rolled to within four feet of the flag.
All he did, as experts from Azinger to Faldo to Jack Nicklaus have long implored, was forgot the constant tinkering and just played comfortable golf. Faldo, in fact, told Golf Channel earlier this year that the interaction between Woods and Como indicated they hadn’t settled on much.
“One of the players playing a practice round with Tiger heard him say four times (to Como), ‘OK, what am I trying now,’” Faldo said. “So they are just searching. It just doesn’t look right.”
Without Como on Sunday, he was five under par through 10 holes to get to 10 under for the tournament and then posted one birdie and three bogeys in the final eight to fall to minus-eight—marking the second time this season he’s posted three rounds in the 60s.
“My short game is starting to come back to where it used to be,” Woods told a post-round media gathering. “Everything is kind of trending in the correct direction now.”
The sudden surge will surely fuel the Tiger hype machine heading into August 13's PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, where Woods was tied for 24th at the 2004 event and tied for 28th in 2010. He’ll not play in the WGC-Bridgestone at Firestone next week, instead taking the time to prepare for a tough driving course that’ll no doubt test his psychological mettle off the tee.
Barring a surprising win in Wisconsin, he’ll celebrate his 40th birthday before the 2016 Masters—and his next chance at a 15th major—arrives next spring. Nicklaus, who holds the record with 18 major titles, won three of those and had 10 other top-10 major finishes after turning 40 in January 1980.
“He's the only one,” Nicklaus told CBS (via Reuters), “who can fix what he's got.”
Simply speaking, it’ll be interesting to see if this weekend was more remedy than remission.
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