When Tiger Woods says he鈥檚 ready to contend at the PGA Championship, all and sundry need to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Nobody knows Tiger Woods better than Tiger Woods himself, so when he says he鈥檚 ready to contend at the PGA Championship, all and sundry need to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he does have 15 major championships on his resume, the 2008 United States Open (which he claimed off a playoff despite competing with a double stress fracture of his left tibia), and the 2019 Masters (which he won at a relatively old, and relatively frail, 43) included. Which is to say he has the tools and the fortitude to prevail regardless of the odds.
That said, Woods has handicapped his chances by choosing to stay away from the sport; he heads into TPC Harding Park in San Francisco having played in a tournament setting just once in the last five months. To be sure, he鈥檚 being cautious in line with the demands of his body battered by numerous stints under the knife, not to mention time. On the other hand, his lack of reps will hurt his cause, and especially since the ways in which he has tried to stay sharp 鈥 among them teeing off for practice rounds in sunny Florida 鈥 don鈥檛 jibe with current conditions in California. The colder, damper climate figures to affect his surgically repaired back, and, in this regard, he has already seen fit to ease pressure on it by tweaking the length of his putter.
If conventional wisdom isn鈥檛 convinced of Woods鈥 capacity to contend, it鈥檚 partly because of the depth of the field. Defending titleholder Brooks Koepka hopes to translate his recent good form to the first three-peat in close to a century. Newly installed World Number One Justin Thomas aims to build momentum off an emphatic triumph at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. And then there鈥檚 beefed-up Bryson DeChambeau, who looks to overwhelm the 7,200-yard course by combining newfound length off the tee with enough accuracy to avoid the myriad Cypress trees and three-and-a-half-inch rough.
Admittedly, though, conventional wisdom doesn鈥檛 have to look beyond Woods鈥 own backyard to justify its absence of confidence in his standing. He does have good memories of Harding Park, where he won every session in the 2009 Presidents Cup and hoisted the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship trophy. On the flipside, his 40th-place finish at the Memorial Tournament three weeks ago proves that past experiences count for squat; despite five previous podium finishes at Muirfield Village, he had an up-and-down output of two strong rounds offset by two poor ones.
In any case, there can be no doubting Woods, per Woods. 鈥淭his is what I鈥檝e been gearing up for,鈥 he argued in a run-up presser. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 played that much, he acknowledged, 鈥渂ut [given] the results that I鈥檝e seen at home, [I鈥檓] very enthusiastic about some of the changes I鈥檝e made.鈥 Can he win? 鈥淥f course,鈥 he replied matter of factly. Will he win? The answer is much less clear.
ANTHONY L. CUAYCONG has been writing Courtside since 大象传媒 introduced a Sports section in 1994.
