Tiger Woods: Why He May Surprise Us All This Week

When Tiger Woods says that he’s “healthy” and “ready to go,” it must be taken with a grain of salt.

After all, he was singing the same tune just hours before he withdrew from the Players Championship after nine holes and then went on the DL for 11 weeks.

However, if Woods is indeed telling the truth about the state of his health, which would be an extreme anomaly these days, he may just surprise us all over the next two weeks.

The last time we really saw Woods play golf was at the Masters back in April, where he was within a hair of putting every aspect of his game together.

He drove the ball well at Augusta, his iron shots were as crisp and accurate as ever, and his confidence seemed to be growing by the day.

Woods’ downfall at Augusta can be traced back to a single club—the putter.

That being said, Woods himself admitted to the fact that because he and swing coach Sean Foley had been spending so much time rebuilding his golf swing that his short-game and putting had been neglected.

To put together a truly successful round of golf, all aspects of  a player’s game must be firing on all cylinders.

Driving, iron play, short-game, putting, confidence and overall mental strength.

Thus, spending all of your time rebuilding one aspect of your game is risky in that it can lead other aspects of your game to suffer, as was likely the case with Woods and his putting.

Four months ago at Augusta, Woods appeared to have a firm grasp on his new golf swing, and was quite possibly just weeks away from putting the finishing touches on his game, which would have meant getting his short-game and putting up-to-speed again.

No one can predict the future with any real degree of accuracy.  So predicting whether or not Woods will regain his pure putting stroke is like trying to predict a lightning strike without the luxury of a time-travelling DeLorean.

The decline of virtually every great golfer in the game’s history has been caused by a lost putting stroke, and more often than not the putting begins to go as a player reaches his mid-late 30s. Woods will turn 36 in January.

Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Harry Vardon, Old Tom Morris, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller—all of these players were stopped dead in their tracks by lost putting strokes.

Snead and Hogan could have probably continued winning majors into their mid-50s had they not lost their ability to hole putts; their ball striking was that good. 

Woods may or may not regain his old reliable putting stroke in the coming days, weeks and months. 

But with all of the talk about Woods’ golf swing, Sean Foley, Woods’ mental strength, Woods’ lost aura, etc., people have lost sight of the only piece of the puzzle Woods was missing last April at Augusta: the putter.

If Woods’ putter is back this week then Woods is back.

It’s as simple as that.

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