After his newest begin, Padraig Harrington is a believer once more in Tiger Woods.
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ORLANDO, Fla. — Thursday at the PNC Championship is, presumably, not all that a lot completely different from another Thursday at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club.
Golfers roam the fairways and greens, zipping by in carts and slugging down halfway-house cocktails. Tee pictures vary from 315-yard heat-seeking missiles to 31-foot tops, and every part in between. Congenial conversations are held between strangers who’ve been paired collectively for the event, which was the primary of two Pro-Ams to be contested earlier than this weekend’s 36-hole scramble.
Even the match appears afraid to infringe on the common operations of the membership. There are few logos, solely a handful of volunteers and a buildout that bears a more in-depth resemblance to a member-guest than a PGA Tour-sanctioned occasion. Even the road indicators — those that information guests to the right entranceway and parking zone — are few and much between.
Welcome to Thursday at the middle of the golf universe.
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It is unusual to consider this match as something apart from a hit-and-giggle, which is all that it has been for the higher portion of its quarter-century existence. But even hit-and-giggles can appeal to the eye of the golf world after they embrace Tiger and Charlie Woods.
Tiger hasn’t even arrived but — his attendance is predicted for Friday morning’s Pro-Am spherical — and but there’s little query that he has shaken the PNC to its core. Ever since Tiger confirmed up for the primary time in 2019, he reworked the occasion from a sleepy Champions Tour retreat to the heartbeat {of professional} golf. Three years later, it appears the match remains to be figuring that out.
The enormity of this small Central Florida golf match has solely been amplified by the shortage of Woods’ taking part in appearances, which has dwindled to (a few of) the majors, the Hero, The Match and, now, the PNC. These days, December has turn into as essential a month as any for Woods, notably among the many diehards desirous to see if he can nonetheless regain his type — a bunch that apparently consists of Padraig Harrington.
“He’s looked good physically. He looked better at The Match. So, you know, I’m not saying he ‘could be,’ I actually believe he will be a danger,” Harrington informed media on Thursday, citing Woods’ 175-mph-plus ball-speed numbers as proof of his continued restoration. “I think he’ll win another major. The way I looked at him, I genuinely think he will be in contention. If it’s a major, he’s going to have a chance.”
Harrington, who loved a profession renaissance himself in 2022, is as considerate and technically savvy as any skilled golfer. When he says he believes in Woods’ potential, he means it. But it’s additionally truthful to marvel if Harrington discovered himself at least partially beneath the gravitational pull of the Tiger Woods hype machine, which roared to life Thursday regardless of the damndest efforts of a rain-shortened pro-am.
“I’m so disappointed that the World Cup Final is at on Sunday morning,” Harrington stated of the massive sport’s 10 a.m. ET begin. “I really wanted to be on mid-afternoon at 3 o’clock going up against the PNC Championship because I think Tiger might win over on the TV ratings to the World Cup. That’s the difference he’s made to golf.”
Harrington is much from the one sufferer of Tiger-mania at the PNC Championship. Tickets to this week’s occasion offered out far in advance of Thursday’s opening day. Tournament organizers have constructed an overflow tent to deal with the onslaught of nationwide media who will quickly arrive. While the on-course footprint stays small, the world surrounding the clubhouse is stuffed with the type of tent metropolis usually saved for main championships.
“Well, if you look behind us here, there’s quite a lot more infrastructure than there was nine years ago when we first played in this thing,” Stewart Cink stated with a smile. “Tiger is his own universe when it comes to that. We’ve all known that for a long time.”
There is not any hiding from Tiger Woods at the PNC, strive as this match — or Woods himself — could. The machine has grown far past the capabilities of even the person as soon as answerable for it.
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“Everything about Tiger on the golf course, it is a different vibe than it was,” Harrington stated. “It was big back then, but I don’t know, there’s an emotion to the crowd. They’re not just excited about the great shots, which is I think what they would have been 15 years ago, there’s a genuine emotion about it. It has changed. There’s no doubt about it. It is a different emotional atmosphere around it. In many ways, it’s bigger.”
That form of setting lends itself to hyperbole, particularly as Tiger’s profession has shifted from epic to mythic proportions. Over the years, the machine has grown to care extra about believing in Tiger Woods’ greatness than it does about seeing it. And for so long as that’s the case, there might be individuals prepared to marvel if there’s yet one more second left in that crimson mock neck.
It’s not truthful, after all. It by no means has been. Not to Tiger, nor his opponents. This, it seems, is the nosebleed price of being the best.
“Everybody pays a price for everything they get in life,” Harrington stated. “The more famous you are, the better you’re doing, you’re going to have to put up with that.”
Play ended early on Thursday afternoon, and at last, it appeared, the power at the golf course had shifted.
It was not a lazy Thursday at the Ritz — not with that climate approaching. The clouds had been black by the point the gamers returned to the clubhouse, and a foreboding wind pressed towards the palms. Thunder boomed in the gap.
A storm was approaching, maybe in extra methods than one.
