TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Ready Or Not, Tiger Returns

AP Photo

Tiger Woods prepares for the U.S. Open with nine practice holes at Torrey Pines on Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MICK ELLIOTT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 11, 2008

SAN DIEGO - The eyes bore like small lasers. The shoulders are wide and chiseled. A cap pulled down hard carries a trademarked TW. Tiger Woods stepped confidently and effortlessly - no limp - into the U.S. Open media interview tent at Torrey Pines.

If it looks like Tiger and it walks like Tiger, then it must be the world's No. 1 golfer.

Not necessarily.

There is something very different this week. There is doubt. There is uncertainty.

"I just can't imagine him being able to get it done," NBC golf analyst Gary Koch said. "It's too much to expect, even from Tiger."

The golfer who turned major championship preparation into a science is the 108th U.S. Open's lab experiment.

Only a few months ago, Woods had won three consecutive tournaments - including the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines - and golf was talking Grand Slam. Now, Woods will tee it up Thursday morning coming off a disappointing runner-up at the Masters followed by nine weeks of inactivity since another surgery on his left knee.

He has not walked 18 holes since the final round at Augusta National. A week ago he played 18 holes - out of a cart - for the first time since the surgery. He played only nine holes during Monday's and Tuesday's practice rounds.

Is the knee fully recovered?

"Probably not," he said.

If not 100 percent, what percent is its fitness?

"It's feeling better," he said.

Under the circumstances, a lot of people have the sense there's just no way.

"I've heard that before. Laughter. Yeah, I've heard that before," he said.

It all works to create something akin to two contrasting weather fronts colliding from opposite directions. On one side, there is Woods' inactivity, an in-season layoff equaled in time only by the break taken two years ago following the death of his father. Returning after an identical nine-week sabbatical, he missed the cut in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

From the opposite direction is Woods' history at Torrey Pines, a course he began playing - and winning on - as a junior while growing up in Southern California. He has continued to own it, proven by six victories, including the past four, in January's Buick Invitational.

"I feel good about my practices, my preparation, coming back to a golf course I've had some success at," Woods said. "It's just a matter of getting into the competitive rhythm and flow of the round quicker.

"When I played Winged Foot after a long layoff, I didn't get into the flow of the round for three or four holes. You can't do that. You have to get into the flow of the round on the very first hole and find that rhythm. I didn't do that; it took too long. Subsequently, I was over par and always trying to fight back. Hopefully, I can find the rhythm in the round a little bit quicker."

Woods insists he would have returned to competition this week regardless of whether the event was a major championship. Also, he contends there is little comparison between this return and his comeback two years ago following his father's death.

"If I take time off and I come back, I always work on my fundamentals," he said. "Well, who taught me my fundamentals? It was dad. Overcoming and getting out and playing and practicing; I didn't want to do that because I'd think of dad. This is totally different."

Nevertheless, will it end the same? If the knee is not completely healed, does that mean he is susceptible to similar physical post-surgery restrictions and struggles?

Shortly after Woods' surgery was announced, golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson called the news predictable because the knee problem was evident on each swing at Augusta.

"He was standing straight up at impact," Watson said. "He got tall at impact too many times, and he couldn't get around on that knee. He was very straight up. His body was up, upright. He wasn't down over the ball at impact enough."

Of course, Woods being Woods, nobody in this week's field is exactly lining up to question the 13-time major champion's chances.

"Not at all," Sergio Garcia answered when asked if Woods is less of a favorite than normal.

"I think that he has come back from injury and won the first week back in the past," Phil Mickelson offered.

Still, even Woods acknowledges a sense of the unknown.

"A little bit," he said. "I haven't played, obviously, competitively since the Masters. So getting out there and getting into the flow and dealing with the adrenaline, dealing with the juices flying, all these different things that a lot of guys have been dealing with for a little bit and I haven't.

"I'm excited about it. I'm really excited about getting out there and feeling that."

The possibility was almost too much. Someone wondered if a win this week would be Woods' finest hour?

The golfer smiled and shook his head.

"I have a long way to go before that happens. Sorry," he said.

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534 or melliott@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT