The scorecard definitely didn’t present many positives, particularly his closing 36 holes. However Tiger Woods known as his twenty sixth look at The Masters a “good week,” regardless of ending in solo sixtieth at 16-over par.
He set an Augusta Nationwide document by making a twenty fourth consecutive reduce, and he accomplished 72 holes in a significant championship for the primary time in two years. Flashes of brilliance emerged at occasions, however so did indicators of his age and lingering ache.
Regardless, Woods is looking forward to the subsequent main in mid-Could: the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Membership in Louisville, Kentucky.
“I simply [need to] maintain lifting, maintain the motor going, maintain the physique transferring, maintain getting stronger, and maintain progressing,” Woods mentioned on what he has to do to organize for Valhalla.
“Hopefully, the follow periods will maintain getting longer.”
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Woods gained the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla in an epic playoff over Bob Could. Then, in 2014, the final time this course hosted the PGA, Woods missed the reduce.
“I’m going to do my homework going ahead at Valhalla, Pinehurst and Troon, however that’s the sport plan,” Woods added.
“I heard there are some modifications on the subsequent couple of web sites. So I’ve to stand up there early and test them out.”
A month after the world’s finest gamers descend upon Kentucky, the U.S. Open will happen at Pinehurst No. 2 in mid-June. The North Carolina course additionally hosted the nationwide championship in 1999, 2005, and 2014.
Woods didn’t compete within the 2014 U.S. Open, however in 1999 and 2005, he tied for third and completed solo second, respectively.
Then, The Open Championship returns to Royal Troon in Scotland in July. Woods hopes to play there too, which might correlate together with his hypothetical plan that he laid out on the Hero World Problem in December.
At that time, Woods mentioned he hoped to play “as soon as monthly.” Now that the majors align accordingly, and now that he has accomplished 72 holes on one of many hardest terrains in all of golf, this seems increasingly like a risk.
As for his look at this 12 months’s Masters, Woods mentioned that the gale-force winds turned the most important problem this week, not his illnesses.
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“The wind and what it was doing out right here to the golf photographs and the balls and placing, how tough the course was enjoying, [that was the biggest challenge],” Woods mentioned.
“It doesn’t take a lot to get out of place right here. Sadly, I bought out of place loads [on Saturday] and a few occasions [on Sunday].”
Woods carded the worst spherical of his Masters profession on Saturday, a 10-over 82.
Then, for Sunday’s closing spherical, Woods completed with a 5-over 77, which included him taking the ‘worst trip in golf’ on the fifth gap. He hit his tee shot into the bushes, couldn’t take aid, and subsequently needed to re-tee. That led to a triple bogey, serving as an ideal instance of him being out of place.
Nonetheless, Woods remained optimistic following the spherical.
“It was a superb week throughout,” Woods mentioned.
“I feel that coming in right here, not having performed a full match in a really very long time, it was a superb battle on Thursday and Friday. Sadly, [Saturday] didn’t fairly end up the way in which I wished it to. Then as we speak, the way in which that Tom [Kim] is enjoying, I believed I had that in my system. Sadly, I didn’t produce it.”
Kim shot a 6-under 66, one of many lowest rounds of the week.
However now Woods—and {the golfing} world—know that he can full 72 holes. The query now turns into, does he nonetheless have “another” in him?
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying Via. You should definitely take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
