Tiger Woods will be losing one of his most important tools: his competitive advantage.
Unbelievably, Tiger Woods experiences anxiety. Still.
After 82 wins, 374 starts, and fifteen major championships, Woods stood on the elevated first tee at Riviera Country Club on Thursday morning. A sizable throng had gathered around him, and although he appeared composed, he was anything but. The nerve-wracking first shot in a professional golf event is unmatched anywhere.
Refer to Sahith Theegala. A few hours after Woods, the native of Southern California, who had his own rowdy fan base, almost whiffed on his fairway wood, hitting a popup to short centerfield that went only 243 yards—60 behind Tommy Fleetwood.
On his first competitive shot since the Masters in April of last year, Woods performed better, sending his tee ball 299 yards on the way to an opening birdie.
“Very anxious,” Woods remarked afterwards. “It matters to me how I perform, and I was definitely nervous at first.”
After calming down, Woods used the remainder of the Genesis Invitational’s first round to remove the layers of rust that had built up during the ten months of rehabilitation that followed surgery to repair his damaged right ankle from his 2021 car accident last spring.
The 48-year-old summarized his one-over-par 72-stroke round, which matched him for 49th place and seven strokes behind leader Patrick Cantlay, as “a lot of good and a lot of indifferent.”
Throughout the round, Woods made just seven pars, alternating between some squirrelly iron play, some reasonably fast driving, and more of the difficulties he has mentioned on Riviera’s Poa annua greens. He stated, “I can’t believe how fast the greens are here considering how much rain,” in an uncommon refrain. And then there was the shank that was heard throughout the Southland, when Woods cold-hoseled his way in from the fairway at 18 to force a valiant bogey.
According to Woods, he had a back spasm on his shank, and that will be a problem if he returns to competitive play. Which bodily part will be unwell for him? His ankle and back are fused together. Remember, Thursday marked only Woods’ 26th official round in the past three years.
When asked what aspect of his tournament preparation he felt was lacking, Woods replied, “I think sharpness.” “.. Making changes as they happen and how to make such adjustments, as well as how a round feels. I was improving every single day while we were playing here. However, I haven’t played in a long time. That’s the aspect of it that I find most annoying.
“I have to prepare myself properly at home since I’m going to be rusty. We must improve our lifting, treatment, and maintenance of rehabilitation procedures, among other things.
It has yet to be seen if Woods, with his limited time in the arena, can ever muster a competitive edge. similar to the sense of exhilaration he experienced at Riviera’s first tee.
“There is no way to get ready for it,” he said. The ball travels farther and faster while I’m playing; the yardages are slightly different from what they are at home, but I still rely a lot on experience and having done this for a long time. That’s just one aspect of playing competitive golf; it’s different.
