Tiger Woods final month on the PNC Championship.
Getty Photographs
Tiger Woods, in his first begin after the Covid shutdown of 2020, was struggling. Then wasn’t. After a decent 71 throughout the Memorial’s first spherical, he was six-over by way of 15 holes in spherical two, solely to complete birdie, birdie, par, resulting in a made minimize — and a thought.
Did he take into account himself a grinder?
Actually? Woods? The 15-time main winner? The 82-time PGA Tour winner? A scrapper? A ham-and-egger?
“At all times have,” Woods mentioned.
And apparently nonetheless does.
This week, as a part of a curtain-raising for its plush, new multimedia digs, the PGA Tour launched a video of Woods touring the campus, and most of it was Woods’ fan catnip. There have been highlights and commentary about his win on the 2018 Tour Championship. There have been highlights and commentary about his chip-in on the 2001 Gamers Championship. There have been highlights and commentary about his fist pump. There have been highlights and commentary about his 82 Tour wins.
Through the latter, although, Woods supplied this:
— He felt he putted “very well” solely twice in his profession — on the 1997 Masters and on the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Seashore. He gained each convincingly — the margin of victory at these occasions are event information. (He gained by 12 on the Masters, and by 15 on the U.S. Open.)
— He felt the “greatest” he ever hit it in his profession was on the 2000 Open Championship at St. Andrews, the place Woods gained by eight. “I felt like I had the ball on a string and I might do something that I needed to,” Woods mentioned on the video.
— He felt at most of his occasions, he “didn’t actually have it.”
Actually? Woods? The 15-time main winner? The 82-time PGA Tour winner?
Right here’s the complete quote:
“Persons are in all probability amazed to listen to this, however most of my occasions, I didn’t actually have it. These are those that I gained by lots, however most of them are simply hanging in there and never making a double, making a key par save.
“And that was a lot of the occasions that I’d gained, is with the intention to win the event it’s a must to get to the weekend, it’s a must to first make the minimize, and that’s one of many issues I used to be very happy with in my minimize streak is that I gave myself a possibility to make a run on the weekend. Torrey [Pines] one yr, I made the minimize on the quantity, and I got here out and shot 62, 65 on the weekend to win. However that doesn’t occur until I make the minimize. So first issues first, I made a number of cuts in my profession, which allowed me to then go on to have alternatives on the weekend to win.”
