After ugly U.S. Open, Woods looks to bounce back at Greenbrier Classic
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. -- When 26-year-old rookie Scott Pinckney doesn't get into the Wednesday pro-am at a PGA Tour event, he makes a habit of walking with one of the participants to map the course. Such was the case at the Greenbrier Classic, but this time he didn't just follow any group. He walked with his childhood idol, Tiger Woods. Such is the curiosity factor that still exists when it comes to the 14-time major winner. No matter his form, Woods still draws a formidable crowd.
Growing up, Pinckney decorated the walls of his bedroom with posters of Woods.
"I only wore Tiger Woods shoes," he said. "Which led to me only playing Nike clubs."
Wherever Woods goes, even after an embarrassing 80-76 missed cut at the U.S. Open, he is the story. When he checked into the Greenbrier Resort, he wore shades, a backwards hat and gym shorts. He looked like a regular guy. There was no skeleton ski mask. But the question at the moment: Who is the golfer between the ropes who looks like Woods but plays like a shadow of the former World No. 1? Will the real Tiger Woods step forward and provide some fireworks at The Old White TPC this Fourth of July weekend? Will he get to wear his red and black on Sunday? Or will he be sent packing again?
At the U.S. Open, Woods downplayed his struggles as "short-term suffering for long-term gain." The most-asked question beside "What's wrong with Tiger?" and "Why did he split with Lindsey Vonn?" is "How long will he continue to play if he keeps missing cuts and shoots 80?"
Woods did his best to sidestep the question again at his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday.
"Well, I've done this before," he said, referencing swing changes made during 1997 and '98 that led to his most triumphant run of majors. "I've gone through stretches like this."
Actually, he's never played this poorly before. Woods has shot in the 80s three times in 16 rounds this year, after having done it once in his first 1,121 Tour rounds.
Once upon a time, Woods and tennis great Roger Federer would text each other after winning major titles with an update of the scoreboard tracking their respective hauls of Grand Slam trophies. Writing on Federer's rare ability to remain a force in tennis past his prime, Grantland's Brian Phillips articulated the challenge Woods faces: "(Federer) comes across as someone who has genuinely found a way to solve the three brutal overlapping problems that come for any really great athlete late in his or her career. Namely, how to (a) keep up the phenomenal and borderline terrifying level of motivation required to commit to nonstop training and preparation after you've already realized all your goals, while (b) making peace with the fact that you not aren't as good as you once were but in fact are doomed to get worse, while (c) maintaining a realistic, evolving sense of what you can do so that you know how to plan and when to feel proud, frustrated, optimistic, etc."
That's Woods' current dilemma in a nutshell. Then Phillips laid down the boom in comparing Federer and Woods: "The worst case scenario for tackling these problems may be Tiger Woods, who seems to have lost all sense of perspective on his own abilities while going to pieces within a sport he visibly hates."
As Phillips infers in point A, what is fueling Woods these days? Where is his motivation? Just how badly does he want to chase Jack Nicklaus and his record of 18 majors? In his press conference, Woods noted he "made a little bit of progress since the last time he played," and joked, "Obviously that's not saying much." But he also said that he "didn't touch a club for a while." He took a family vacation in the Bahamas, snorkeling and spot-fishing with his kids. He wasn't "busting his butt" as he described his efforts to prepare in advance of the Masters.
When asked if he can win this week, Woods never hesitated. "Absolutely, uh-huh," he said.
Woods clearly hasn't come to terms -- at least publicly -- with his new reality. Phillips was referring to Federer but he just as easily could have been speaking of Woods when he wrote, "People who go to see him now are going to see their memories of him as much as to see him play live." It used to be that even when Woods wasn't officially No. 1, everyone knew he really was still The Man. Luke Donald? Pshaw. But now Chad Collins, No. 350 in the world, versus Woods, No. 220? It seems like a pick'em at best. After all, Collins has made seven cuts in a row. Making the cut would seem like a victory for Woods heading into the Open Championship at a course where he's won two of his 14 majors.
"I know what I am doing out here on the golf course. I know what it feels like," Woods said. "I know where my game is and what progress I have or haven't made. That's what I'm concerned about."
And yet here's the thing that Pinckney and others in the gallery witnessed on Wednesday: Woods hit every fairway and missed just one green en route to making five birdies on the day in his pro-am. It's just a pro-am round so nothing to get excited about, but could Woods defy logic -- as he likes to say, he's "done it before" -- and have the last laugh?
"I know it's hard to believe that I wasn't that far off at the Open," Woods said, "but I really wasn't."
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