His body sensed what time it was.
“I felt energetic,” Tiger Woods said recently. “I felt really alive and wired and irritable and I didn’t know what was going on.”
Woods soon put the day and the month together and figured out this was supposed to be the start of Masters Week, the week he was originally scheduled to defend his fifth Green Jacket after his dramatic triumph in 2019. But there is no tournament to defend at Augusta National Golf Club. At least not yet. The COVID-19 pandemic has put the sports world on hold. The Masters has been rescheduled for Nov. 12-15.
Woods’ body apparently didn’t get the memo, reacting subconsciously to years and years of training to be at peak condition when April rolls around.
“My body was ready to go and I didn’t know why I was acting that way,” Woods said in an interview with Henni Zuel of GolfTV.
How healthy his body actually would have been can’t be known. Woods has not competed in a PGA Tour event since Feb. 16 at Riviera Country Club. He missed the entire Florida swing with back stiffness. Concerns his issues might linger until the Masters grew when Woods pulled out of the Players Championship, a week before the tournament was canceled after the first round because of the coronavirus.
In his interview with GolfTV, Woods left the impression he would have been healthy if the Masters were played this week, but he admitted he has benefited physically from his time away from competition.
“I’ve been able to turn a negative into a positive,” Woods said. “I’ve been able to train a lot, be able to get my body to where I think it should be at.”
The golf schedule has been reshuffled with the cancellation of the British Open and the Masters serving as the last of the three majors in America. The PGA Championship has moved to Aug. 6-9 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco and the U.S. Open to Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, followed by the Masters in November.
It will be interesting to see how Woods works his way through the fall schedule to give himself the best chance to defend his Masters championship. It seems he has made the most of his break. He has continued to play golf as a member of The Medalist Golf Club in Florida, and has been spending quality time with his family.
“It’s been nice to hit golf balls and play a little bit,” he said adding, “It’s weird practicing with no end goal.”
He also tweeted a photo of a Masters dinner he held in his home, featuring the same menu he would have served at the Champions Dinner at Augusta, including cupcakes and milkshakes for dessert.
Woods needed a break. When we last saw him at Riviera Country Club, he shot 76-77 on the weekend and was last among the players to make the cut.
“He had been playing quite well and looked like he could do what he wanted to do, and then in L.A., things went the wrong direction,” ESPN golf analyst Andy North told The Post. “He couldn’t swing at it the way he wanted to.”
It’s easy to forget how brittle Woods’ back can be after four surgeries. After all the aliments he has had to overcome, Woods’ victory at Augusta National last April was one of those magical moments in sports. He won his fifth Green Jacket 22 years after capturing his first, and then capped off a triumphant 2019 in December by serving as a playing captain on the winning U.S. Presidents Cup team.
Woods’ defense at the Masters was highly anticipated given the presence of fellow competitors such as Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson. But truth is, it would not have held the same drama if Woods weren’t healthy enough to make a credible defense. Now he’ll have more time to prepare for a delayed season — if there is one.
“If a guy has a physical problem, this gives him a chance to work on it or maybe get it fixed, the kind of thing they might do during an offseason,” North said. “You don’t know for sure where he was. Having gone through a lot of the same things, you realize your body doesn’t work some weeks. We go through that in our own normal lives, but it’s exaggerated for a guy like Tiger who has back issues and is trying to do a very complicated body movement sport.”
It’s likely Woods will focus solely on the majors if things go as planned. Sitting on 15 major championships, he needs three more to tie Jack Nicklaus’ record. At age 44, time is of the essence.
The PGA Championship is four months away, giving Woods plenty of time to set up his schedule.
“I’m going to sit down with my team and figure out what’s the best practice schedule,” Woods said. “What are the tournaments I need to play in to be ready? How much do I play? How much do I rest? All the things that are up in the air.”