Even Tiger is unsure about his progress
SAN DIEGO — The trouble with being so good for so long is that it makes the bad times look even worse.
Tiger Woods never looked worse at Torrey Pines.
One of the more astute assessments about the state of Woods’ golf game came last year at the Australian Masters. He was paired in the third round with Kieran Pratt, a 22-year-old from Melbourne. A longtime observer noted that one player had won 14 majors among 82 titles around the world, the other was making his pro debut, and you couldn’t tell the difference. Pratt shot a 70. Woods had a 71.
A new year looked a lot like the old one for Woods.
To see him open with a pair of 69s at the Farmers Insurance Open made it appear as though his game was on an upward trend, until recognizing that Anthony Kim was better in each of the two rounds.
Woods was outplayed in the next two rounds by two rookies: Jhonattan Vegas, an emerging star on the PGA Tour who won the previous week at the Bob Hope Classic, and Brendan Steele, who grew up in a tiny California town that didn’t even have a golf course.
Even more surprising is that it took place at Torrey Pines.
No one has had more success on San Diego’s public gem than Woods. He won the Buick Invitational six times, and won the U.S. Open in 2008 on a shattered right leg — and in his first tournament in two months. But his record runs far deeper. He had never finished out of the top 10, and he had never finished more than four shots behind the winner.
This time, he was a whopping 15 shots out of the lead in a tie for 44th.
Woods failed to break par only one time on the South Course at Torrey Pines in his first 32 rounds in tour events. He shot 74 Saturday to fall out of the hunt and 75 on Sunday to fall into irrelevancy.
Woods was flustered when he finished.
“Absolutely, absolutely,” he said when asked if he was surprised by his scores. “I started out hitting it pretty good out here this week. I really did. And it progressively got worse.”
So while it’s too early to measure Woods after one tournament, it’s natural to raise questions after such a pedestrian performance at Torrey Pines. Next week is the Dubai Desert Classic, where Woods has never finished lower than fifth.
Then after the Match Play Championship — too fickle to measure anyone’s game — is the World Golf Championship at Doral, where Woods has won three times and has never finished out of the top 10.
Each result that’s not up to previous standards will make him appear to be even further away from where he once was.
Woods says he is working harder than ever on the range, and the goal is to have his game ready for the Masters. That’s still two months away.
Given the way he started his year, it must feel as though it’s right around the corner.
