Different Strokes: Tiger Woods on right road to success

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  • Woods announced over the weekend that he and girlfriend Lindsey Vonn had split up after two years together.

    Tiger Woods is a two-time champion at TPC Sawgrass (three-time, if you include his US Amateur win their way back when) but, in the world he inhabits at least, that pretty much counts as slim pickings.

    The latter-day Tiger – the post-fire hydrant, pre-injury setbacks Tiger who no longer needed to play non-major events more than a few times a year – we have come to know has been a creature of habit, a man who tended only to appear at the biggest PGA Tour events and others where, from glorious experience, he knew he stood a better than expected chance of winning.

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    Last time he fell outside the world’s top 50, his scramble back to the game’s summit was built primary on wins at Bay Hill, Torrey Pines and Firestone; courses he has now won at a combined 24 times during his career. His other wins in that heady 2013 campaign came at Doral and, yes, Sawgrass – both also layouts where he had tasted victory at least once before in his career.

    Two years on, Tiger arrives for the Players Championship as the only multiple past-champion in the field under the age of 40, yet still the public perception is that the PGA Tour’s flagship “stadium course” is not one that necessarily suits him. Tiger maybe coming off an encouraging top-20 finish at the Masters a month ago, one that sparked new confidence he may yet reach another peak in his career, but by his own admission a wrist injury suffered during the final round at Augusta eroded much of the progress he made that week.

    Tiger Woods speaks with his coach Chris Como during a practice session at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium course.

    “I’d like to say yes,” Woods said after his practice round on Tuesday, when asked whether he still had momentum from Augusta. “I’ve had some pretty good practice sessions. My short game still feels really good. We made a couple little swing tweaks since then to keep improving, to keep working on it, to keep getting it better, so that part is still a little bit fresh.”

    Tiger’s re-emergence now announces the real start of his 2015 campaign, as he looks to burnish his CV with a few more trophies and simultaneously force his way back up the world (during his press conference he noted wryly that, being outside the top 64, he had not even qualified for last weekend’s WGC-Cadillac Match Play).

    “I’m going to start playing a little bit more now since I’m in some of these events now – not like last week!” he added. “I’m able to start playing a regular schedule now and start getting after it.”

    Sawgrass is a familiar hunting ground for Tiger, but it is not necessarily his most successful. Those are still to come; at Muirfield Village and St Andrews, Greenbrier and Firestone. Sawgrass is a chance to win, of course, but it’s also a chance to brush away the cobwebs in a setting where he feels comfortable, off the course if not always on it.

    It is worth remembering that it is Ponte Vedra where, back in 2010, Woods decided to make his first public apology after those infamous revelations that altered the trajectory of his career.

    Woods returns with more personal issues this time, after announcing over the weekend that he and girlfriend Lindsey Vonn had split up after two years together.

    Last year, of course, current world No. 1 Rory McIlroy acknowledged his break-up from fiancée Caroline Wozniacki by surging through the field to win the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth (the European Tour’s equivalent to the Players), a win that ushered in a scintillating run of form that last weekend’s Match Play victory suggests is not about to end any time soon.

    Perhaps it is asking too much for Woods to replicate that sort of performance, especially considering the weekend of his break-up from Vonn also coincided with the anniversary of his father’s death.

    “Obviously, it does affect me,” Woods said. “It’s tough. There’s no doubt. I’m not going to lie about that. And on top of that, this time of the year is really, really hard on me.

    “I haven’t slept. These three days, May 3 and through May 5, is just brutal on me. And then with obviously what happened on Sunday [the break-up], it just adds to it.”

    Tiger does not play in any event where he does not think he can win, but perhaps he is aware circumstances are hardly conspiring with him this week. Low on match practice yet high on emotional baggage, Woods is perhaps in an even more difficult spot than he was at Augusta National. Failing to make the weekend would not be the biggest of surprises.

    As Woods said: “I’m telling you, when you’re on, this golf course doesn’t seem that hard. You can really go low. You feel like every round you shoot 67 or lower.

    “And then you get days where, ‘God, I feel like I can’t break 75 here.’ It’s one of those places. It’s very polarizing.”

    Make the cut, and it will send a warning. Get in contention on the weekend, and an exciting summer could be in store. Win? Well that would really shake things up.

    “It’s certainly coming,” Woods added. “I’ve made some huge, huge strides… I’m on the right road. Eventually, it’ll click in and I’ll have a little run.”

    Small tussle keeps Rory away from the big fight

    Rory McIlroy was too good for the field last week at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play, but unfortunately he was also too good for himself.

    The world No. 1 spoke prior to the event about his plans to attend the Mayweather-Pacquaio fight in Las Vegas, purchasing expensive seats that, were he to reach the quarter-finals of the event (scheduled for Saturday afternoon), he might not even be able to use.

    It turned out to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy for the Northern Irishman, who ended up still tied with Paul Casey after 20 holes of matchplay by the time bad light ended play on Saturday evening. By then he had no chance of making it to the MGM Grand—unlike the 56 other players in the 64-man field who had already been eliminated.

    Instead McIlroy had to make do with watching the fight inside the media centre at Harding Park, which seems like the sort of torture that the Geneva Convention specifically forbids. Nevertheless, he seemed to take the whole thing with good cheer—perhaps he knew he was just a few days from winning the whole event, becoming the third man (after Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus) to win 10 PGA Tour events before the age of 26 – his birthday coming the following day.

    To cheer you up, Rory, here are some bits and bobs from social media outlining the many other golfers who were able to make the fight—and even one who was so blase about the whole thing that he managed to fall asleep.

    Bradley takes woeful matchplay record out on opponent

    On the subject of the big fight, perhaps it was all the excitement about Saturday night’s big event in Las Vegas that nearly drove Keegan Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez to blows during the Match Play last week.

    Coming down the last hole of their dead rubber group stage match, Jimenez, Bradley and Bradley’s caddie began to square off after the Spaniard had questioned whether the American had taken correct relief off a cart path.

    The two men nearly came to blows, a stand-off that continued after the match finished (Jimenez having won, 2-up). Bradley’s caddie even refused to shake Jimenez’s hand, an aggressive gesture in a sport as usually gentile and amenable as golf.

    For what it’s worth, Bradley’s abysmal record at Harding Park continues a generally shocking matchplay record, one that extends through Ryder Cups and prior WGC Match Play tournaments.

    Incredibly, the former US PGA champion is 1-9 in head-to-head matches since 2012 (his one win coming against Geoff Ogilvy in the 2012 World Matchplay. He lost in the next round to … Jimenez).

    Perhaps desperate to finally a win a duel, Bradley decided his chances might be better with his fists than his clubs. Even so, we still wouldn’t exactly like the American’s chances – the way Jimenez limbers up on the range, he might be a difficult target to hit.

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