TULSA, Okla. – Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy not go the way they used to, when each was at the height of his power.
Understandably, Woods is making tentative moves these days. He usually holds the club in his right hand when leaving the teeing area, swinging it gently like a club as he walks towards the fairway. He’s not relying on it for support – not exactly – but it looks like he’s using it for reassurance. A protective blanket in case he takes an awkward step. There was a good chance it would always be like this in the future, the pain increasing and decreasing to a degree only he understood.
McIlroy is not as strict with his cheerful or daring personality as he used to be. It is the move of a golfer who is a little older, a little wiser, but who has also seen his share of frustration, especially during the major championships.
Both are different – one because of the injury, the other because of confidence.
If you pay close attention during the first round of PGA . Championship On Thursday, however, you might catch a glimpse of the old McIlroy strut. When he hits the 15th hole – his fourth in a row of the morning – it reappears. McIlroy walked to the 16th tee with his chest leading, his feet as light as an award-winning athlete moving onto the ring. It feels, for a second, like 2014 again, when McIlroy was the alpha king of the sport,
Woods was trying to hold back a grimace. Towards the end of his round, every turn and every step feels hesitant or labored.
The return of the McIlroy strut isn’t permanent. He slowed it down to one after he steered into a fairway bunker on the 16th hole (he saved the par). The nine pairs of butts on his back further alleviated it. But to witness its arrival in the Southern Hills in McIlroy’s under-par 65 game is a beautiful sight. It was his lowest opening round in a major since 2011 in Congress, and possibly more evidence that his final round at masters Last month was something of a golf exorcism.
For the first time in years, McIlroy won’t have to climb out of the pit to compete. He didn’t spend weeks obsessing over the nuances of Southern Hills in the lead up to the championship – he had never even played the course until he arrived this week – he was just watching several videos flew by in preparation and decided to trust his natural talent.
“I think when your game goes like that, you just have to go out there and really stick to your game plan, do the best you can, and just stay in the little world of your game,” McIlroy said. only you. “I did it really well today.”
McIlroy, who made seven birdies in his first round, was then in such a good mood he couldn’t resist having a little fun at the expense of the PGA press conference moderator. of America when asked – yes or no – he is happy about having a compelling start.
“Yes or no?” McIlroy asked suspiciously. “No, I’d rather shoot 74 and try to cut tomorrow.”
Unfortunately, shooting 74, and trying to make the cut, was not a laughing matter for Woods, because that was the prospect he faced after a pathetic slogan of an opening round. . Woods looked sharp early on, making a birdie on his opening (10th hole) then another on the 14th. At that point he was just one shot away from the lead, and the huge crowd that followed him, McIlroy and Jordan Spieth is full of energy. (Spieth didn’t contribute much; his sloppy iron play resulted in a mediocre 2 out of 72.)
But Woods’ cautious strategy of hitting a few tees, when McIlroy and Spieth were hitting the wheel or hitting wood on the fairway, caught up to him, especially when his right foot seemed to be getting tired. He made five boges on eight holes in one stretch and hit the fairway three times with his 2-iron. He admitted after the round that he was playing a game his opponents were unfamiliar with and that there might be no place for it in modern golf. Woods’ appears to be lamenting a bygone era, while acknowledging that he should have known better.
“We talked about it [Thursday]Joey [LaCava] and me, the days of Lee Janzens and Scott Simpsons and [Nick] Faldos of the world, playing that kind of golf is gone,” said Woods. You go out there and hit the driver a lot, and if you have a hot week, you have a hot week and you’re up there. The game is just different. It’s much more aggressive now, and I know it. “
On his last two holes – both holes – Woods winced in pain with each of his tee shots. Every time he bent down to pick grass from the fairway to throw it in the air and measure the wind, it felt like a stressful endeavor. When trying to crouch low to perform bunker shots, he appears much older than his 46 years. Woods’ optimism earlier in the week, when he said he believed he could win the league, appeared to have dimmed.
“I just couldn’t load it,” Woods said of the leg that was surgically repaired. “Loading hurts, pressing down hurts, walking hurts, twisting hurts. It’s just golf. If I don’t do that, I’m fine.”
It’s hard to watch Woods hobble home and wonder if he should be thinking about retiring, hitting the ball again, focusing on The Open at St. Andrews or not, but he doesn’t seem to have such a plan.
“A lot of treatments, a lot of ice baths and trying to get rid of the inflammation and trying to get ready for [Friday’s second round]Woods said.
After Woods hit the ninth green, nearly dodging a double bogey after a flubbed, he crept toward the Southern Hills clubhouse, striding purposefully and purposefully up the wooden stairs. Instead, McIlroy decided to climb up the grassy hill, his head bobbing as he blew forward.
