Tiger Woods addressed the media on Tuesday on the Genesis.
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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Tiger Woods walked into the Genesis Invitational media heart simply after 11 a.m. native time on Tuesday. He wore a navy shirt below a gray sweater paired with a white hat and a slight limp. The room had full of folks within the previous half hour, and the extra folks entered the room, the quieter it received. Anticipation nonetheless builds for Tiger’s arrival at a mic.
Over the previous few years we’ve seen Woods so not often that his press conferences have taken on a State of the Union vibe, and more often than not there have been massive, apparent questions in want of solutions. How’s your again? When are you taking part in subsequent? How’s your foot? What do you consider LIV? Can you continue to win? Woods hasn’t at all times needed to reply them. In his prime, you might use lots of phrases to explain Woods in press conferences however “uncertain” wouldn’t have been one in all them.
Plenty of these massive questions nonetheless sit unresolved. Some had been recirculated Tuesday. But we’ve had a while to come back to phrases with the truth that they might by no means have clear solutions. In the wake of Woods’ automobile crash he referred to uncertainty as his “new normal,” however by now it’s not even new anymore. It’s simply regular, now, the not-knowing. And on Tuesday he spoke in fascinating methods about that.
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Woods doesn’t know if he can stroll 72 holes. That was the affliction that pressured his withdrawal from the Hero World Challenge in December; he was battling a case of plantar fasciitis and couldn’t do a lot on two ft with out important ache. He has tried to ramp up his prep work extra regularly this time — not an method that comes naturally — and he thinks it’s working. He’s optimistic.
“It’s gotten so much better the last couple months, I’m excited to go out there and compete and play with these guys,” Woods mentioned. He expects higher cooperation from his physique this 12 months than final. He expects he can compete for 4 days. But he doesn’t know for positive. Asked if he’s walked 18 holes 4 days in a row, Woods didn’t should assume arduous.
“No,” he mentioned. Then smiled.
“This year?”
That half was a joke.
Woods was additionally able to acknowledge the uncertainty forward for the PGA Tour, for LIV, for his or her coexistence. This week marks the third “designated event” for the Tour, making certain a robust subject that features 9 of the highest 10 gamers on the planet. Woods mentioned there hasn’t been one hundred pc assist for the adjustments to the schedule and to the Player Impact Program. He mentioned he’s spoken to prime gamers and to fringe execs and to journeymen.
“We’re trying to create the best product that we think the future of golf, how it should be played. How do we do that? We’re still working on it,” he mentioned.
As for the way the Masters will look, when the 2 leagues commingle for the primary time in 2023?
“I don’t know because I haven’t been around them,” Woods mentioned. Others have been in shut proximity, like Rory McIlroy tangling with Patrick Reed in Dubai. But Woods hasn’t performed a match with LIV defectors since final 12 months’s Open, and extra gamers have left since then. “I don’t know what that reaction’s going to be. I know that some of our friendships have certainly taken a different path, but we’ll see when all that transpires,” he mentioned. In different phrases, yeah. It’ll be a little bit awkward.
“We as a whole need to honor Scottie,” he added, referring to final 12 months’s Masters champ Scottie Scheffler. “So making sure that Scottie gets honored correctly but also realizing the nature of what has transpired and the people that have left, just where our situations are either legally, emotionally, there’s a lot there.”
There’s quite a bit there. That has been a part of the Tiger Woods expertise in recent times — acknowledging a extra advanced world. That has include age and with authority and with agony, too. He felt his sporting mortality after his again fusion a half-decade in the past. He felt his real-life mortality after his horrific automobile crash, which got here the day after this occasion in 2021. He’s reflective about that type of factor.
Woods talked about Tom Brady, who simply retired after the longest quarterbacking profession of all time. He talked about John Elway, too, and remembered watching his retirement speech. “He won the last two Super Bowls, but he could just not physically do it anymore,” Woods mentioned.
Golf is a special sport. Woods appreciated the truth that he doesn’t have 300-pound defenders coming for his knees and referenced Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, who every competed in 50 consecutive Masters.
The public’s greatest query is whether or not Woods stays a critical aggressive golfer. We don’t have many current knowledge factors; he made two of three cuts in majors in 2022 however hasn’t logged a prime 20 in additional than three years. We don’t know the way a lot he’ll play, solely that it received’t be a lot. But the standard of his golf was an space the place Woods really did mission some certainty.
“I would not have put myself out here if I didn’t think I could beat these guys and win the event,” he mentioned. “That’s my mentality.”
Woods’ 50 Masters reference led to a follow-up: Would he ever—
“Nope,” he mentioned, interrupting mid-question. “I’m not playing that many, sorry.”
That led to probably the most fascinating second of the session: Woods considering his future as a ceremonial golfer. He nonetheless can’t envision that.
“I don’t — I have not come around to the idea of being — if I’m playing, I play to win,” he mentioned, attempting to make sense of his future in actual time. “I know that players have played and they are ambassadors of the game and try to grow the game. I can’t wrap my mind around that as a competitor. If I’m playing in the event I’m going to try and beat you. I’m there to get a W.”
He acknowledged that there’ll come a degree the place his physique doesn’t permit him to compete. “Probably sooner rather than later,” he added. But then what?
“That’s not in my DNA,” he concluded.
Still, the factor about one’s DNA is which you could’t change it. Woods might nonetheless change his thoughts. He might settle for a task as a ceremonial golfer when the choice shouldn’t be being any type of golfer in any respect.
And the factor about soccer is that it tends to let you know if you’re completed. In golf? You should determine it out for your self. Nobody’s diving at your knees. You’re sporting them down as a substitute, torque by torque, one swing at a time. The important query of Woods is how lengthy he can maintain all of the the whole lot his 47-year-old physique has been by. We received’t get a precise reply this week, however we’ll get one other knowledge level.
Riviera is the place Woods’ PGA Tour profession started as a 16-year-old highschool sophomore. The trade had a sure gravity, listening to him take into consideration the top on the place all of it started.
But after he completed his morning duties, Woods headed right down to the vary. He nonetheless has extra to show, to himself if to not us. And there are some things we all know for sure: His ball pace is up. His expectations are, too. And he has a tee time come Thursday. For now, that’s lots.
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