Tiger Woods will play the first two rounds of the Genesis Invitational alongside Justin Thomas and Gary Woodland.
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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Even though it seems like Tiger Woods is making a splashy annual return to the Genesis by invitation, this one is different in many ways. There’s his body, another year older, no more of his bones merged than last year. There are the clothes draped on this body, a new brand he launched on Monday. (Sorry, Nike.) Here’s his looper, Lance Barrett, which is new in the bag and new to the Tiger World hype. There is Woods’ position in the PGA Tour government, as director of players on the Tour’s political council, and the only one with an indeterminate term. A leader for as long as he wants. Under this umbrella there is also a completely different range of questions. Have you met the Saudi PIF? Why do you consider SSG the best investment partner? How to reunify the professional game?
Woods sat in front of the press on Wednesday for his usual 25 minutes. No press conference lasts as long as his. For Woods, it was the first time he had spoken publicly in two months. The longer he stays away, the more the topics pile up. While that might come from being Tiger Woods, there’s one problem with that territory: he’s not good at wandering straight into it.
Answering questions is difficult right now, both for the greatest player of all time and for all the other guys too. Rory McIlroy resigned from the Policy Board last fall, after months and months as the de facto spokesperson for the Tour. Charley Hoffman’s term ended in December and he says that makes him happy. The decisions to be made are difficult! Jordan Spieth, another board member, answered business questions during the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, then quickly had a “pretty frank” phone call with McIlroy on how he did it.
However, when it comes to Woods – a man who deserves both sympathy and respect for what he’s done in the game – it’s easy to forget that he volunteered for this new position highly monitored and more open to the public. It’s easy to forget that he was catapulted into a position of governance by a near coup d’état, when 41 major players sent a letter to Commissioner Jay Monahan last July. A letter that did not ask Woods for a place on the political council. A letter that demanded it.
The reasons are obvious. The majority of the members have spent their lives idolizing him, and he is clearly interested in becoming their leader. Woods’ opinion carries more weight than that of any player who has ever lived, given that the Tour has profited from his unique market value like no athlete’s sport has ever seen. Woods undoubtedly expresses his important opinions behind the scenes, but when it comes to sharing what matters most with the public, he’s far from candid.
On the subject of the PIF investment, Woods said negotiations were ongoing. “Ongoing” and “fluid”. The same words everyone has been using for months.
“Ultimately, we would like PIF to be a part of our tour and our product,” Woods said. “Financially, the amounts they were put on the table with and what we initially agreed to in the framework agreement, they are all the same numbers. Anything beyond that will obviously be beyond that. We’re in a position right now, hopefully, (where) we can improve our product in the short and long term.
When it comes to Tour business, Woods speaks like a cautious CEO, fearful that his words will move stock prices. Does he know the end goal of all this interest in golf on the part of the Saudi PIF?
“From what their representatives have discussed with us, yes and no, because it’s changing and it’s been evolving for a few months to what it is now,” he said.
Whether it’s a good or bad change, Woods said he doesn’t know. What we do know is that money coming into the game will benefit players. But will fans get anything out of it?
“We want to have the history and all the intangibles that have made the PGA Tour – what it is now and what it has been, and hopefully what it will continue to be – even better . And how do we do this? That’s why we have a group like SSG to provide us with information and help us create the best tour possible.
Paraphrase: We would like our new investors to make this tournament the best PGA Tour ever. But the question used the word “fans” three times, and Woods’ answer didn’t use it or any derivative of it once.
Sometimes superficial answers are exactly what’s happening with Woods, whose life has been analyzed in excruciating detail for decades. Every sentence he utters can make headlines, and often does. Finally, he hopscotches through the list of requests to get to the one he gets asked all the time. The one that everyone out the press center is the most curious.
How’s your game going, buddy?
It cannot be easy to play the role mentioned above And also participate in the PGA Tour. Not to mention he’s taking on a third role this week: tournament host, a role that requires attending luncheons, cozying up to executives, and making appearances around the clock. Set your expectations by Consequently, friends.
When Woods played at the Hero World Challenge in November, he was rusty and he admitted it. When he played in the PNC Championship a few weeks later, he was rusty and admitted it. This week, he will inevitably be rusty. We’ll see if he admits it. But he has been working for several weeks to get back into shape, despite the phone calls and emails that accompany the governance of the Tour.
On the first hole at Rivera Country Club on Wednesday, Woods hit a squeaky cut into the fairway; then roasted a much better one on 2. He dropped a dart into the difficult par 3 4th and drained the putt. If he can do it again on Thursday, he will be delighted. It was an 18-hole pro-am, alongside other athletes Josh Allen and Aaron Hicks, each playing their own ball. In other words, it was a Slow-am. Woods planned to play just nine of those holes and then walk the back nine. Just hitting golf holes means something for his stamina right now. But by the time he finished the final holes, Woods made the climb to the clubhouse, still playing every shot. A reason to be optimistic.
At the end of the day, pro-ams are like that. You look and wonder if the shots are a sign of something. You squint hard enough and they might just look like what good golf might look like to a 48-year-old throughout the coming weekend (and season). Woods’ most telling response Wednesday addressed that. We asked him very simply: From a technical perspective, what are you working on to prepare your game for competition?
“I think more than anything I try to do from a technical standpoint is make sure I can still hit the golf ball accurately and soundly,” Woods said. “I no longer have the same speed as before. I don’t have the capacity to practice the same number of hours. But I still make sure I can hit the ball from the middle of the face. If I can do it consistently — one of the reasons I really don’t have a trainer right now — what my body does on a daily basis, from week to week just seems different. I can’t really mold myself or adapt to any type of pattern – a lot of it depends on my hands and how I feel.
Now there is something we can relate to. Coming back to this sport is always about hands and feel.
“I’ve built this golf swing over the last few years – four, five years – based on my hands and how I feel,” he said. “What it looks like, sometimes it doesn’t look pretty, but I can still hit the ball low.”
He didn’t elaborate further on what it means, but every golfer knows that F-word. His version of the flush may be different than yours, but as long as he feels it, he’s immediately the hottest golfer fascinating world, even if it doesn’t say much. Tiger Woods can still hit the ball low. Isn’t that all you wanted to know, anyway?
