Tiger Woods reportedly “pain free” following round with President
Tiger Woods played a friendly round with some elite company on Friday, and the news sounds great for his return this week.
Over the past several months, Tiger Woods has been giving us all some teasing views into his return to golf. A soft pitch eventually became a full driver swing, and now, we have the first reports of a full round. Tiger played with a friendly foursome on Friday, and things are definitely looking up for the Big Cat.
Woods took to the course at Trump National Jupiter the day after Thanksgiving. Joining him were Brad Faxon, Dustin Johnson, and President Donald Trump. Hey, I said it was friendly, not accessible.
On Wednesday, before he began play at the Australian Open, Jason Day spoke about the conversations he’s had with Woods recently.
“I did talk to him and he did say it’s the best he’s ever felt in three years,” Day revealed. “He doesn’t wake up with pain anymore, which is great.”
For starters, that’s always been the end goal, both for Woods and those of us who have enjoyed watching him so much for the last 20 years. Of course, once that was addressed, the question could finally be asked. When would Tiger be back, and what could he do?
Woods looked “pain-free”, “at ease” in elite foursome
Following the round with POTUS, we have a little more info. Faxon, writing for Golfweek, described what he saw from both Woods and the Commander-in-Chief. I’m not about to compare a relatively-meaningless best ball with Sunday at Augusta, but it’s encouraging nonetheless.
Some excerpts follow. For the full column, follow the link above.
"Tiger looked great to me. He was happy and, more than anything, he’s finally pain-free. The issues he had with the back the last couple of comebacks seem to be gone. He looked effortless, he looked free, he had some power."
https://twitter.com/TwSpot/status/934076310292443136
Faxon said that he and the President played from the blue tees (about 6,500 yards) while DJ and Tiger played from the back, about 7,600 yards. According to Faxon’s account, Woods outdrove DJ about half the time, and more importantly, he didn’t seem to be forcing anything.
"Tiger looked like he had all the touch shots down. On the very first hole he hit a pitch shot over a bunker that looked great. Hit some tough little pitch shots, tough chip shots and hit some close. Some to gimme’ distance."
In some of Tiger’s recent comeback efforts, we’ve seen his short game famously fail him in big-time moments. He doesn’t need to be the longest player on TOUR to compete, but he does need to have his world-class short game in order to have any chance.
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If nothing else, this should whet everybody’s appetite that much more ahead of the Hero World Challenge. Are you ready?