His yacht, Privacy, is this week’s tourist attraction at nearby Sag Harbor.
Tiger Woods laughingly referred to the 155-foot luxury vessel as “The Dinghy.”
The huge yacht is docked at Gurney’s Montauk Yacht Club and it will serve as Woods’ headquarters this week for the 118th U.S. Open.
It’s a convenient 30-minute commute for Woods. Some players have a two-hour drive to Shinnecock Hills.
This week marks a dubious anniversary for Woods. It has been 10 years since his last major victory — the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines where he beat Rocco Mediate in an 18-hole Monday playoff.
After his morning nine holes with Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau on Tuesday, Woods said it was good just to be in a position to hopefully contend this week at Shinnecock.
His game has been up and down during his comeback, but all the pieces haven’t shown up yet.
“Golf is always frustrating. There’s always something that isn’t quite right, and that’s where we, as players, have to make adjustments,” he said. “Tournaments I’ve played in this year, there’s always something. Hopefully, this is one of those weeks where I put it all together and even it out, and we’ll see what happens.”
In Woods last appearance at The Memorial two weeks ago, his putting let him down and he’ll need his “A” game on what figures to be firm, fast greens this week.
Woods gave some insight into what’s been going on since The Memorial.
He showed up at Shinnecock with two putters in his bag, one his normal Scotty Cameron that he uses in tournament play and the other a model he uses back home when he’s practicing.
“When I’m at home, I have a couple practice putters that I have, and I’ve always been one that likes the heel-shafted putter. I like feeling the toe move. I love feeling the release of it,” he explained on Tuesday. “What I’ve done over basically my entire career is putt with those putters at home a lot. And then I like to feel that in my fingers when I grab my other putter, the one you see me putt with for most of those years, and have that same swing.”
Two weeks ago at the Memorial, where he tied for 23rd place, Woods ranked 56th for the week in putting and lost 7.69 shots to the field on the greens.
Woods said he spent last week working on his putting and was also encouraged by this week’s poa annua putting surfaces, like those he grew up playing in Southern California.
“What I did at Memorial, I just didn’t feel comfortable over it,” he said. “I couldn’t see my lines. And those greens were quick, and I just didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t hit many good putts. I hit a lot of bad ones.”
He’ll also need to drive the ball better. There have been occasional run-ins with the dreaded “devil ball.” He hit two drives OB at Memorial, something he’s never done there before in his long career.
