Tiger Woods Expects To Be Shortest Hitter in His Threesome

By Kathlene Bissell | Jan 26, 2017

January 23, 2017; Pacific Palisades, CA, USA; Tiger Woods speaks during media day for the Genesis Open at The Riviera Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /

Tiger Woods will tee it up alongside some of the game’s biggest hitters at Torrey Pines, and he’s comfortable with his changing status.

Tiger Woods, formerly one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour, has come to the realization that he’s not the longest now. He’s going to get a full dose of two who can out drive him without breaking a sweat in his first round at Torrey Pines in the Farmer’s Insurance Open. He is grouped with Jason Day and Dustin Johnson.

“Those guys will bomb it out there, that’s fine. I’ll just play my game and the name of the game is low score. It’s not a long drive contest,” Woods told media prior to the event.

Woods said he can’t carry the ball 320 like Day and Johnson. He looked up his own stats for his earlier days as a professional and noted that he averaged 296 in 1997.

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“I was second longest to John Daly, and I think Jason last year averaged 305 and he barely cracked the top-15. So it’s a different game. I’m longer now than I’ve ever been, but it’s all relative. Everybody’s bombing it out there now.”

As just announced, Woods has signed with Taylormade Golf. He will use their M-2 driver, and he will also have the company’s 13-degree, M2 3-wood and the 19-degree, M1 5-wood. Woods previously announced that he was switching to a Bridgestone ball. The Scotty Cameron putter that Woods likes is also in his bag.

“We all have an interest in how he will swing the club, how he holds up, how he plays, that’s fair to say,” Day told PGATour.com. “I am mostly interested in seeing how his mind is under certain stresses. How he can mentally grind again having been out of the game (for) so long. It will be interesting to see how that goes.”

Johnson told PGATour.com that he will also be watching how Woods plays.

“You’ve got a job to do, but he’s a buddy of mine, and I want to see him do well,” Johnson said. “I want to beat him, but I’m happy to see him back.”

After the 17-month layoff, Woods is jumping into the deep end. He has scheduled four tournaments in five weeks. After the Farmer’s Insurance Open, he’s playing in Dubai. Then he has committed to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and will play at the Genesis Open. It’s likely he will play the Honda Classic since that is virtually a home event for him.

Woods sees the schedule as a good opportunity to get back into the swing of playing professional golf.

“I’m looking forward to getting off to and playing and trying to keep improving and getting my game better, more consistent, rounding into form and making my way to that first full week in April and getting everything ready for that,” he said.

Next: Tiger Woods Says He’s Ready For The Masters Right “Now”

Whether his game allows him to just make cuts or is good enough for him to contend remains to be seen. However, it is certain that golf fans all over the globe will be watching to see how Woods plays this week.