Tiger feels ‘manner higher’ after taking part in in pro-am
MEDINAH, Sick. — For the second straight week, Tiger Woods spent most of his pre-tournament pro-am spherical doing extra chatting than taking part in, electing to not hit full photographs on the again 9 at Medinah Nation Membership.
However not like at Liberty Nationwide final week, the place Woods did the identical factor in the course of the pro-am and ended up withdrawing earlier than the second spherical, he appeared much better Wednesday on the BMW Championship.
The 9 holes he did play had been surprisingly stable, and he spent the again 9 chipping, placing and hitting bunker photographs. He mentioned it was to once more be cautious and since after a fast entrance 9, the again would “be a demise march for the following two-and-a-half to a few hours.”
Woods mentioned Wednesday was the primary time he hit full photographs since withdrawing from the Northern Belief with an indirect pressure.
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“Manner, manner higher,” Woods mentioned. “It was good to take these days off and let it settle down and get a bunch of therapy on it. It feels so a lot better. I performed the entrance 9 right this moment and performed fairly nicely. It was good to see. Took the again 9 off, chipped and putted fairly a bit. It feels rather a lot higher than it did on Friday.”
Woods mentioned the indirect harm stemmed from modifications he made to his swing that had been in response to some tightness points he had together with his again, which has been problematic since he gained the Masters for his 15th main title in April.
This can be simply his sixth begin since then, and Thursday will make simply his 14th aggressive spherical of golf in that interval.
“As I’ve mentioned earlier than, the forces have gotten to go someplace, and sadly, once I make any form of tweaks and modifications to my swing, it is like a brand new physique half is aching,” he mentioned. “Sadly I can not play across the again like I used to, and sadly issues flare up.”
Woods has tried to make tweaks to his swing all 12 months to ease stress on his again whereas taking part in, he mentioned. “Sadly, I have never actually performed an excellent job of that, and when I’ve, I’ve hit the ball fairly nicely. I used to be actually enthusiastic about what I used to be doing at Liberty. I made some good modifications and clearly did not really feel very nicely on Thursday.”
Woods mentioned Wednesday he was nonetheless hoping to play his manner on the U.S. Presidents Cup staff he’ll captain and whose eight computerized qualifiers can be decided on the finish of the BMW Championship. However Woods did not notice he has slipped to 13th within the factors, that means he cannot qualify even with a victory.
To advance to subsequent week’s Tour Championship — the place he gained his 80th PGA Tour title final 12 months — Woods possible wants to complete no worse than 11th right here.
“I am attempting to win this event identical to anyone else on this discipline and attempting to get to East Lake and attempting to get to a spot the place a whole lot of issues modified for me final 12 months, and hopefully I could make that occur,” he mentioned.
Woods must overcome an absence of competitors and observe to make that occur, however he is at a well-known place. Woods gained the 1999 and 2006 PGA Championships at Medinah. And he famous that he made his first lower in a PGA Tour occasion as an beginner (in 1995) when the BMW was often called the Western Open. He has gained this event 5 instances, the final in 2009.
This can be simply the 12th event of 2019 for Woods, who gained the Masters, tied for fifth on the WGC-Dell Applied sciences Match Play and had top-10 finishes on the WGC-Mexico Championship and the Memorial.
He begins play on Thursday at 12:54 p.m. ET with C.T. Pan and Billy Horschel.