Roundup: Tiger's Whirlwind Practice Round

Dave Kindred captures the mood from a wild and wacky practice round day at Valhalla that let many of the tournament favorites fly under the radar while Tiger stole the show.

Kindred writes of the more specific back pain diagnosis Tiger gave:

He said the Sunday injury was a dislocation of the sacrum, the wedge-shaped bone at the base of the spine. Pinched nerves caused the pain. "Once it was put back in, I was fine," he said. He also said his physiologist is here and can "fix it" if the injury reoccurs.
 
The sacrum dislocation, he said, had nothing to do with the previous back injury. "It's not at the site of the surgery," he said. "It's a different pain than I had experienced."

With the question of Tiger's arrival answered, the planet Earth could resume its normal rotations with the more important questions to be answered in the next four days, or fewer, depending on both muscle spasms and Tiger's recent tendency to accumulate double bogeys rather than birdies.

Rex Hoggard shoots down the view of some (myself included) that Sunday's WD at Firestone deserved some skepticism.

Woods also explained that he was pain free heading into the first round, and that he’d only practiced slow-motion swings in his video bay back home in Florida before making the decision Tuesday afternoon to play this week.

Simply put, he’s playing because he can. Not because he’s 70th on the U.S. Ryder Cup points list with just four days remaining to make his move. Not because he’s 217th on the FedEx Cup points list with just two weeks to secure his spot in the playoffs.

“My range of motion was good,” he explained. “My firing sequence was back to normal. It’s all good.”

Some grassy knoll types have suggested that Woods was perhaps not as injured as he suggested on Sunday. But if that’s the case, he should add an Oscar to those 14 majors because what he exhibited on Sunday at the Bridgestone was legitimate pain.

Brian Wacker at PGATour.com on Sean Foley's take:

Dozens of various media outlets tracked Woods’ every move. Camera shutters clattered like fully automatic machine guns with every swing. A boom mic followed Woods onto each tee box.

Joining on the second hole was Woods’ coach Sean Foley, who trailed him the entire front nine before peeling off. He chatted regularly with Woods and at times slid in behind him to watch him swing.

Asked if he was concerned by anything he saw in Woods’ swing, which looked a touch shorter and seemed a little less aggressive into his left side, Foley said, “No.”

Jeff Rude writing for Golfweek assessed the day this way:

Woods looked all right during the nine holes, then chipped and putted while walking the back nine. He hit more than one ball off several tees on the front nine – some great, a couple more than a little off line – and spent considerable time on short game. The real answers, of course, will come Thursday, Friday and beyond.