Tiger Woods chatting with the media on the Hero World Challenge on Tuesday.
PGA Tour
NASSAU, Bahamas — Outside the media tent it was a relaxed Bahamas morning. A delicate breeze blew throughout the driving vary, newly vacated by a gaggle of amateurs taking part in in a 9:30 a.m. shotgun begin. A HERO WORLD CHALLENGE banner with Tiger Woods’ face fluttered in a gust. Beneath it, Sam Burns labored on his pitch photographs. Michael Greller readied a placing drill. Beside the observe inexperienced, a safety guard yawned.
A minute earlier than 10 a.m., Woods — flanked by agent Mark Steinberg — pulled as much as the rear of the tent. He walked to the entrance of the room beside Hero CEO Pawan Munjal. They took there seats three throughout on the entrance of the room: PGA Tour media official Jack Ryan, Woods and Munjal. Displayed to Munjal’s proper was the Vida, Hero’s new electrical scooter. Black with crimson trim. Tiger colours.
They sat in silence for a second whereas the digicam operators on the room’s rear double-checked their body. One media member in the second row needed to transfer; he was blocking the sting of the shot. Woods cracked a smile. “Busted,” he mentioned quietly. Then the presser started.
For the following half-hour, Woods let loose. He fielded questions on his injured leg, on LIV, on the way forward for the sport. He took photographs at Greg Norman. He clarified his stance on golf carts. He defined his schedule. And he reminded us that this chapter of his profession can have as a lot to do with shaping the sport’s future as it should his precise on-course participation.
On his WD
Woods introduced on Monday afternoon that he was withdrawing from this week’s Hero, the place he’s serving as host. He didn’t take the choice frivolously; Woods had undergone intense preparations in the lead-up to the occasion that included strolling rounds, attempting completely different pre-round routines and spending additional time strolling on the seashore in an try to “simulate the sand” at this week’s course, Albany. Now he has to play the ready recreation once more.
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“It’s going to take probably, you know, a month or two of rest. But also, it was the ramping-up process that did it,” he mentioned, underscoring his every day dilemma: relaxation or work?
“It’s a balancing act, right? How hard do you push it to make progress while not pushing it too hard to go off the edge and you set yourself back two, three days? And that’s been the balancing act the whole year.”
On his upcoming schedule
From speaking to individuals round Woods, one factor is evident: His recreation remains to be there. He has progressed considerably since his final aggressive look at St. Andrews, too, solely including to his frustration upon WDing. Woods himself added that he was taking pictures “4, 5, 6, 7 under par like it was nothing — but I was in a cart.”
On two toes? Different story.
“I like playing, I like competing,” Woods mentioned. “But unfortunately, I can hit the golf ball and hit whatever shot you want, I just can’t walk.”
Still, Woods expects no points taking part in subsequent week’s Match nor the next week’s PNC Championship, the place he’ll accomplice along with his 13-year-old son Charlie.
“Charlie will just hit all the shots and I’ll just get the putts out of the hole, so pretty easy there,” he mentioned.
On LIV vs. the PGA Tour
Looking again a 12 months, Woods mentioned, he wouldn’t have foreseen the golf world present process such a dramatic shift.
“And the animosity from both sides. I don’t think we would’ve seen that a year ago,” he mentioned.
He had some selection phrases for LIV defectors, objecting to a few of the professionals who left and “the way they showed their disregard or disrespect to the Tour that helped them get to that point.”
Woods appreciated a few of the gamers who had been extra up entrance about their causes for leaving — particularly cash — however added that he discovered others “a little bit on the tasteless side.”
He saved his most direct phrases for Greg Norman. Echoing Rory McIlroy’s plea from a pair weeks in the past, Woods made it clear: “I think Greg has to go, first of all,” he mentioned.
He reiterated that concept a number of extra instances, referring to a possible “opportunity.” He mentioned as at the moment constructed, each leagues can’t coexist.
“Not with their leadership, not with Greg there and his animosity towards the tour itself. I don’t see that happening.”
Later he mentioned it another time, for good measure:
“I think Greg’s got to leave and then we can eventually, hopefully, have a stay between the two lawsuits and figure something out.”
That final bit obtained at one other necessary word from Woods’ aspect: the willingness to doubtlessly compromise with LIV. He appeared to name for 2 actions from LIV’s aspect — that they ditch Norman and drop their lawsuit in opposition to the PGA Tour — and implied that if these two issues occurred, discussions may comply with. He didn’t get into specifics; it’s nonetheless unclear what a compromise would really seem like or if both aspect is in discovering it.
“Then we can talk, we can all talk freely,” Woods mentioned. But it’s clear these discussions are hardly imminent and, as he added, the window is closing.
On his message to different PGA Tour gamers
Woods was current — in cost, in reality — for the assembly at this 12 months’s BMW Championship in which he laid out adjustments the Tour would make in half to retain high expertise. What did he inform them?
Woods acknowledged that the Tour can’t compete greenback for greenback with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which he known as “an endless pit of money” backing LIV. But they produce other benefits. He spoke to the flexibility to get into main championships, which some LIVers have foregone for good. And he outlined an empty future for individuals who departed.
“Where does your legacy stand there? You know, I went on the Tour and made a lot of money, but I never got to win any tournaments that are of value that would put me in the Hall of Fame and things of that nature.”
On Rory McIlroy
Perhaps Woods’ kindest phrases had been for McIlroy. The two have labored aspect by aspect on the Tour’s future and a number of other add-on ventures. He was impressed with McIlroy’s capability to steer and win on the identical time.
“What Rory has said and done are what leaders do,” he mentioned. “Rory is a real chief out right here on Tour. The indisputable fact that he’s really in a position to get the issues he mentioned out in the general public eye, be so clear-minded with it and so eloquent with it, in the meantime go on the market and win golf tournaments on high of that? People do not know how onerous that’s to do, to have the ability to separate these two issues.
“But he’s been fantastic. He’s a great leader in our calls we make and he’s a great leader with all the players out here. Everyone respects him and they respect him not just because his ball-striking, his driving, but the person he is.”
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On the brand new OWGR
Here, Woods echoed Jon Rahm moderately than McIlroy. Rahm shredded the Official World Golf Ranking adjustments on the DP World Tour’s season-ending occasion in Dubai when that occasion acquired fewer factors than the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic. The gripe is that the OWGR’s new system does a poor job of dealing with high-wattage, limited-field occasions. Woods agreed.
“It’s a flawed system,” he mentioned plainly. “The field at Dubai got less points than Sea Island and more of the top players were there in Dubai, so obviously there’s a flawed system.”
He didn’t define an answer — in equity, OWGR discuss will get nerdy rapidly — however made it clear there must be one.
“It has been changed in the past and I’m sure this will be changed, hopefully soon.”
On Covid on the Open
Earlier this week, in an interview with the Irish Independent, Rory McIlroy mentioned he was afraid he’d given Woods Covid in the lead-up to the Open Championship. Woods mentioned that wasn’t the case.
“Yeah, I got tested. I was always negative,” he mentioned. “I was I feeling under the weather, yes, wasn’t feeling great the whole week, but I never got a positive test.”
On golf carts
Woods has made it clear that he isn’t in taking a golf cart to play a PGA Tour occasion. He doubled down on Tuesday, saying that he would have the ability to play the Hero if he had been to make use of a cart however that he’s not in doing so.
At the PNC or the Match? Sure. But Woods mentioned he’d even opposed the measure that allowed his former Stanford teammate Casey Martin to compete on Tour in a cart.
“What he did with the ADA [American with Disabilities Act], I voted against it. I think golf — it’s an integral part of the game at our level, and I will never take a golf cart until it’s sanctioned. It’s sanctioned on the Champions Tour and the PNC is part of that. As far as a regular event, no, I would never do that.”
On additional surgical procedures
Woods casually talked about that, on account of taking part in, he’d undergone “a few more procedures.”
He didn’t have a lot curiosity in elaborating. Here’s how that went, Woods grinning all of the whereas:
TIGER WOODS: I had a pair surgical procedures, sure.
Q. Can you elaborate?
TIGER WOODS: Nope.
Q. Can you say when?
TIGER WOODS: In the previous.
Q. In the previous.
TIGER WOODS: This 12 months.
Q. Thank you.
TIGER WOODS: You’re welcome.
On his hopes for the longer term
Woods seemed on the vivid aspect when reflecting on his season. His most important objective had been to gear up for the Open Championship, he mentioned. Making the reduce at two further majors — the Masters and the PGA — had been a bonus.
Going ahead, he is aware of it’s not real looking to play a full schedule. But he nonetheless needs to play. Why?
“Well, I love competing,” he mentioned. “You know, I love the sport. I’ve been playing it for most — well, basically all my life.”
We’ve speculated as to what Woods’ schedule may seem like at full energy. He was as clear as he’s been about how he envisions his golf going ahead.
“The goal is to play just the major championships and maybe one or two more. That’s it,” he mentioned. “I mean, physically, that’s all I can do. I told you guys that at the beginning of this year, too. I don’t have much left in this leg, so [I’ll] gear up for the biggest ones and hopefully lightning catches in a bottle and I’m up there in contention with a chance to win and hopefully I remember how to do that.”
Hopefully, certainly. This week Woods will function event host; he’s in cost.
He appears more and more comfy in the position.
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