You may have noticed that Tiger Woods made some noise last week at The Players.
No one paid too much attention on Friday. He shot 72-71 to make the cut on the number (one-under) and can thank Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas for getting him and the rest of the one-unders in for the weekend. Both Spieth and Thomas bogeyed No. 18 on Friday to drop back to one-under and set that as the cutline.
Woods really had it going on Saturday until he hit the final six holes — played them one-over. Finished with 65 and declared it “the highest number I could have shot.”
Sunday was very similar. Woods had it to six-under through 12 holes but couldn’t finish it off. This time he dunked one at 17 and wound up with 69. Afterward, his eyes were wide when he declared: “I hit it sooooo good!” He eventually tied with 11th with five others including new world’s No. 1 Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka.
On top of that, Woods left everyone with this post-tournament declaration/assessment of where his game stands:
“I’m not that far off from winning golf tournaments.”
Which now has the world asking: “When will he win again?”
Seems like the talking heads out there are not asking “if?” but more like “when?” — maybe unless you’re Brandel Chamblee, who is always coming up with something crazy to get himself in the discussion.
Chamblee says there still may be questions regarding Woods.
If there is a question, all you need do is take a look at Woods’ inability to close out those final two rounds.
One might ask: “Did he get nervous as he got closer to contending?”
Up next for Woods will be The Memorial in three weeks. Muirfield Village is another golf course he’s seemingly owned over his career.
After that it will be the U.S. Open two weeks later at Shinnecock Hills.
Woods has been working his way up in the world rankings. He started the season at 646, got up to 92 and is now No. 80, post-Players.
What he really wants is to get back into the WGC events, especially later this year when they play Firestone for the final time. He’s won there eight times.
“I would really like to get there with one more chance,” Woods said. “But I’ve got some work between now and then, hopefully put together one good event.”
He needs to crack the Top 50 to get there. Cutoff dates for Firestone are July 23 and July 30.
