DUBAI // It sounds like a motivational mantra that might be imprinted on a greeting card, or one of those inspirational posters they sell in airline merchandise magazines.
Five days removed from matching the second-worst score of his PGA Tour career, Tiger Woods starts anew on Thursday at the 25th Omega Dubai Desert Classic, thousands of miles from home, but with the game’s long lens focused on his form as much as ever.
“Tuesday was better than Monday and Wednesday was better than Tuesday,” Woods said Wednesday after completing his second pre-tournament round at Emirates Golf Club. “Hopefully, tomorrow will be even better than today.”
Nothing could be worse than what transpired last weekend.
Woods missed the cut at Torrey Pines, a venue where he had amassed a personal-best eight career victories, and it marked the second time he had posted a 79 in a span of eight months.
Not surprisingly, for the second day in succession, the possibility of a hangover from his Torrey troubles was a focal point with the world No 1, who barely blinked while insisting the round was dead and forgotten.
“Yeah, I’m here,” he said evenly.
A two-time winner in Dubai, a fast start will help fans forget that Woods played a seven-hole stretch at Torrey in nine over, missing the cut in his season opener for the second straight year.
“Just one of those trains I couldn’t get off of,” he said.
By the end of 2013, his ticket had been punched. After winning five times, he was fighting a back injury and the rigours of another long season, backloaded with a series of big events over the waning months. For the past couple of years, Woods’s off-season preparation has been called into question, for good reason – he is both unwilling and unable to put in the same amount of practice time as he could at his peak.
Because of his age, 38, and other interests, Woods cannot grind like he once did when preparing for most events. He frequently comes to tournament venues later in the week than he once did, and his body will not allow him to hit as many balls or log as much road work in training.
At times, it shows.
Moreover, the PGA Tour switched to a new calendar in 2013/14, technically starting the new season late last year.
This is the 11th week of official competition and Woods has earned exactly one FedEx Cup point so far this year, yet another issue to mull with regard to making use of winter down time.
“Now with this new wraparound schedule going on, I think we’re all trying to literally get our heads wrapped around it, and trying to get a better feel for it,” he said. “It’s very different.”
For the first time in months, Woods is not the top pick this week.
Rory McIlroy, ranked No 6 in the world and coming off a runner-up finish in Abu Dhabi, where he shot the lowest four rounds only to miss out due to a two-shot penalty, is favoured to win.
“I definitely feel fit,” Woods said. “My game is certainly not as sharp as, nowhere near as sharp as I would have liked last week.
“I was just a fraction off, and a fraction off on a golf course that hard, it bit a lot of us. Unfortunately, it bit me pretty hard.”
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