Tiger Woods turned around his putting in one round. He has one subtle fix to thank

Putting, putted, putts. 

Three occasions, over his first reply and in regards to the first 30 seconds in his press convention after Saturday’s Genesis Invitational third spherical, Tiger Woods mentioned a variation of one phrase. It was each a degree of emphasis and pleasure. 

“Tiger, great playing today. Just a general assessment before we take some questions.” 

“Yeah, today was better,” he mentioned. “I felt like I made some nice adjustments with my putting, and that was the thing that held me back yesterday. I’ve driven it well the last three days. My iron play has been good. And the firm conditions I like; that’s kind of right up my alley with iron play. Just wish I could have putted a little bit better yesterday. I made a few adjustments today and some of the putts went in.”

Let’s stick to the press convention theme for a second, and return to Friday, and the second spherical. Our phrase of the day was on repeat there, too, proper from the beginning. 

“Tiger, tough finish. Just some comments on the day.” 

“Yeah, that did not — I did not putt well today, I blocked a lot of putts early, and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today. Probably should have shot probably five or six better than this easily. Just didn’t make the putts early and the middle part of the round, when I had those opportunities. And they weren’t very hard putts. I just hit bad putts and obviously had a very bad finish, too.”

If you’re protecting monitor at house, that’s three ‘putts’ on Saturday, and 5 on Friday. How becoming. 

At the Genesis, in this newest Woods return, we knew this could be an space of concern. He hadn’t performed because the Open Championship final July. He had performed simply 9 rounds final 12 months total in his return from a number of leg accidents. Touch would take time. 

There was hope Thursday at Riviera. He shot a two-under 69, ending birdie, birdie, birdie — and one-putt, one-putt, one-putt. But you understand how Friday went, and right here’s the underside line: In a spherical of 74, he ranked one hundred and fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting (-1.699) — a drop of 85 spots (!) from spherical one. Nothing was clicking.

Of course, you already know he turned issues around. On Saturday, he birdied his opening gap, the tenth, on a 15-footer. On 14, he rolled in a 24-footer for birdie. On 5, an 11-footer. No three-putts. He shot a four-under 67. In his press convention, he mentioned Saturday was his greatest spherical since this comeback began, ultimately 12 months’s Masters. He ranked sixteenth in SG: Putting (1.029). 

That’s a great leap. But the fix was subtle, and he alluded to it on Friday.

“No, I just blocked them; they were just bad putts.” he mentioned. “They were not very hard, good reads. I brought Joey [LaCava, his caddie] in on a couple of them, and I just hit bad putts. So I could have easily got off to a very hot start, and I did not, and then middle part of the round, I could have turned it around a little bit and I did not.”

Then he did. Then he un-’blocked.’

On Saturday, a reporter requested him about it. 

“That adjustment you made on your putting, did you feel it, did Rob [McNamara, a Woods confidante] see something, did you look at it on the telecast, that block? What was it?”

“Well, I just said, hey, I’ve always been a person who likes to hook my putts, so I just tried to feel like I went back to releasing the putter blade more, more right hand, more release,” Woods mentioned. “I just hate that blocky feeling, which I had yesterday, which I can’t stand. So I go back to hooking my putts and it felt like my normal stroke, which was good.”

That’s a bit technical, however in non-15-time main winner discuss, he loosened his stroke up. Remember the priority about growing really feel? This is that. 

And the putts — there’s that phrase once more: putts — began to fall. In the press convention, a reporter requested Woods whether or not issues are beginning to “just kick back in.”

“Yeah, feel-wise, yes, I do,” he mentioned. “As I was saying earlier, I can hit golf balls, I can do all that stuff, I can chip and putt back home and I can do all that stuff. But I haven’t walked and played a lot, so that’s the challenge. The ebb and flow of adrenaline, I haven’t had adrenaline in my system for a while, so getting the numbers right, that’s taken a little bit of time. Joey and I have been in lockstep in making those adjustments.”

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his function, he’s answerable for enhancing, writing and growing tales throughout the golf area. And when he’s not writing about methods to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native might be enjoying the sport, hitting the ball left, proper and brief, and ingesting a chilly beer to wash away his rating. You can attain out to him about any of those subjects — his tales, his sport or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.