Old putting setup to return in Tiger’s Honda debut
With a renewed commitment to putting, Tiger Woods will tee it up Thursday afternoon for the first time as a professional in The Honda Classic at the PGA National Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Woods has worked hard on his putting since last week’s second-round loss to Nick Watney in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona. He has gone back to his old putting setup, standing taller and putting more weight on the front of his feet in an effort to let the club head swing more naturally.
“I had to go back to putting in the reps, and I did,” Woods said Wednesday during his pre-tournament press conference. “I spent about four hours putting the other day, which is good. I just worked on going back to my old basic stuff with my dad, some of the things he taught me. When I looked at the tape, I got away from some of those things. My posture was off; the way the club was releasing was off. A lot of things were off.”
So Woods used an old drill where he puts two tees in the ground about a putter’s width apart and worked from there.
“It started coming back, the flow and the stroke, and started feeling very good,” he said. “When I feel off with my alignment and my posture, I don’t make good strokes.”
Woods said he spent so much time concentrating on full swing changes with teacher Sean Foley, that he neglected his short game.
“I really don’t have as much time as people might think to practice,” said Woods. “I’m focused on my kids, and they are the No. 1 priority. If they are around and I have time with them, then I’m not playing golf.”
However, he does have a practice facility at his new home near PGA National and his kids, Sam and Charlie, are often around when he works on his game.
“My little boy, he loves to hit balls with me,” Woods said. “My little girl, Sam, will just kind of run around and pick the flowers.”
Woods plays most of his practice golf at the Medalist Club, but has put in extra time on his short game.
“That’s where I know I have been lacking in my game and where I’ve seen the biggest improvement lately, too,” he said. “If I start spending more time doing it, it starts to come around. Just like my full swing, I log in the time and consequently, I’m hitting the ball really, really well.”
Woods said he has never considered working with a short-game specialist or putting coach.
“Haven’t needed one,” said Woods. “I think I’ve had a pretty good career. I’ve won my share of tournaments making putts. I know where my body needs to be for that putter to roll the way it needs to roll, and it’s just a matter of getting out there and doing it.”
Woods will put his old stroke to the test Thursday, when he tees off at 12:30 p.m. ET off the first hole with Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter. The last time he played the Champion Course in competition was in 1993, when he was extended an exemption to the tournament and missed the cut.
He also played the course as a 14-year-old amateur in the PGA Junior Championship, finishing 10 shots behind 17-year-old winner Chris Couch, who shot 63 in the last round.
“Yeah, he got me pretty on that day,” said Woods.
Much has changed since then. Woods now owns 71 PGA Tour victories and 14 major championships.
The Champions Course, designed by Tom Fazio in 1981, was redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 2001. The par-70 layout stretches 7,158 yards and features 78 bunkers and 26 water hazards.
“I remember 1 and 10,” Woods said. “And then 15 and 18. But we played in very different conditions. We played in August with bermudagrass, which is very different than it is now.”
Woods said the course is in great shape and that greens are smooth and rolling at a very “holeable pace.”
The Champion Course is best known for the Bear Trap, holes 15-17, ranked the toughest three-hole stretch on the PGA Tour.
The par-3 15th hole measures 179 yards and is very difficult to hit; the par-4 16th is 434 yards and is guarded by water on the right; and the par-3 17th is flanked by water on the right and a huge bunker behind the green. The latter was the toughest hole in the tournament last year, playing to a stroke average of 3.526 and yielded only 28 birdies.
“The par-3s — 15 and 17 — are the challenge,” said Woods. “There’s really no bailout. Both holes you have to commit and hit a good shot.”
Woods said his goal this week is the same as always: to win. It actually amuses him that everyone doesn’t think that way.
“I think it’s interesting because if you’re going into a football game and you said, ‘You know what, I don’t mind finishing top two today;’ or you go into a baseball game, basketball game, hockey game, ‘That’s fine if we finish second tonight,'” he said. “Would that be crazy to hear that, that type of mentality? I grew up playing sports all of my life, and I just don’t understand how people are happy finishing second or anything below that, when you have the opportunity to finish first.”
