Tiger Woods understands that he’s not the same force in golf that he was a decade ago. But that understanding may still give him a needed edge at this week’s PGA Championship.
Conditions at Bellerive Country Club, site of this week’s PGA Championship, changed dramatically between Monday and Tuesday of tournament week, thanks to downpours which caused the golf course to be closed Tuesday morning. Once the course was open for play, golfers made an attempt to get around the property. Later on, several players made trips to the interview room, including Tiger Woods, who is midway through preparations for the final major of 2018.
Woods was only able to play five holes before he met with media, and he noted that he was having difficulty recollecting them. By week’s end, he will no doubt know where everything is.
"“Right now, it doesn’t really favor anyone because it’s playing so soft. The ball is just plugging out there, and if anything, it favors a guy who hits the ball high,” Woods said when asked who the course favors.“It’s not going to dry out the rest of the week. It’s going to be hot, it’s going to be wet, and fortunately, I’m one of the guys who hit the ball high and get the ball up in the air, and you just need to get the ball out there.”"
Now we know the strategy.
That could be key for Woods’ chances, however, since he does hit the ball a long way on the fly, like Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson. Those who typically rely on running the ball out to gain needed distance will be at a comparative disadvantage.
Woods said he watched video of the year when Nick Price won the PGA and when Camilo Villegas won a FedEx Playoff event at Bellerive, and he believes it’s a completely different course now.
"“Today was soft, wet and muddy, and the ball wasn’t traveling very far on the ground, and I think that’s going to be how it’s going to be all week,” he added. “It would be advantageous for the guys who hit the ball in the air and can carry it a long way, and I just need to be able to do that.”"
Woods noted that the wet conditions will also affect the putting surfaces. Because the greens will be wet, the ball is likely to plug there as well, he noted.
“It will be important to hit the ball in the right quadrant ( on the greens). It will be easier to hit the ball in the right quadrant because the ball will be plugging,” Woods explained. “If you’re able to hit the ball well and put the ball in the right sections, you’ll see a bunch of birdies, and if you don’t, then I think you’ll see the field get separated pretty quickly.”
The greens at Bellerive CC are very large, about the same size as last week’s Firestone CC, which averaged just over 7600 square feet.
In his first season playing golf after a fourth back surgery, Tiger Woods has asked a lot of his body. As he approaches the last few weeks of 2018 golf calendar, he is trying to rest as much as possible.
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"“When I was playing well there for the better part of a little over a decade, it was the same thought process. It’s just to get rest and not to wear myself out in practice rounds and make sure that I’m mentally and physically fresh come Thursday,” he explained.“What I did back then and what I do now are two totally different things. I don’t lift as much, and I don’t run as much as I used to, to stay fresh. That part has changed.”"
He reminded everyone that he knows how to play golf, and that he just needs to know what his body is able to do after four back surgeries and a reconstructed knee.
“Certainly can’t do what I used to do 10, 15 years ago, but I’m still able to hit the majority of my shots, and I’ve had to learn a golf swing that is restricted,” he explained. “I’ve never had a spinal restriction before, and I played all those years without it.”
This season, Woods added, he has learned to play around his knee and his back. It is rather reminiscent of Clint Eastwood’s famous line in Magnum Force: “ A man’s gotta know his limitations.”
We’ll see how well he handles them this week at Bellerive.