Tiger Woods: How much can his body still handle?

Out of all the golfers that made the cut this week at the Genesis Invitational, Tiger Woods finished in last place.

For all of us that were hoping to see Tiger Woods pull-down win #83 at the tournament that he hosts, things got off to a nice looking start as Tiger Woods was -4 through nine holes at the Genesis Invitational.

After that, there were very few bright spots for the remainder of the week for Tiger.

He would go +2 on the back nine to finish the opening day at -2 after shooting 69. He was only two shots back of second place, and it seemed like if he could finish out the way playing good golf, that he would be able to make a run at the top of the leaderboard.

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Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards for Tiger Woods. In fact, the first front nine would be the only time all week that Tiger would score under par on any nine that he played. If not for a +3 stretch over four holes on Friday, or a double on the 15th hole, he still would’ve been sitting quite comfortable going into the weekend.

As is always the concern with Tiger Woods, you have to worry about his body, and if it is going to be able to hold up for an entire week of golf. Just go back to the Presidents Cup, and you can see that it was only two months ago that Tiger Woods had to stop playing golf because his body wasn’t able to hold up to the stress of multiple rounds over the course of a few days.

If he was able to, or if it wasn’t his tournament, he likely would’ve done the same thing this weekend at the Genesis Invitational. It wouldn’t have been a good look for him to withdraw though, and he played through the pain to finish out the weekend.

The 76 that he posted on Saturday was his worst since the opening round at Royal Portrush last year for the British Open (or Open Championship, your choice).

Not to outdo himself, he came out on Sunday and played even worse, finishing the tournament with a 77. Personally, I cannot remember worse days back-to-back from Tiger Woods. It wasn’t just that he scored poorly, it’s that he played poorly as well.

The only bright spot for Tiger Woods all week was the first hole, which was not only the easiest hole of the tournament but one of the easiest holes you will see all year at any tournament on the PGA Tour. There were 24 eagles there over the course of the Genesis Invitational, and Tiger had two of them. He birdied it the other two times. That means he was -6 on the first hole, and +17 on the other 17 holes.

He finished with five bogeys and a double during round three and then carded seven bogeys and a double to finish out the week on Sunday.

It’s going to be conversation point 1B for the rest of Tiger’s career (1A being, and forever will be, can he catch Jack) as to whether or not he can stay healthy. The points go hand in hand, cause what he really needs is to not just stay healthy but to make sure that he can be healthy at the right times during the season.

You know… the Majors.

He’s been in contention multiple times over the last few years and has even won a couple of tournaments, like last year’s Masters.

Now at 44, more and more attention is going to be paid to Tigers gait. How he walks, how he reacts the day after a round, and how his body feels after hitting a jarring shot.

I really hope that this isn’t the new normal with Tiger. That heading into the weekend, we start seeing him withdrawing from tournaments or putting together poor scores. He hasn’t announced where he is going to play next, but he did let everyone know that he will not be playing at this week’s WGC-Mexico event.

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Here’s hoping that as the weather warms up around the country, that Tiger Woods and his body are able to as well, and that the Big Cat is able to be healthy as the Majors approach.

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