{"id":71705,"date":"2016-03-01T06:10:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T11:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=71705"},"modified":"2025-01-31T05:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T10:31:07","slug":"tiger-woods-keeps-everyone-guessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/03\/01\/tiger-woods-keeps-everyone-guessing\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods keeps everyone guessing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tiger<\/a>
Tiger Woods (Photo by Keith Allison<\/a>\/Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. \u2013 Adam Scott knew the only way for him to remain relevant was to win golf tournaments.<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods has it far easier. All he had to do was hit one shot in a simulator.<\/p>\n

The Honda Classic did not lack for activity, even without the beer-drinking bozos leaning over the railing of grandstands on the 17th hole to shout at Sergio Garcia that the Spaniard should \u201cgo back to the European Tour\u201d and at Adam Scott to put \u201ctwo more (balls) in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

It started with Jack Nicklaus hosting nearly two dozen potential Ryder Cup players for dinner, a treat for anyone among the top 40 in the U.S. standings. He said he talked about how to prepare for big events, though it was not clear what else could be gleaned from the night except to hang out with golf\u2019s greatest champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine how them coming over to have dinner at an old man\u2019s house is going to help any,\u201d Nicklaus said.<\/p>\n

It ended with Scott’s first victory in 21 months. The affable Aussie lost a chance at one of the best rounds of his career when he made a quadruple bogey on the 15th hole Saturday and still shot 66. The next day, he became a footnote in PGA Tour history as the first player since 2009 to make a quadruple bogey and still win the tournament.<\/p>\n

Through it all, what generated the most conversation across the spectrum was Woods.<\/p>\n

In a span of five days, speculation ranged from Woods being unable to sit in a chair to Woods taking full swings with the driver. A rumor on social media suggested his back was so bad from two surgeries late last year that he had to recline his passenger’s seat as someone else drove his car. On Wednesday, he posted a video on Twitter that showed him hitting a 9-iron in a golf simulator. A report followed the next day that he was swinging a driver.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s why Nicklaus was so hesitant to say anything on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Woods is a Ryder Cup vice captain and was at the Nicklaus dinner, and the players said he looked to be doing well.<\/p>\n

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So did Nicklaus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says he was feeling good… and he was able to stand over a putt and chip now without having any leg pain and so forth,\u201d Nicklaus said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really talk a whole lot about it. He doesn\u2019t have a timetable for returning or anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was just… he\u2019s pretty private about what his situation is, and I don\u2019t blame him,\u201d Nicklaus added. \u201cBecause every time he opens his mouth, there\u2019s nothing but articles written about speculation about Tiger. And I don\u2019t want to break his… he likes it when we talk. We talk about different things. I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s my place to expound on Tiger\u2019s health and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does it all mean?<\/p>\n

No one can say for sure, except the golfing public seems to be in a bigger rush for Woods to return than he is.<\/p>\n

The best guess is that if Woods has learned anything, he will return later rather than sooner. He came back too early from leg injuries in 2011, withdrew after 42 on the front nine at The Players Championship and sat out three months. He came back too soon from back surgery that knocked him out of the Masters and U.S. Open in 2014. He played 11 tournaments over the next year and was as irrelevant as he has ever been on the golf course.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what makes all the speculation about Woods so fascinating. He seems to be relevant as long as he\u2019s not playing. In place of his recent performance are memories of a player the likes of which has not been seen by any of the four players who have been No. 1 since Woods last won a tournament.<\/p>\n

Nicklaus used to always say he thought Woods would break his record of 18 professional majors until one day Nicklaus was so tired of the same question that he asked the audience what kind of headlines he would make if he ever said differently.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not about records. It\u2019s about playing.<\/p>\n

Nicklaus said he told Woods, \u201cNobody wants their records to be broken, but I don\u2019t want you not to have the ability to have that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the most trusted reports from those who were at the Nicklaus dinner. Phil Mickelson said he was fun, social, laughing. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III used words like \u201cfit\u201d and \u201chappy\u201d to describe Woods.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Jimmy Walker brought the levity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to him just a second,\u201d Walker said. \u201cI said, \u2018Wow, you\u2019re standing up and you\u2019re not dead.\u2019 He said, \u2018I know. That\u2019s how everybody thinks I am now \u2013 dead.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine what it will be like at the tournament where Woods returns to golf, whenever that might be. And then imagine how long before the fans realize he is a 40-year-old with four surgeries on his knee and three surgeries on his back.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Everyone wants to see Woods play again, as long as he plays like the Woods they once knew.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Scott became relevant again. He is a PGA Tour winner again, even with a short putter, and moved back into the top 10 at No. 9 in the world.<\/p>\n

Woods fell one spot to No. 446.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. \u2013 Adam Scott knew the only way for him to remain relevant was to win golf …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":16321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1080],"class_list":["post-71705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ap","mauthors-doug-ferguson","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287198,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71705\/revisions\/287198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}