The swing wasn鈥檛 quite there. In fact, it was hardly there at all. Still, Tiger Woods was more than pleased with his third non-silly-season tournament in two and a half years, and just his first since he had spinal fusion surgery last April. And he had reason to be. After all, he not only made the cut at the challenging Farmers Insurance Open; he finished 24th out of a competitive field of 156. He didn鈥檛 quite tame Torrey Pines (or, more importantly, himself), but he battled it to at least a draw, finishing three under par and showing just as much of his resiliency as his talent.
Given the sheer amount of time Woods spent in the rough, it would be an understatement to argue that he was rusty. In equal parts due to the lack of reps and the absence of a swing coach, he showed a glaring susceptibility to the dreaded two-way miss. From the get-go, he struggled to control his mechanics: he went way, way left at first, and then, in an effort to compensate, wound up going way, way right. And it was the story until he cleared his 72nd hole; he hit a mere three of 14 fairways in the final round and 17 of 56 all told, abhorrent numbers that won鈥檛 help him any in his bid to crowd the top of the sport anew.
From the minuses come the pluses, however. Precisely because Woods was so errant off the tee, he was compelled to, in his words, 鈥渇ight out the scores,鈥 to relative success. That he relied on his trademark determination was not a surprise. That he managed to lean on a robust short game was. As he noted, his adventures 鈥渨eren鈥檛 yawners. Down the middle, on the green, miss the first one, one-hand the second. These were grinds. I fought hard. It鈥檚 nice to see I鈥檓 able to still grind.鈥 Which was why he made the cut in the first place; after a bogey on his 35th hole, he absolutely had to birdie the next in order to make the weekend. And he did.
It would be foolhardy to believe the answers to Woods鈥 problems with a club in his hand will be found anytime soon. Nonetheless, he鈥檚 right; there is much to feel good about. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all veg positive,鈥 he contended. Well, perhaps not all, though his capacity to make violent swings underscores just how much he has recovered from his back troubles. Up next: the Genesis Open at the Riviera Country Club in two weeks. Meanwhile, he鈥檚 bent on addressing 鈥渁 bunch of things. I can feel some of the things I鈥檓 doing wrong with my swing, so we鈥檙e going to go back to work.鈥 And armed with good health, he figures to steadily improve, no doubt a scary development for the new elite.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since 大象传媒 introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is the Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Basic Energy Corp.
