It’s faintly ridiculous that in the space of less than a couple of weeks, after taking part in a pair of hit-and-giggle events, one under the lights and one alongside his 13-year-old son, that this question is once again running through our heads.
At the end of November we would mentally write Tiger off after he pulled out of his own event with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, the one damaged so badly in last year’s car crash that amputation was ‘on the table’ . It seemed further proof that he wasn’t capable of doing the ordinary any more after decades of performing the extraordinary.
But then he pulls us back in. It doesn’t take much. One raking hook in a skills challenge should do it where, after not touching a club and having that screaming pain shooting through his right foot, on top of the fused back and all the other body malfunctions, he does things like this…
#TigerTuesdaysMerry Trajmas to all. 🎁 https://t.co/hqTqeDhKYH pic.twitter.com/XwoNG5aPqUDecember 13, 2022
Then he and his son waltz round the first round of the PNC in 59. Yes, he was in a cart and on a course where the fairways and pins were more than generous, but he’s still doing it. He’s still hitting the shots that he wants to hit, he’s still got the length and he’s still got all the short-game wizardry in his fingers that he’s been able to call on for the bulk of his career.
One shot that particularly pleased his caddy Joe LaCava was a short iron into a par 5.
“Only an 8-iron but a beautiful shot because he had to hit it hard and draw it,” explained his sidekick. “He drove it well and pretty consistent. Enough distance. A few past JT (Thomas) but that’s not what we’re looking for. It’s just about hitting it solid.
“More important to me, it’s about hitting the shot that he’s trying to hit. Sit up there and hit a high cut, and that’s what he’s hitting. If he’s hitting the shot that he’s trying to hit, I’m good with that.”
These are the people who we need to listen to rather than scrolling through Twitter and trotting out our own generalisations. None of us have played professional golf and none of us know what it takes to win Majors. We can stick our finger in the air and have a guess what’s going on under the bonnet but, when the likes of LaCava begin to make some positive noises, then we ought to take note.
Padraig Harrington has won three Majors. Much of his career has overlapped with Woods and he knows what it takes to win…
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