No one is asking Tiger Woods if he can win the PGA Championship
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Tiger Woods entered the media tent at Whistling Straits on Tuesday and held court on a variety of subjects before a typically large crowd of media members.
Woods talked about the size of the mosquitos spawning from the wet Wisconsin farmland. He answered questions about his newly-opened restaurant in Jupiter, Fla., and his plans to expand his golf course business to India. He even humored a Japanese reporter who breathlessly asked about a “report” that Hideki Matsuyama “got to say hi” to Woods on Monday.
What was striking about the half-hour exercise before this weekend’s PGA Championship, however, was the shortage of golf-related questions. No one asked him about his chances in the year’s final major, nor did anyone ask him to diagnose any part of his swing. No one pretended that his 18th-place finish at the Quicken Loans National two weeks ago — Woods’ second-best finish in 2015 — might give him the momentum needed to win his first major since the 2008 U.S. Open.
Indeed, one could be forgiven for pronouncing that everyone in the golf media has moved on from the idea that the 39-year-old can be a contender at major golf championships.
That crowd might include Woods himself, who acknowledged that he’s not yet back to the point where he has “a chance to win each and every event I play in.”
“I don’t know my exact [world] ranking right now,” Woods admitted when asked at one point. “I know I’m in the 200s somewhere.”
That’s No. 278 to be exact, smack dab in the middle of Michael Hoey and Thanyakorn Khrongpha, neither of whom will be playing in Wisconsin this weekend, let alone drawing huge galleries wherever they go.
Woods has cashed only one six-figure check in 2015 — a $155,000 payday for T-17 at The Masters — and his earnings of $318,998 over nine events probably hasn’t even put a dent in his jet fuel bill for the year. He missed the cut at both the U.S. Open and British Open, failing to break 75 in any of the four rounds.
Those scorecards, rankings and bank statements are solid proof that injury and age have made Woods just another guy on the golf course. Of course, Woods is anything but “just a guy” when it comes to attention from fans and media, which explains how he can fill a half hour of press conference time without anyone getting too deep into his golfing struggles that are finally being accepted as the new normal.
That’s not to say that there weren’t any questions about Woods’ situation.
One reporter led off the press conference with a query that recounted his glory days (“winning majors sometimes at a clip of 25 percent”) before asking whether it “was fair to say that you may have lost a step?”
“No, I don’t think so. I can still walk the same pace on the golf course,” Woods quipped to a decent amount of laughter.
Another asked if Woods had even humored the ideas of fans who offer swing advice, good luck charms or mental exercises as a means to correct his problems.
“There’s not one,” Woods said. “I swear. Not one. I’ve relied on friends and family and people that I trust and are close to me.”
Another asked about whether Woods had “a backup plan” should he miss out on the FedEx Cup playoffs. (He’s currently 186th in points, 279 behind S.J. Park for the 125th and final spot.)
“I’m just trying to get my game better for years to come,” Woods said.
For his part, Woods only allowed that he was looking toward “being consistent” this weekend at Whistling Straits and nothing about contending at this tournament and beyond.
But even if Tiger was playing at the top of his game, Whistling Straits would pose a big challenge as the course has proven tough for Woods in the past. He finished tied for 24th at the PGA Championship at this links-style layout off the shores of Lake Michigan in 2004 and then tied for 28th at the 2010 tournament.
“As far as my tournament future, if I play well, I play well and I’ll play in more events,” Woods said. “If I don’t, then I have more time to practice and get ready for the following events and for obviously, the next season.”
Woods also has plenty on his plate away from the course, including his new sports bar that serves things like Nutella s’mores and is already garnering positive Yelp reviews, and a golf course design business that is looking toward international destinations like India.
As he grows older, Woods also seems a bit more willing to remember the glories of his past, recalling his win at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah — his first major win after the 1997 Masters — and the three PGA titles that followed.
He also revisited the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open, held just down the road in Brown Deer. That was Woods’ first pro event after winning the U.S. Amateur and it’s remembered for both Woods’ hole-in-one on Sunday and the $2,544 check he cashed for finishing tied for 60th.
Woods, however, remembered the feeling he had upon teeing off for the first time.
“I remember putting the tee in the ground, I was fine,” he said. “I took my first practice swing, totally fine. I walked to the golf ball, I put the club behind the ball and I looked down the fairway. By the time I looked back and did another waggle, I could barely lift the club.
“I was like, oh, God, I’m so nervous. I could feel my heart pound. I’m like ‘Okay, just hit it as hard as you can, wherever it goes, just pound it. And I ripped it 300 yards right down the middle of the fairway.”
Woods was asked whether that 1996 debut “felt like yesterday.” His response was representative of the world-weary position where his game is currently stuck.
“No, it feels like forever ago,” he said. “My buddies always kid me, I live in dog years. It just seems like it’s forever.”
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Kevin Kaduk is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!Follow @KevinKaduk
