If you were on the practice tee with Tiger Woods earlier this week down in sunny Albany, you would have heard a guy who is oozing confidence.
“I have way more shots now because I’ve played way more golf. I only had a handful of shots back then (prior to Safeway). I can hit all the shots now, on call.”
That’s what Tiger Woods had to say with Steve DiMeglio from the Sporting News on hand, watching Woods work up a sweat, prepping for his first round Thursday at the Hero World Challenge.
You listen to Woods and you’d expect him to go out and shoot 65.
But we’re talking about a player who hasn’t played competitively in nearly 16 months.
What can you realistically expect from Woods starting Thurday in the Bahamas?
First and most important, Woods needs to finish 72 holes without any physical issues. No pull or tweaks or what have you.
Even if Woods finishes dead-last, he will rise 150 spots in the Official World Golf Rankings. Right now he’s lucky 898.
One gambling site has the over/under on Woods’ first round at 74.5.
It also has his first-round birdie total over/under at 2 1/2. How do you make half a birdie?
When you consider the overall quality of the field, any finish above 18 will be a good four days for Woods. After all, you have the numbers two, four, five, seven, eight and 10th-ranked players in the world in your field. There is also 11, 12, 17, 20, 22, 23, 24 and 25. Zach Johnson got in on a sponsor’s exemption and when you’re the host and ranked 898, you need an exemption too and of course, Tiger’s got one. It is, after all, his event.
Another important hurdle for Woods is par. If Woods could shoot even par for four rounds, that would be a good showing.
Woods might not think so, but it would.
Woods has two issues that have plagued him the past four years. First, the devil ball. You never know when it will show up, only the devil does and the devil ball can go 50 yards right or 50 yards left. Either way, it’s not good.
Second, Woods has to put some sort of short game back together. Truth be known, he simply doesn’t putt as well as he did in his prime and if you take six putts away from Woods, he’d have just eight majors on his resume.
In search of that magic on the greens, Woods has turned to an old friend — his Scotty Cameron putter. Scotty was in his hands for 13 of those 14 major wins. It’s the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 by Titleist. Four degrees loft, 35.25 inches long, 326 grams, D7 weight overall, has a PING grip with the letters blackened out.
Good decision.
If this comeback thing is going to work for Woods, the way he wants it to, his short game will have to be the ingredient that has been missing for so long.
A lot is going to depend on the conditions as well. It can get pretty windy in the Bahamas and when you’ve been away from competition for a long time, the last thing you need is really windy conditions, even if you are Tiger Woods.
Third, it’s still a matter of Woods playing himself into golf shape. He says he’s physically ready to go, but he hasn’t had to grind it out mentally for a long time.
Woods is honest about his state of mind, however.
“I’m nervous. If I wasn’t nervous that would mean I didn’t care,” Woods declared.
“I want to be out here so bad and now I am. I’m ready to go.”
