Tiger Woods has to figure out a way to play less and win more – because if he plays more “I won’t be out here that long”.
Woods has played just 10 competitive rounds since his Masters triumph, two in the PGA in May, four at Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament and four at the US Open last month. Some, like Padraig Harrington, don’t believe he can compete with such a light schedule.
Woods, unsurprisingly, thinks he can. But anyway, he has no choice, as he made fairly clear as he paused preparation for his annual pre-Open Championship press conference at Portrush.
All was as normal and as it’s been since his first Open as a pro in 1997 – it was 11am, Tuesday before the Open, packed interview room, cameras whirring madly whenever he made a slight gesture or smile.
Only these days Tiger is a better interview than he ever was as the dominant player of the last 20 years, when he rattled out so many clichés year-on-year that the bored pressmen played “Tiger Bingo” ticking them off.
Occasionally now you even get confessions, and he was fairly unequivocal this year that he’s operating on limited time with his body condition as beaten up as it is.
“Last year, I played too much; I played 17 events,” he said. “A lot of it was building up world ranking, trying to get into the playoffs, trying to qualify for WGCs, even the US Open.
“The body was pretty beat up. And after I won in Atlanta, you saw what I did at the Ryder Cup, I was worn out. And unfortunately I didn’t contribute to the team at all in points and we end up losing.
“So this year I made a conscious effort to cut back on my schedule to make sure that I don’t play too much. I want to play here as long as I possibly can. You have to understand, if I play a lot, I won’t be out here that long.”
In addition to that, he conceded that the Masters victory in April, although a joyous thing specifically as his children saw him win a major live for the first time, had pretty much drained him out.
“That golf course causes so much stress to the system,” he said. “It took a lot out of me.
“It was a very emotional week and one that I keep reliving. It’s hard to believe that I pulled it off and ended up winning the tournament.”
The tricky part is what he’s doing now, trying to find out how much he can play to get the feel he needs while also understanding if his body will hold up.
But Tiger feels that the very format of Portrush and the Open lends him a chance to get his second major of the season and more going forward.
“Does it give me my best chance to win? It does,” he said. “You look at Tom Watson at Turnberry (in 2009) and Greg Norman at Birkdale (in 2008). There is an art to playing links golf.
“The more I’ve played over here and played under different conditions, being able to shape the golf ball both ways and really control trajectory, it allows you to control the ball on the ground.
“But being able to control it as best you possibly can in the air to control it on the ground allows the older players to have a chance to do well in the Open Championship.”
He feels he is gaining the control, but “it’s not quite as sharp as I’d like to have it right now”. It’s a driving range thing and much of his time yesterday and today will be there. Yesterday he played just the first, then 13 through to 18, and Wednesdays are usually a day off.
But the feel and control make this are much more achievable target for Tiger.
“The PGA (at Bethpage Black) was set up so that it was more advantageous to bomb it,” he pointed out. “Look at Brooks, what he was doing, and DJ, what he did at the end.
“When you come to an Open Championship it’s set up for anyone. You don’t have to hit the ball very far. You can actually hear it land and still roll it out there far enough.
“It opens up the field. When you come over here it’s understanding how to play on the ground. It’s a very different game and chipping is different. The lies are tighter.
“You make a few changes here and there on equipment but it opens up for anyone to win this championship because it’s not overly long.”
But he loves Royal Portrush, his pre-Open Ireland trips many years ago never bringing him this far north.
“I just think that this venue, it’s just amazing it’s been this long that it’s taken for us to come back here,” he said. “It’s such a great venue.
“Everyone who’s played it, whether it’s guys who grew up here or people who have come up here and just have played, they’ve always enjoyed it, and I can understand why.
“It’s straightforward. It is tricky a little bit here and there, but overall it’s just a wonderful links golf course.”
