Tiger Woods was asked Wednesday what he expected at the year’s final major.
“A W,” he replied.
Did he care to elaborate?
“A nice W.”
There was a time when talk like that from golf’s great champion wasn’t so much braggadocio as it was forewarning.
On Wednesday, he sounded more like a man reading from a script to an old movie that’s still running in his head.
He said W, because Tiger Woods is the star of the show and always says W.
But times have changed.
New stars are emerging in golf, and that letter hasn’t appeared next to his name since before he ran his Escalade into that infamous fire hydrant.
And it hasn’t been associated with him at a major since that stirring triumph of the spirit in 2008, when a wounded Woods won the US Open at Torrey Pines.
It’s not to say that there won’t be more Ws for Woods, but given his tepid return to golf at the Bridgestone Invitational last week after three months away, has he ever been less ready to win a major in his career than he is this week at Atlanta Athletic Club?
The only other contender would be at this time last year when, after the worst performance of his career at Firestone Country Club, he reached out to coach Sean Foley and arrived at Whistling Straits experimenting with a swing he knew little about.
Twelve months later, though, to hear Woods speak sometimes makes me wonder whether he knows much more now.
He understands Foley wants his left wrist more cupped at the top of the swing and when he does it, the results are usually good.
Yet Woods routinely during rounds falls back into the bowed wrist position that gives him so many problems.
In Akron last week his short putting — once the strength of his game — was shaky and he complained about hitting the ball too straight off the tee. I can’t remember the last golfer who complained about hitting the ball straight.
Neither can I recall the last player to win a major with a buddy on his bag.
Woods has brought Bryon Bell, his childhood friend, to Atlanta, and for the second straight week, Bell will be filling in for the fired Steve Williams.
But far from thinking about joining Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus as the only men to lift the Wanamaker Trophy five times, Woods has more pressing concerns this week.
He needs to save his season.
If he doesn’t finish inside the top 15 he’s probably not going to play competitively again until November, effectively meaning a second straight lost season.
Woods, who played only nine holes in four months before returning last week, needs to get into the top 125 to play in the four-tournament FedEx Cup playoffs, which start in Plainfield, NJ, on Aug. 25.
Given that he’s ruled out entering next week in North Carolina — the last event before the points are set for the playoffs — because of “family obligations,” Woods faces a do-or-die week here or his next tournament won’t be till Shanghai for the HSBC Champions event in November.
He‘s committed to playing the following week at the Australian Open in Sydney and then probably the Presidents Cup, also in Australia, the week after that.
Not that Woods is worried.
Just ask him.
“This is a major, and this is the fun part,” he said Wednesday. “We have four times a year in which we play for these things, and that's all I'm concerned about.”
It would be just Woods’ luck to miss out now that he finally looks like he wants to be playing golf again.
Part of that demeanor stems from the fact he’s free of pain.
“In order to win, I had to be healthy,” he said.
“That’s a big one. I haven't been in a while, so that's something I'm very excited about finally, that I can come out here and . . . do the work, I can do the practice sessions.
“That’s the only way that my game will get to where I need to get to.
“I was always trying to block out pain. That's not a lot of fun to play through that. It's nice to have a kind of bounce in my step again and walk around these hills and not have to worry about hills.”
Predictably, Woods was asked about the brouhaha with Williams, who ignited a media firestorm Sunday when he took some thinly veiled swipes at his ex-boss after guiding Adam Scott to victory in Akron.
Just as predictably, Woods kept his guard up throughout, shedding no light on the estrangement, nor looking to fan any flames.
“Sometimes we all need changes, and this was a change, and as I told you guys earlier, I was at peace with it, and it was a decision and a direction I wanted to go, and that's it,” he said of why he fired Williams.
He acknowledged he was surprised by Williams’ outburst but said “all I can control is my life and how I feel, and that's it.”
Woods did make a point of saying he was “happy to see Stevie and Adam win” and that he “sent Stevie a nice text after completion, play, congratulating him on his win.”
He wouldn’t elaborate on what he said in the text message.
Woods also acknowledged that his agent, Mark Steinberg, and Williams spoke Tuesday, though, of course, he provided no insight into their conversation.
Meanwhile, his competitors were still fielding questions about Woods, just as they’ve always had to do.
Rory McIlroy said he’d welcome the chance to play against a reborn Woods.
“It would definitely be a challenge if Tiger got back to his best,” he said.
“I mean, he didn’t give anyone else a chance 10 years ago. So, yeah, it would be great to measure yourself up against that.
“He’s still the biggest attraction in the game of golf, so I don’t think that has changed at all. The only thing that’s changed is that he just isn’t winning as much as he did back then.
“But he’s only 35 years old; he’s got another good 10 years in him if he wants it.”
Maybe the more pertinent question is whether it’s enough for Woods just to want it?
