Just to get on the golf course takes a lot for Danielle Kang, who revealed she is playing with a tumor on her spine. How is she handling the diagnosis and uncertainty? “Still processing,” she says.
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ORLANDO, Fla. – Should we really be surprised? After all he has done since shaking hands with Mike Douglas on national television at age 2, since playing an exhibition with Sam Snead at 5, and teeing it up at the old L.A. Open at 16, Tiger Woods always has delivered something special, has he not? His six consecutive U.S. Golf Association championships, 12-shot Masters win at age 21, 15-shot U.S. Open victory and 15 major titles among his 82 PGA TOUR victories … as Maximus asked his crowd inside the fight arena in “Gladiator,” Are you not entertained? To question Woods or his talents – perhaps once-in-a-lifetime talents, says Padraig Harrington – that’s not on Tiger. That’s on us. The calendar shows that winter is close, but December in central Florida brought unseasonably warm temperatures last week at the PNC Championship. Then Tiger Woods stepped in and dialed up the true heat, as only he does. The shots that he hit – the shaping of his drives, the towering irons that landed so softly, the dead-center makes on putts from inside 15 feet – it all was vintage material. No, this wasn’t Augusta National in April, but it was more than a dismissive “hit and giggle” as Woods stepped back into the spotlight at Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. He didn’t know what to expect, nor did we. Tiger being Tiger, he delivered. Are we surprised? He showed us that the golf portion of the exam he faces in the coming months looked to be in pretty good shape for a man who’d taken a year off from the game. World No. 7 Justin Thomas may have had 30 yards on him at times off the tee, but despite his self-deprecating jokes, Woods isn’t exactly short as he tries to build up his speed. Now he must wait for a badly damaged right leg, ankle and foot to get healthy enough to meet an often overlooked requirement of being a professional golfer – the walking of the courses. Pros hoof it over six or seven miles a day, and when Woods eschewed his cart and walked the final few hundred yards to the 18th green Sunday, perhaps making a statement, it looked like arduous labor. The road ahead for Woods, competitively, is the great unknown. He wisely deflects all questions about a return to the life he has led as a professional golfer. He’s quick to state he never again expects to play a full schedule. If he is to pick and choose, as Ben Hogan once did, when and where will he play? When will he be healthy enough to compete at hilly Augusta National, where he won in 2019? Could he be ready in May for the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, another difficult walk but a venue where he won Major No. 13 in 2007? Will a visit to Scotland’s Old Course at St. Andrews – he’s won there twice – for the 150th Open Championship in July deliver a larger main course than the Champions Dinner? Absent a Tiger appearance at those events, could we not see him inside the ropes again until next year’s PNC, when Charlie will be 13 and even stronger? These are all hypotheticals, and Woods is too patient, and smart, to indulge in any conjecture. Friend Matt Kuchar – who with his oldest son, Cameron, 14, was grouped with Team Woods on Sunday – was impressed and surprised by the state of Woods’ game. “Seeing what he can do just swinging a golf club makes me think that he will figure the other part out,” Kuchar said. “I think he’s got the hard part down.” Woods laughed off Kuchar’s suggestion that he appeared to be TOUR ready. “No, no, no, no,” Woods said. “I totally disagree. I’m not – I’m not at that level. I can’t compete against these guys right now, no. It’s going to take a lot of work to get to where I feel like I can compete with these guys and be at a high level.” Be that as it may, his PNC return was all about Tiger enjoying a few days of low-key golf with his son, Charlie, who, for a second consecutive year shined brightly. They wanted to have fun and avoid bogeys. Done and done. With Team Woods contending late Sunday, Charlie saved some of his best for last, hitting two superb iron shots into the 16th and 17th holes to set up their 10th and 11th straight birdies, respectively. You think that didn’t fill Pops with pride? As much as missing the competition in and of itself – his driving force for all of his nearly 46 years – Woods mostly has missed afternoons with Charlie playing golf at The Medalist. It’s where the two banter playfully and father teaches son to compete, just as his father, Earl, a tough Green Beret, once got young Tiger primed, jangling change during putts and ripping the Velcro of his golf glove during Tiger’s swings. Team Daly won, of course – John and his son, John Jr., who plays on the golf team at Arkansas – and they are a nice story unto themselves. We’ve watched the younger Daly grow up at the PNC, and at 18, his talent reached a level that it is he, not his father, batting second in the lineup on all the critical shots and putts. The elder Daly has battled cancer and remains one of golf’s fan favorites, but Tiger was here, and he casts a shadow longer than the tallest sequoia in the forest. If anything, the PNC shook us by the collar after a Tiger-less 2021, reminding us why we watch. Ian Poulter and his young son, Josh, followed Tiger and Charlie on Saturday. Baseball’s Ken Griffey Jr. walked with Tiger and Charlie on Sunday. “It’s incredible,” Padraig Harrington said Sunday afternoon. “I suppose it’s occasions like this that people on the ‘inside’ see how big Tiger really is. We’re on the inside. I played with him all these years, and you get somewhat used to it. I remember when he came back at Tampa (2018 Valspar Championship), and there was just a different noise, a different crowd. None of the younger guys would have seen that. “He completely upped it at the Masters,” Harrington continued, “and the TOUR Championship (which he won in late 2018), and he comes out here and there is a different excitement. … It’s amazing. Last year was the Charlie Woods Show, and Tiger figured a way to make it the Tiger Woods Show this year.” But not only did Woods show up, he delivered, too, as he always seems to do. Team Woods finished second, two shots back. Many chuckled when Woods turned up to the Masters as an amateur in 1995 and told anyone who would listen that he was there to win. Cute, we thought. But that was his mindset, we’d learn, and always has been. Woods used the word “thankful” several times last week. Thankful to be here after his harrowing SUV crash. Thankful to have his right leg, and not be learning to walk on a prosthetic. Thankful to be alongside his only son, competing as a team. The fans who watched? Well, Tiger was back, and they were thankful, too. They may have to wait for months to see him compete again. Maybe longer. Those are the new rules of where he is, and what he is capable of doing physically. We can wait. “I always think that golf is in a really good place, regardless of who’s around,” said Kuchar, 43, who is in his 22nd season on TOUR. “There’s a great crop of young kids who are really doing well. But look, we all know the Tiger Effect is real. It’s a massive needle mover. Just to see this event, the excitement, the buzz, it’s huge. Everywhere he goes, it follows him.” Where the spotlight follows him next, that’s a question for another day. For a weekend, anyway, golf was just happy to have Tiger Woods back. And he delivered, as he always does. Were you really surprised?
ORLANDO, Fla. – There was clearly a forward spin to the press conference Tuesday that brought Tiger Woods and Ernie Els together at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the icons having agreed to be captains for the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in Australia. It will be the 13th edition of the biennial team golf competition, the sixth time on foreign soil, and the third trip to vaunted Royal Melbourne. But as you absorbed the presence of Woods and Els with a Presidents Cup backdrop, one couldn’t help but think back to that unforgettable day nearly 15 years ago at Fancourt in South Africa when the incomparable Jack Nicklaus offered an exclamation point of a quote: “Everybody’s comfortable that this is the most unbelievable event the game has ever seen.� Older and wiser, Woods and Els smiled when PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan invoked memories of that 2003 Presidents Cup. It ended in a 17-17 tie, even after the teams tried to settle it with an epic three-hole playoff between Woods and Els. “I still wonder how they got through it,� said the commissioner. “One of the greatest moments this sport has ever seen.� The introduction of the 2019 Presidents Cup captains brought levity and mutual respect – Woods and Els have been arguably two of the best players in the world since 1996 – but perhaps the most intriguing aspect was the admission by Woods that this captaincy was his idea, broached to Monahan in October. “Jay said, ‘Yeah, we might be able to work it out,’ � said Woods. Clearly, they worked it out, along with two other agreements: That each team will have four captain’s picks and that players will only be required to play in one match before singles. As for the possibility that there could be a playing captain, something that hasn’t happened in the Presidents Cup since the inaugural in 1994, there were emphatic reactions. “Yes, I have,� said Woods, with a smile, when asked if he has thought about it. But Els, 48 and surely in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career, indicated that he was focused more on leading the International Team, which is 1-10-1 and has lost seven in a row. Whether Woods’ career continues at its rapid improvement and affords him an opportunity to even consider being player-captain, Monahan cited the leadership of both these icons as having “a huge impact� on the competition in Australia. “These men will take the game deeper and wider than it’s ever been.� To many who were there at Fancourt in 2003, Woods and Els took competitive golf to rarified air. Tied after 35 matches, what followed was a half-hour of twilight golf where the American said he felt “the most pressure ever� and the South African conceded his “legs were shaking.� They tied all three holes, producing pulsating theater and must-make putts that demanded every ounce of the skills that had them Nos. 1 (Woods) and 3 (Els) in the world. The icons halved the 18th, a par 5. What followed was a sequence of riveting pressure golf. At the par-4 first, Els slipped home a 10-foot putt, but Woods tossed in a 3-footer on top of him. At No. 2, a beefy par 3 of 234 yards, Woods somehow coaxed in a 12-footer and Els, knocking knees and all, equaled it from 5 feet. As they sat together to make the 2019 announcement, Woods and Els smiled at the ’03 memory. Woods recalled seeing a sea of red shirts – American players, family and friends – “this entire team right in my line . . . so I know if I miss, we lose.� While Els still shakes his head. “I thought I had him beat for once. He had a left-to-right putt, 4 feet of break – and in darkness.� Woods being Woods, he made it and when the three holes left the teams tied, like cornermen for two big heavyweights, Nicklaus, the U.S. captain, and Gary Player, the International Team captain, agreed that enough was enough. Darkness and good sense prevailed. The Presidents Cup would be shared. Those who were there raised a toast to the mutual decision. Wrote John Garrity in Sports Illustrated: “Stop thinking, stop arguing and stop wondering. What Nicklaus and Player did at Fancourt was no different from what Michelangelo did when he stopped nibbling at his statue of David: They preserved a perfect outcome.� To this day, Woods and Els would agree with that sentiment. For all their individual success – 79 PGA TOUR wins for Woods, 66 world-wide triumphs for Els – this team play business ignites a passion which they promise to bring to Royal Melbourne.
SAN ANTONIO — This week, Rory McIlroy begins another quest for the Masters Tournament, the elusive major championship he hasn’t yet won. His preparation began at home in Florida. He skipped the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and “played some good rounds and got some good practice in,” he said Tuesday at the Valero Texas Open. Now he intends to work on his distance control, short putts, finesse shots around the greens and, if he can, putting himself under the duress of competition on a Sunday afternoon. “It’s a really good guide to see where my game is,” McIlroy said, “especially if you’re having to his shots under pressure to try to win a golf tournament. That’s when things start to stand out.” McIlroy has stood out here. He’s made one other start at the Valero Texas Open. He finished in second in 2013, then went on to tie for 25th at the Masters. He arrived in Texas late Tuesday after spending two days in Georgia. “It was good to be there, good to see the place,” he said of Augusta National, which he said he played twice. “At least coming into this event and playing this week, I don’t feel like there’s a rush to get there next week and cram. I feel like I’ve already done most of my work.” The course he faces this week in Texas — the Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio — resembles Augusta National in small but significant ways. “I think the runoffs around the greens, the undulations on the greens, some of the shots you face if you do miss (a green),” McIlroy said. “And some of the bunkering around this course, the bunkers are pretty deep around the greensides.” McIlroy has never finished better than fourth at the Masters, the last major he needs for the career Grand Slam. He entered the Valero Texas Open with modest momentum, including a win last fall at THE CJ CUP @SUMMIT in Las Vegas, a tie for 10th at The Genesis Invitational and a share of 13th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in 2022. He tied for 33rd in his last start, THE PLAYERS Championship. He seemed unconcerned with his driving and approach play after a nine-hole pro-am Tuesday morning. “Off the tee feels really good. Iron play is feeling good,” he said. “For the most part, my game feels good, so it was just a case of just continuing to do what I’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks.” He said he was in a far better place than he was at this time last year, when he missed the cut at the Masters for the first time in his 13 starts. “I’m way more comfortable with my game,” he said. “I’m happy with where everything is. Everything seems like it’s a lot more settled.”
