Tiger Woods: 'I showed heart and fought my tail off'
Woods struggled off the tee but showed short-game prowess at Torrey Pines - "very pleased" with outing.
Tiger Woods donned the famous red and black on Sunday at Torrey Pines, firing a level-par 72 to finish on -3 and T23 for the Farmers Insurance Open.
In his first start on the PGA Tour for a year, Woods showcased his famously dependable short game throughout, after finding just 17 fairways out of 56 on a course that is infamously punishing.
Very pleased,” Woods said. “I fought hard for these scores. These weren't yawners ... down the middle, on the green, two‑putt and one‑hand all your second putts in the hole.
“I had to fight for every score on every hole and sometimes those are more pleasing than the boring rounds. It showed that I had heart. I fought my tail off and it was good stuff.”
The 14-time major champion seemed to have no issues with his fused back. A ferocious recoil when hitting the driver was seen on numerous occasions, a testament to the state of his physical health.
The ball speeds he is producing with driver - touching 180 - are up there with the longest hitters on Tour, which is outstanding when you consider he is 42.
But it was the direction of his tee shots rather than distance that caused Woods frustration, and he admitted his swing is not where he’d like it to be.
“I can feel some of the things I'm doing wrong in my swing, so we're going to go back to work,” Woods said. “It's nice to have two weeks off, but it's more important that I got this tournament under my belt where I can feel some of the things I need to work on because hometown speed vs. game speed is two totally different things. ...
“I got a lot out of my rounds. The short game wasn't something I was worried about coming into this week. It was going to be, can I shoot low scores? I didn't, but I grinded out some good rounds.”
Joe LaCava, Woods’ caddie, was positive about his player’s health, but admitted he needed to drive the ball better in order to challenge.
“Obviously, he has to drive it better. The short game looked pretty tight, and that’s always a plus. And he looks comfortable putting,” LaCava said. “He just needs to get back to Florida to get more practice in, get more reps and get tournaments under his belt.”
