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October 25, 2019
CHIBA, Japan — It was just a single round, of course, so there is a reluctance to draw too many conclusions.
But after seeing Tiger Woods in his skins game appearance Monday, during the pro-am Wednesday and now after a first-round 64 at the Zozo Championship, it is clear there is a physical difference from just a few months ago when the Masters champion was having trouble completing pro-am rounds.
Woods looks good, and appears to be swinging easier and without pain. There’s always the chance that something else occurs, but clearly the back stiffness that plagued him for most of the summer and the knee problems that led to surgery in late August impacted his play.
“I was trying to make compensations,” Woods said after taking a share of the first-round lead with Gary Woodland at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club. “Unfortunately, with the lack of movement that I had in my knee, my back, too — and that’s the last place I want to feel it. So it was nice to be able to feel that and I’m able to rotate a little bit better, able to clear better, and more importantly, be able to squat down and read putts.
“I was able to get down there [in the first round], which I’ve been doing at home, and that’s something that if you look at the video towards the end of the season, I wasn’t able to do very well.”
The knee problems might not have contributed fully to Woods’ summertime woes — one top-10, two missed cuts, a withdrawal — but they certainly didn’t help. And back problems have always manifested themselves in poor posture in putting as well as inconsistent short-iron play.
Woods had few of those problems in the opening round. After the poor start that saw him bogey the first three holes, Woods settled into a nice rhythm and exhibited his world-class iron play. He hit only three fairways but was able to play from the rough and stuck a number of nice iron shots to give himself opportunities. For the day, he hit 15 of 18 greens, an impressive number given his poor start to the tournament.
Tiger goes from ‘ugly start’ to share of Zozo lead
Clearly, Woods needs to put more balls in play off the tee. And his putting is unlikely to be as hot as it was during the opening round.
But for one day, it was a big difference from what we got used to seeing after the Masters victory.
“This is how I’ve been hitting it at home, so that wasn’t a real big surprise,” he said. “It’s a matter of, with a scorecard in your hand, you’ve got to post a number now. You’re not playing for autos and hammers (in gambling games) like we normally do at home. It’s actually time to grind out a score.
“It was ugly early and it was nice to be able to flip it and really get it going. Now I’m in a position where we’re going to have a long, long weekend of golf that I hopefully can keep going.”
Woodland’s run
The results have been sporadic for Woodland since his U.S. Open victory at Pebble Beach, due in part to his wife having twins a few weeks later and the inherent distractions and time off necessary to welcome two new family members.
Woodland missed two cuts and his best finish was a tie for 15th at the Tour Championship until he tied for third last week at the CJ Cup in South Korea.
Read more at ESPN.com
