Woods on “Can't win': “Heard that before'
SAN DIEGO - Tiger Woods, as the hallowed saying goes, is returning to action in the U.S. Open this week at Torrey Pines, a municipal course he practically owns, having won six - six -- PGA Tour stops on the lovely Pacific-hugging track. He's returning to action after athroscopic surgery on his left knee six weeks ago, just after the Masters. He had explained, after finishing second when all other challengers to Trevor Immelman fizzled, that he had been playing on a sore knee.Woods, being Woods, is the favorite, no matter what, and if not the prohibitive favorite he usually is, then surely the questions over the knee and the inactivity certainly haven't knocked him very much lower that prohibitive. There's also Phil Mickelson to consider, who's No. 2 in the world to Woods' No. 1.
The prevailing question Tuesday was whether Woods can win this U.S. Open - whether he has recovered enough from the surgery itself, and whether there is too much rust from his inactivity for even his mighty talent to overcome. He's won the Open twice in 11 starts as a pro, on two different kinds of courses - 2000 at Pebble Beach, on the Pacific in Northern California, and 2002 at Bethpage Black, and inland course near New York City. Two different tests, same grade - A-Plus.
Woods sat through a thorough interrogation Tuesday, in a pre-tournament interview with the assembled media corps, in the course of which he made three salient points. Or answered three important questions. Or, to put it another way, in what seemed to be casual answers, he gave rise to some reasonable and serious doubts. U.S. Opens being what they are, on long, testing courses set up to reaffirm the definition of “par” being the score of the expert golfer. No 15-under or 20-under scores in the U.S. Open. Woods won the Buick Invitational at 19 under par, and by eight shots. That was in February. This is Torrey Pines again, but not the same course, not by a long shot, we have been assured. Predictions are that maybe 3 under is the will win, at worst.
But back to the revelations:
Question: Have you walked 18 holes since Sunday at Augusta?
Tiger Woods: “No.”
(Woods said he started practicing about a week ago.)
The point here isn't whether Woods can physically endure walking a course measuring a record 7,643 yards - nearly 4 _ miles. Woods could do that in his sleep, given the shape he's in.
The question is whether the knee itself will hold up under all that swing pressure for 4 _ miles a day for four days.
Consider that question in the context of another elsewhere during the interview:
Question: Do you feel like your knee is fully recovered, or are you finding you're still holding back when you play?
Tiger Woods: “Is it fully recovered? Probably not.”
In this case, “probably not” has to mean “not,” for who would know better than the owner of the knee?
(This raises another area of doubt: Can a guy go through surgery on a knee that he's damaged with a terrific swing, and still come back and swing the same? Without flinching, even if only in his mijnd?)
Question: Can you say in percentage terms how fit your knee is now?
Tiger Woods: “It's feeling better.”
For the Woods backers, this answer is not likely to induce that thrill-of-victory feeling. Unless, of course, Woods is just trying to set the stage for Drama Along the Pacific.
Woods played his first post-surgery practice round last Wednesday. He went about 17 holes, but riding in a cart. Except for his playing partners, Bubba Watson and amateur Jordan Cox and his coach, Hank Haney - and the usual police guard - he played in privacy. He'd forbade spectators and media from coming out to watch. So it was from Watson that the health report came, to the effect that Woods didn't mention pain and didn't appear to favor his knee.
“I feel very good about coming in and playing,” Woods said. “I feel good about my practices, my preparation, coming back to a golf course I've had some success at. Just really looking forward to getting out there and playing. It's just a matter of getting into the competitive rhythm and flow of the round quicker.”
Still, there are doubts. People who handicap sports events rarely have had such strong factors to plug into their equations. Which brought to the surface the one enduring question, in all its pristine simplicity.
People say there's just no way you can win it. Are they …?
Tiger Woods: “I've heard that before. I've heard that before.”
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