Tiger Answers Way Too Many Geeky Swing Questions With Admirable Patience
/Say what you want about Tiger's post-kidnap video recovery, because he sat down with the slingers in Ponte Vedra and was asked a plethora of questions about his game to the point of absurdity. Yes, there were many legit questions but ultimately the repetitive nature of the queries was confirmed by the sight of one snoozing scribe. Or, maybe it was when Tiger dropped the dreaded "process" word, because things wrapped up at that point. (I'm thinking that could be the safety word for Steiny to start letting the PGA Tour media official know that enough is enough.)
Anyway, it wasn't all dull, as you might see from his reaction to criticism from the headset donning, makeup-wearing crowd. Steve Elling explains:
On Tuesday, two days before the Players Championship begins at TPC Sawgrass, a trio of analysts offered opinions and advice about what ails the former world No. 1, including a theory proposed by six-time major champion Nick Faldo, who reiterated that he believes Woods has lost his confidence.
“I always find it interesting, since they're not in my head,” Woods said. “They must have some kind of super power I don't know about.”
And this, which showed a nice ability to jab back.
Straight off Interstate 95, Woods arrived at Sawgrass few minutes before his press session on Tuesday afternoon to learn of the comments, which were a rather brusque way to start the week. Chamblee has made similar comments before, so Woods wasn't exactly taken aback.
“Well, I can understand that everyone has an opinion, and he's entitled to his,” Woods said evenly. “But he's no longer playing anymore, so, so be it.”
Bob Harig noted that Tiger is still insisting these ups and downs are part of the dreaded "process."
"It takes a little bit of time, and I keep building, and things eventually come around to where they feel natural and efficient. I think that's probably the most important word is that you get out there and you feel efficient in what you're doing."
Woods has talked often of the struggles he has endured after committing to changes under Butch Harmon, and then Hank Haney, and now Foley. After Harmon changed his swing following the 1997 Masters, it was more than two years before Woods won another major -- and then he went on a run of seven out of 11.
Robert Lusetich noted this critique from Chamblee.
"It's sad to watch a guy who literally owned the game, who literally was doing what everybody dreamed of doing, couldn't play any better — nobody had ever played better in the history of the game — to just scrap that and start over," he said.
Woods said he’d worked on the thing that has most hurt him over the past two tournaments — his set-up — and expects to play well, though he acknowledged that "when you're off on this golf course you're going to get penalized pretty severely."
Otherwise, he said, his game was "a work in progress, and you've just got to continue working, keep trying to get better."