With elbow healed, Tiger expects to contend at Muirfield
Tiger Woods stuck with his game plan Tuesday, playing nine holes for the third consecutive day in preparation for the 142nd Open Championship, which starts Thursday at Muirfield in Gullane, Scotland. Although he hasn’t played a competitive round since June 16, when he tied for 32nd at the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, Tiger said the four-week break has allowed his strained left elbow to heal and expects to contend this week.
“The main reason was that coming over here the ground is going to be hard, and I’m going to need that elbow to be good,” Tiger said. “And just in case the rough was — well, reports were it was going to be high, and it was going to be lush. I needed to have this thing set and healed.”
As expected, the rough is high. However, it is not lush — the result of a dry summer. Consequently, the course is playing firm and fast. The extended forecast calls for warm, windy weather, which is quite a contrast from 2002, the last time Muirfield hosted the Open.
Woods had won the first two legs of the Grand Slam and was only two strokes off the lead starting play on Saturday. However, conditions turned ugly just before his afternoon tee time. It was cold, rainy and windy, and he shot 81, the highest score of his professional career.
“A lot of guys just had golf shirts and a rain jacket, and that was it,” Woods said of the challenging conditions, which caught many players off guard. “The wind chill was in the 30s. The umbrella became useless because the wind was blowing so hard. It was just a cold, cold day.”
Tiger didn’t record a birdie until the par-5 17th hole.
“And by then, the damage had already been done to my round,” he said.
Woods came back strong in the final round to shoot a 65 and tied for 28th.
Now 37, Tiger has won 14 major championships, second only to Jack Nicklaus with 18. But his last major victory came in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. That said, he has won four times on the PGA TOUR this year.
“I feel very good about my game,” Woods said. “Even though I haven’t won a major championship in five years, I’ve been there in a bunch of them where I’ve had chances. I just need to keep putting myself there and eventually I’ll get some.”
A little luck wouldn’t hurt, either.
“It’s a shot here and a shot there; it’s not much,” he said. “It could happen the first day, it could happen on the last day. But it’s turning that tide and getting the momentum at the right time or capitalizing on our opportunity. That’s what you have to do to win major championships.”
This marks Tiger’s 17th appearance in the Open. He has captured three Claret Jugs, winning at St. Andrews in 2000 and then claiming back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006 at St. Andrews and Royal Liverpool, respectively.
At Royal Liverpool, conditions were hot, dry and dusty, similar to this week. The ball seemed to run forever, and Woods used only one driver all week, plodding his way around Hoylake with fairway woods and irons. Don’t be surprised if he employs the same strategy at Muirfield, which is hosting the Open for the 16th time dating back to 1892.
Woods has spent considerable time practicing on the greens.
“I’ve done a lot of homework on the greens each day,” Tiger said. “And I’ve taken my time and really got a good feel for them. So that’s been good. I would just like to get another wind in, a little different direction. We’ve had it the same the last three days.”
Woods begins his quest for a 15th major title on Thursday at 2:45 p.m. local time and 9:45 a.m. ET with Louis Oosthuizen and Graeme McDowell. They are scheduled to begin second-round play Friday at 9:44 a.m. local time and 4:44 a.m. ET.
