Tiger Woods Finishing up Preparation for 2019 U.S. Open

Tiger Woods, wearing a Nike Frank the head-cover shirt, spent a lot of Tuesday on the practice range a Pebble Beach in advance of the U.S. Open. He called it a rest day although he worked at tuning up his game.

“I did the same thing at Augusta. Just trying to save my energy,” Tiger Woods explained to media. “More important for me to feel energized than it is to go out there and get wear and tear.”

It’s not like he doesn’t know the course. It is the site of his first U.S. Open victory in which he set a record that may never be broken, winning with a 15-stroke margin. He also won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am that same season. But he has not played the course in competition as often as, for example, the Arnold Palmer Invitational or the Farmers Insurance Open.

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But Woods didn’t spend all his time on the range man. He also paid attention to his putting because of the famously tricky poa annua greens at Pebble Beach.

Poa annua grass has a funny growth habit. As with all green surfaces, it grows during the day, but unlike bent grass, poa annua grows out lumpy. Many people compare it to putting over broccoli.

“It doesn’t take much to get off line on poa,” Woods said. “It gets a little bumpy, you happen to catch those little seed heads start popping up, bent sits down, poa perks up. And good putts look like they should go in, don’t go in. And you may pull one or push one that happens to bounce back in the hole.”

The key, Woods said, is to make sure your golf ball is below the hole.

“If you’re putting downhill, it’s like a Plinko effect,” he added. “You’re going to go every which way. The key is to be below the hole where you can take low lines and try and take the bumpiness out of play.”

Tiger Woods will look to position his drives so that his second shots give him a good look at birdie.

“We’re all going to be playing from virtually the same spots,” he noted.

That may negate the advantage that would usually go to the biggest hitters, which means that more golfers have a chance to win than if it favored the long hitters only.

“How do you put the ball in the correct position is the key,” he said. “These greens, we don’t face greens like this, this small and this steep. And so, it puts a premium on iron play, because I feel like most of the field can drive the ball in the fairways, they’re plenty wide.”

While the rough is thick and longish at three to five inches, Tiger Woods will have to guess how much effort he can give each lie if he’s off the fairway. As for the condition of the rough this year compared to 2000 when he won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Woods said it was more variable and clumpy, thick in some places, and easier to hit out of in other locations. Getting out of the thick stuff can be treacherous.

“It’s putting on the brakes. It’s the massive deceleration,” Woods explained about hitting from it. “I can accelerate the club as fast as you want, but when the grass decelerates it, then it puts all that training you have to do in the gym on your core and protecting, because that is what’s going to happen.”

How does he assess his game? He said he’s trending in the right direction.

“I need one more day of prep,” he noted. “I want to see the golf course when it’s a little bit closer to game time.”

He knows the USGA will have a surprise or two in terms of course condition and in whatever golf demons they can manage to conjure up between the end of the day on Wednesday and the first tee shot on Thursday. It’s going to be a matter of who can adjust and execute the shots, because the course is sure to be a challenge.

Next. U.S. Open 2019: Phil Mickelson’s last, best chance at the Grand Slam. dark

“There’s nothing like playing a U.S. Open setup here in Pebble Beach,” Tiger Woods said. “The golf course is not overly long. It’s not big in that regard, but man, it’s tricky.”

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