Zhang, Lindblad lead Augusta Women’s Amateur

Tiger Woods’ back will never be the same. He recently had another surgery on his left knee. There’s been neck pain and an oblique injury and a torn Achilles. One part of his body has never failed him, though. “I trust my hands, and today was no different,â€� Woods said after collecting win No. 82 at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. Related: Tiger Woods: Chasing 82 | Monday Finish: Healthy Tiger notches 82nd victory | Tiger’s wins by the numbers The question now is how high can he go? His win in Japan was his third victory in his last 14 starts. He shot one of the lowest 72-hole scores of his career thanks to impressive iron play and putting. Only one player finished within five shots of him. Ninety wins seems in play, but it’s also fair to wonder if he’ll get No. 83. It all depends on his body. As long as his back can support the torque and twisting necessary to create the requisite clubhead speed, his hands will find a way to get the ball in the hole. He showed again at the ZOZO that there isn’t a better pair in the game. Woods doesn’t overpower the course like he did decades ago. That’s not his M.O. anymore. Not after spinal fusion. Woods, 43, has to play a more calculating game, one that favors precision over power. It’s fun to watch, harkening back to a different era while displaying the full array of his skills. The modern game is dominated by data. Technology can quantify every nanosecond of the golf swing, but Woods, who grew up with persimmon and balata, reminds us that there’s still an artistry to this game. Woods uses a launch monitor, just like his peers, but he also doesn’t have a swing coach. “I have to rely on my own feels and play around with what my body can and cannot do,â€� he said in 2018. He has to lean on decades of experience instead of marathon range sessions. He can’t outwork the competition, but he can outthink it. His length no longer separates him from the competition, but his iron game still does. He hit 76% of his greens last week, ranking third in the field. He was first in putts per green hit, which shows that he was hitting it close and rolling it well enough to convert. He’s by far the best iron player of the ShotLink era, gaining +1.1 strokes per round with his approach play throughout his career. Jim Furyk is a distant second, averaging +0.7 strokes gained per round. Woods hits his approach shots high and low, and curves them left and right. In Japan, he used the winning formula that has worked dozens of times before. He removed the drama with his stellar approach play, making the final result feel like a foregone conclusion. He bogeyed his first three holes of the week, but there were few mistakes over the final 69 holes. He made just five bogeys the rest of the way and led by as many as five in the final round. He may have hit Monday’s first iron shot fat and given Hideki Matsuyama hope with that bogey, but Woods’ win wasn’t at risk after that. Matsuyama had to attempt two heroic bunker shots on the final hole just to have a chance. Woods won by three. The third-place finishers, Sungjae Im and Rory McIlroy, finished six back. Woods will get a much-needed break before returning at his Hero World Challenge and, presumably, the Presidents Cup. “It was a very long week,â€� Woods said after his win. He called it “stressfulâ€� and said winning wore him out. He once made winning look so easy that we forgot how hard it actually is. It doesn’t get easier as the years pass by. We saw this year how fickle the human body can be, especially one that has endured the wear and tear that Woods’ has. He looked poised to win multiple times after Augusta National, but didn’t contend for the remainder of the season because of that bothersome knee and the energy expended to capture a 15th major. Then he arrived at the ZOZO for his first start in two months, and first since his knee operation, and looked like the player we saw in April. Even he was surprised by his quick success after surgery.

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We even asked Tiger for help. He laughed at us. We went ahead and did it anyway. Of course, the list begins with the Masters. But which one? Let the argument begin.

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KAPALUA, Hawaii – Justin Thomas looked anything but a winner. Slumped in the interview chair. Tired. A little disheveled. Without a smile. The only clue he’d just won for the 12th time on the PGA TOUR was the beautiful glass trophy shaped in a wave with a whale tail diving in sitting on the floor next to him. Thomas had, in fact, just won the Sentry Tournament of Champions, for the second time no less, to take ownership as the most prolific TOUR winner of those in their 20s. It took three extra holes, but he had indeed prevailed over Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele. He could be forgiven for his lethargy. The final few hours of a tough week which included wild winds and weather throughout were brutal on his nerves. He’d looked anything but a winner on the last few holes in regulation and even early in the playoff, just as he did now. And the emotional rollercoaster had worn him down. It’s hard to fathom your achievements in those circumstances so instantaneously. Earlier he had looked a winner for sure. Starting the day one back of Schauffele, he wrestled the lead at the ninth hole as he went through a stretch of four straight birdies (8-11) to extend his buffer. The lead was two with three holes to play, but a bogey on 16 cut it in half. Still, on the last, the par-5 finisher, Thomas had a one-shot advantage. He hit a poor drive but then inexplicably hit his second shot into the penalty area when he could have laid up safely. When he missed his eight-foot par putt, he thought it was over. Related: Leaderboard | What’s in Thomas’ bag? But Schauffele missed from closer and a playoff it would be. He dodged Reed missing putts to win on the first and second playoff holes before making birdie on the third to clinch. “The emotions and how I was winning and then I was barely winning and then I was losing and then I barely got in a playoff… that takes a lot out of you. I probably don’t seem as elated as I might be or as I would hope to be,â€� Thomas confirmed. “But it’ll just take a little bit. Once I get back to the hotel hopefully with my family, I’ll be able to enjoy it a little bit and we’ll talk about it. But relief is definitely a word that comes to mind. “I truly felt like through 15 holes it was one of the best rounds I had played. I was in such control tee to green. I was putting it beautifully, my irons were awesome, and I hit a really good drive on 16, just the wind took it more, and then 18 was just a disaster. I really didn’t hit very many good shots on the hole. But it worked out.â€� In winning, Thomas rocketed to the top of the FedExCup standings. He joined Tiger Woods (34) and Jack Nicklaus (20) as the only players with 12 or more PGA TOUR wins before the age of 27 in the last 60 years. It is his second win this season, and third in his last six TOUR starts. And he joined Stuart Appleby (3), Geoff Ogilvy (2) and Dustin Johnson (2) as multiple winners of the Sentry Tournament of Champions since the event moved to The Plantation Course at Kapalua in 1999. Thomas had started the week saying he was disappointed he hadn’t won more. Now he is on his way to rectifying that. “It means a lot. A decent amount of them I got fortunate like I did today. That’s what happens when you win. Stuff goes your way,â€� Thomas said. “It’s not supposed to be that hard. I know it’s hard, but I made it about five times as hard as it needed to be. Obviously you have to play well and make some putts and hit some shots, but at the end of the day, you need stuff to go your way, and it definitely did today, and it feels great. “It’s another one down. I want to keep building on that, and I feel like I’m really just trying to get better every year, and we’re improving in some of the right areas. Next week we will try to get to 13.â€� Of course the last time he won at Kapalua, in 2017, he almost let it slip to Hideki Matsuyama. But he went to the Sony Open and started with a 59. He would win that event with a record-low score. Perhaps if he recreates that, we might see a bigger grin.

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