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Even Tiger Woods Doesn’t Know What to Expect from His Game

By Kathlene Bissell

NASSAU, BAHAMAS - DECEMBER 04: Tiger Woods of the United States lines up a putt on the 11th hole during the final round of the Hero World Challenge at Albany, The Bahamas on December 4, 2016 in Nassau, Bahamas. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
NASSAU, BAHAMAS - DECEMBER 04: Tiger Woods of the United States lines up a putt on the 11th hole during the final round of the Hero World Challenge at Albany, The Bahamas on December 4, 2016 in Nassau, Bahamas. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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Tiger Woods looks like an entirely new man ahead of his return at the Hero World Challenge. Behind the smile, though, what does Woods have left in the tank?

Tiger Woods isn’t an open book yet, but he’s at least showing us a couple of pages.  He doesn’t have pain shooting up his legs these days.  He’s unsure about a few shots. And he doesn’t think he can live up to his YouTube self.

“That’s going to be hard. I mean, I was pretty good,” Woods quipped Tuesday at the Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas. “They showed only my good shots. They don’t show my bad shots in the highlights.”

Tiger Woods with one-liners? Humor?  This is new. But so is the recently repaired Woods, and we’re going to get a chance to join him in his latest adventure, “Tiger: The Umpteenth Comeback”.  Let’s face it, it’s hard to keep up with them all.  He’s had four back surgeries and numerous knee surgeries.

Regardless of the patch jobs, you can be sure that there will be a television camera on every golf shot Woods makes for four days because everybody who is even a casual golf fan wants to know how Woods does.  If Woods gets in contention this week, the ratings for the Hero World Challenge could be higher than The Masters.

The good news in all this is that after months of rest and rehabilitation, Woods is able to play golf again and, in case you’ve been on another planet for a few weeks and didn’t know, he will compete for real at the Hero World Challenge.  He’s already had some friendly games with the likes of Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Brad Faxon and, yes, the President of the United States.  But he’s not PGA Tour quality, competition tested.

As he tees it up this week, what’s missing this time is a Tiger Woods who is completely sure how he will perform. He admitted that there are shots he has not hit yet.

“It’s the shots out of the rough where I take three cubic acres of rough with me and swing a club, a 9-iron or 8-iron, looks like I’m going at it 120 miles an hour.  I haven’t done any of that,” he said.

He also has not hit big slices or hooks.

“I’ve just kind of let my body tell me what I can and can’t do, and eventually I’m sure I’ll probably do those things,” he added.

One reason he chose the Albany Golf Club for his latest comeback is that the course doesn’t require those kinds of shots.  It’s more normal golf.

"“I hate to be so mundane on this one, but honestly, I’m just looking forward to getting through these four rounds and having an understanding, a better understanding of where I’m at,” he explained."

Before he started hitting driver, he was concerned about his distances.  Apprehensive, he said.

"“Is full-go going to be some guy who hits it 240, 250 in the air as full-go?” he wondered.  “It took me a few days, if not a week, to really come to grips with I don’t know what my full-go’s going to be.”"

According to Fowler, Woods still has considerable distance. But Dustin Johnson hits it past nearly everybody consistently, save Brooke Koepka and Gary Woodland, and maybe the winner of the recent long-drive contest. When push comes to shove, Johnson can probably take the long-drive guys to the woodshed if necessary.

Brad Faxon, who played in the Presidential match, said, “Probably on the 10 holes that they were both hitting driver, Tiger hit it past Dustin half the time, and Dustin hit it past Tiger half the time. He looked great.”

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According to Dustin Johnson in a recent tweet, he can hit it past Woods, despite what might have been said by anybody recently.

No matter how Woods plays, the important thing is he says he’s not in pain anymore.  In the past, he had shooting pain in his legs that caused him to drop to his knees once at Liberty National GC.  His pain was so severe, he says he couldn’t sleep.  It’s not surprising that he developed a pain-killer problem, like many people have.  Politically speaking, he was part of the opioid epidemic. The fortunate thing is that Woods is now pain free and pain-medication free.  There are plenty of people who envy him just for that.

Next: Tiger Woods pain-free following round with President

For certain, the Hero World Challenge will be must watch or must DVR or must stream golf.  Whether Woods is good or horrible, we won’t be able to take our eyes away from him.

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