The site was identical, the outcome anything but. Tiger Woods won his last major championship at Torrey Pines in 2008, playing with two hairline fractures in his left leg and a shredded knee that required reconstructive surgery. Living on painkillers, Woods toughed out the week to win the US Open title.
Even in earthquake-prone Southern California, the change in narrative last week at Torrey was akin to a mudslide. Woods withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open after 11 holes, citing a sore back and malfunctioning muscles in his posterior. The off-colour jokes on Twitter began immediately.
The question of Woods’s spine – as in, whether he still has any – has fast become a popular topic. CBS Sports broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch, a former British Open champion who battled a case of the yips, a term now ascribed to Woods’s wretched short game, said the 14-time major winner is fighting his toughest opponent yet – a waning confidence in himself.
“I would hit 50 perfect drives on the range and snap-hook it off the first tee,” Baker-Finch said. “He does exactly the same thing. At the first tee at Augusta every year, he’s so nervous, he hits it 100 yards off-line, and he’s just hit 50 perfect drives on the range. You can’t tell me that that’s a bad back or a swing flaw. It’s totally mental.
“It’s a fear. And it’s not the yips. It’s not a spasm. It’s a fear.”
Woods later told a friend last week’s injury was not serious, which, compared to his previous heroics at Torrey, underscored the question about how much he still cares, if at all.
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