Roundup: Turns Out, Tiger's Teeth Chip Better Than His Wedges

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Reader Matthew sent in that line and I'm never one to turn down an opportunity to copy and paste even as the videographer remains at large.

Reading the roundup of Tiger's season-opening 73 in the 2015 Waste Management Open, few writers chose a dental metaphor but instead wheeled out some pretty strong language to describe Woods' short game. And AP's Doug Ferguson called the wedge issues "grave" while weaving in a reference to Woods' tale of tooth-chipping woes.

Woods is working with a new swing consultant, Chris Como, who is not in Phoenix this week. He still has trouble taking his game from the practice range to the golf course, which is nothing new. But when he last played, at the Hero World Challenge, what stood out was a series of chips that he either stubbed or bladed.

Two months later, nothing changed.

The focus on Woods quickly shifted from a chipped tooth to simply his chipping.

Woods twice chipped with 4-irons, which he called my "old-school shots from Augusta." On two other occasions, one after a chip he knocked across and over the green, he opted for a putter.

Steve DiMeglio got right to the point in his USA Today lede:

Tiger Woods still can't chip.

The rest of his game isn't much better.

Below is the primary Woods quote about the short game performance. The transcript was not the best I've read, so take this with a grain of TPC Scottsdale's ridiculous new white bunker sand. It's worth trying to make sense of this since his wedges are getting some of the blame.

I'm just having a hard time finding the bottom. Because of my old pattern, I was so steep on it, that I have a new grind on my wedge and sometimes it's hard to trust. This is a similar grind I used to use back in the early 2000s, but it's a different grind. Some of my shots were into the green with tight pins, and either I'll flop it or bump it, one of the two. I chose to bump it.

Golf.com's Gary Van Sickle came right and used the y word.

It looks an awful lot like Tiger has the chipping yips. It's kind of verboten to use that y-word in golf but any golfer who's been there knows it when he sees it.

Robert Lusetich of FoxSports.com hears excuses that we're not used to from an all-time great.

Whenever difficult subjects arise, Woods resorts to the most painful mental gymnastics to explain them away.

"Because of my old pattern, I was so steep," Woods said of his chipping woes.

He then went into a lengthy explanation of the grinds on his wedges.
Blah. Blah. Blah.

The thing about golf is that it's just about the numbers on the scorecard. There's no room for explanations. He knows that better than anyone. "All that matters is what you shot," he used to say.

Lusetich noted something that I know has amazed Hank Haney: Woods playing the rust card.

"It's going to take time to get the feel of my hands where they need to be through the entire swing and shaping shots."

And, look, that's all true. But he's had six weeks to prepare. Woods has won his season opener seven times in his career. Was he rolling out excuses then?

By the numbers, John Strege at GolfDigest.com felt there were some good and some awful.

By the numbers, Tiger hit five of 14 fairways and 10 of 18 greens in regulation.
On the up side, he seems to have recovered some of the speed he had lost in recent years, as he said he had. At the 13th hole, his swing speed was clocked at 121.465 miles per hour. Last year, Bubba Watson led the tour with a swing speed of 123.7 mph. On the par-4 17th hole, Woods drove the green, 341 yards.

The round did have a couple of retro moments, noted by Adam Schupak of Golfweek:

With his typical fierce resolve, Woods battled back. The highlight of his round was a 5-iron from 225 yards to the par-5 13th hole that rolled to a stop six inches from the hole for eagle. He tacked on a birdie when he drove the par-4 17th green. Woods could have been deflated, but he spoke with the experience of a man who has his eye on a bigger prize and knew this was just one round.

The outstanding second shot on 13, from the PGA Tour's YouTube.com page, where they also posted Gary McCord's analysis of Tiger's swing.

Woods backed off his 16th tee shot twice, including once after a fan made what sounded like a tooth reference.

And GolfNewsNet.com posted this heckler shot:

You can see part of Woods' post round comments and the full round highlights on this GolfCentral recap.

At the 6 minute mark Brandel Chamblee says its the "worst that I’ve ever seen a tour pro around the greens and it’s a long way from there to playing competitive golf again."