 |
Make no mistake, this was seriously striking stuff and a nod to Woods’s allure. At a venue where mobile phones or any other electronic means of communication are banned from the hands of spectators, good old‑fashioned word of mouth spread notice from the moment of arrival, 3.15pm to be precise: Tiger is here.
There was an element of ghoulish intrigue. Woods’s game has regressed to such a state that he will start the 79th Masters as the 111th-ranked player in the world. Until last week, there were questions as to whether he would appear in Georgia at all.
But appear he has; laughing, joking, offering practice ground hugs to Darren Clarke, O’Meara and his former coach Sean Foley. Woods even started his warm-up session listening to music; perhaps a nod to an endorsement deal rather than love of funky beats. The young Chilean amateur Matías Domínguez found himself in an unenviable position alongside Woods on the short-game area; he abandoned his own work just to turn around and watch.
The serious stuff relates to the 14-times major winner’s golf or, specifically, his chipping. That isn’t lost on Woods himself; he spent 30 minutes hitting chip after chip and testing out different wedges before a more standard range session. By the side of the 1st green alone, the 39-year-old hit 20 chip shots from varying lies and angles.
Before that, a glimpse of the erratic and the brilliant had been offered. Woods pulled his opening tee shot left. Seriously left, 45 yards from the middle of the 1st fairway and on to the short stuff at the 9th
.
What might have been forgotten is that Woods has been on such territory before, several times. He fired a short iron into 5ft, holed for birdie and had galleries who weren’t even expecting to see this show whooping with delight. At the par five 2nd, Woods easily hit the green in two. At the 4th, his tee shot finished 10ft from the cup. The caution attached to this is obvious; it was only Monday.
Albeit Woods appeared slightly tentative on occasion around the greens, there were no signs of outright disaster. He is also noticeably thinner in terms of upper body muscle bulk than in recent times, which won’t be lost on those who have questioned his fitness regimes.
O’Meara lasted nine holes as Woods carried on, player and caddie to a back nine which was by this point closed to the masses, until darkness fell. O’Meara offered a message before departing. “Don’t ever underestimate Tiger Woods,” he said. “I saw some good signs out there today.”
Indeed, Woods continues to receive the backing of his peers. David Duval, a former world No1 who suffered a pretty sharp fall from grace, used his Golf Channel analysis to point out what emotion Woods might have been feeling before taking to the course.
“When you have battled some demons, it is easy to grab a club and a ball on the range,” Duval said. “The longest thing is that walk to the 1st tee. You have to expose yourself to that, take it head on.”
Martin Kaymer, the US Open champion, offered something akin to a plea for peace and quiet. As altogether vain as that was to prove.
“I hope he’s happy. I hope he’s fine,” Kaymer said. “I hope he will play well this week. But what would bother me a lot is all the speculation. You don’t have a choice; you will read about it somewhere. You will hear about it because you socialise with people.
“So mentally it must be quite exhausting and we know how important the mental part is in golf. It’s difficult and some things I don’t find very fair. You know, you should just let him be. Let him play golf, what he likes to do.
“Sometimes I look at it and find it quite sad how people treat the whole subject. It shouldn’t be like this in my opinion. But that’s how it is unfortunately. That is how a lot of people make their money and some athletes, they suffer because of that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment