Less than two weeks before the start of the second major of the year, the US Open, the world golf media spotlight continues to focus on Tiger Woods in his attempt to recover the level of play that made him an unbeatable rival until a few years ago.
In his last appearance, at the Memorial Tournament, the Californian gave one lime and one sand. The lime was that he exhibited a long and approach game at the height of his best times; the sand, that he wrecked as never before in the shorter game, with a series of clamorous errors on the green. Not in vain, the former world number one did not hit seven putts of less than one and a half meters. As a reference and comparison, in all of 2009 he only missed nine shots in that range of distance to the hole.
“If I had kicked well,” Tiger said after his performance at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio, “I probably would have been in contention for the win in one of the last two matches.” In the end, he finished in 23rd place thanks to his final-round 72.
That result caused him to climb just three steps in the world ranking, to 83rd place.
The once known as The Extraterrestrial will have to work harder to achieve his goal of being in the top 50 of that ranking by the end of July, a necessary requirement to be able to play the WGC-Bridgestone at Firestone, where he holds the record of having won that tournament eight times.
What will undoubtedly be a big draw for his compatriots will be his presence next week at Shinnecock Hills in New York State for the U.S. Open. “Overall, my game is where it needs to be heading into the tournament,” he said, “and that’s a very positive thing.”
Leave a Reply