Tiger back in action at event, venue of five previous wins

From pgatour.com

Tiger Woods is back on the tee. There is little need to overstate the story-line beyond that.

The 82-time PGA Tour winner and the world’s most talked-about player returns at the Memorial tournament, his first appearance since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the sport in mid-March.

When Woods tees off later on Thursday at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, it will be his first competitive start in five months. The last one was the Genesis Invitational in February.

Woods, who has won this event five times previously, is part of a featured grouping Thursday and Friday alongside Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka.

“It feels great to be back,” Woods said Tuesday.

“I hadn’t played on a tournament venue in a while, and it’s been since February, so it’s been a long time for me. Then to get out there and to play with Justin Thomas was a bunch of fun.

“It’s certainly a different world, different environment that we’re in. To play practice rounds like this and to watch as the Tour has evolved and started back and to see no fans, it’s just a very different world out here.”

Nervous tension

Tiger is also feeling the nerves.

“I’m always excited. I’m always nervous to get out there and play and hit my first tee shot. That’s just part of it,” he said on tournament eve.

“Feeling those jitters is part of it.”

Golf has eagerly awaited Woods’ return since he first displayed some form in May at The Match: Champions for Charity also involving Phil Mickelson.

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Woods said that performance briefly left him considering an earlier return to competition before ultimately opting against it.

“I did consider playing, trying to figure out if I should play or not. But I just felt it was better to stay at home and be safe,” he said.

“I’m used to playing with lots of people around me or having lots of people have a direct line to me, and that puts not only myself in danger but my friends and family.”

Close eye

Tiger watched from afar as the Tour worked through new health and safety protocols, which include no on-site fans and frequent COVID-19 testing throughout the week.

Confidence in those measures are what ultimately brought him to Ohio this week. 

“That’s the risk that I’m taking, that’s the risk that all of us are now taking,” Tiger said.

“I know the Tour has done a fantastic job of trying to ensure that all of us are safe, but it is a risk when we are around individuals that you don’t know where they’ve been or what they’ve been doing.

“But the screening, the testing we’ve done, the protections that we’ve tried to implement on the Tour have shown that we’ve had to make adjustments, but it’s a risk that I’m willing to take.”

New start

But now it’s back to work, and a chance to erase the memories of his last competitive start.

When golf fans last saw him on Tour, Tiger finished last at 11-over and closed with rounds of 76 and 77 the final two days.

“Physically, I was very stiff in Los Angeles, and I was not moving that well,” he said.

“Back was just not quite loose, it was cold, I wasn’t hitting the ball very far, wasn’t playing very well, and consequently I finished dead last.

“ … I feel so much better than I did then. I’ve been able to train and concentrate on getting back up to speed and back up to tournament speed.

“I’m going to have to just put my head down and play. But it’s going to be different, there’s no doubt about it (with public entry closed).

“For most of my career, pretty much almost every competitive playing round that I’ve been involved in, I’ve had people around me, spectators yelling, a lot of movement inside the gallery with camera crews and media.

“Watching the players over the last few weeks, that hasn’t been the case, and that’s very different.”

Also read: Tiger Woods returns to action at Memorial next week