Tiger Woods’ U.S. Open ended in surprising fashion on Thursday.
Darren Riel/Golf
Pinehurst, NC – The kids weren’t screaming, they Chant,
But on Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Open, it seemed like cheering wouldn’t be enough.
,Tiger tiger tiger tiger,” He yelled for 15 consecutive minutes from the practice green at Pinehurst No. 2, changing pitch and volume depending on the proximity of his subject, Tiger Woods. After an opening-round 74 at the National Championship, Woods told the media that he expected to “hit something” on the range, provided the short car ride from the 10th tee box to the clubhouse didn’t hurt his back.
His plan didn’t include an autograph session, and if you’ve been around Tiger even once at a major championship, you know he’s unlikely to be distracted, even with these kids chanting. Woods has a different focus during major weeks — the kind that doesn’t leave much room for writing. But these kids were Tireless, Their resilience remains unaffected by the apparent indifference of their target.
They chanted and chanted and chanted. And after a while Woods stopped swinging. He turned to caddie Lance Bennett, pulled his putter out of his bag and started walking.
He said, “I’m going to kill some people.”
The children grew into one Crescendo Woods raced up the small hill to the practice green, piercing the ground with his putter. At thousands of other moments like this in his major championship life, Woods has kept his eyes forward, gaze steady and attention elsewhere. But for some strange reason, all that changed Thursday at the U.S. Open. He looked straight at the ringleader of the kids — a little boy, maybe 8 years old, with shaggy blonde hair and a red-striped shirt — and walked toward him.
If you were hoping to see a new version of Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open, you didn’t get much out of Thursday’s match at Pinehurst No. 2.
On Thursday morning in North Carolina, Woods looked the same as he has in the past three months. His ball speed was blistering, his upper body was slender, his movements were smooth and violent… and his results were wildly inconsistent. Officially, he shot four over on Thursday, nine shots behind the lead set by Patrick Cantlay (and later tied by Rory McIlroy), but unofficially it was much more disappointing. Woods away He had his best driving day of the year, hitting 12 of 14 fairways and putting himself in scoring position early in the morning, on a day when most players found conditions surprisingly easy. Yet he finished 111th in the field in putting average (with a trio of three-putts) and lost more than twice as many shots as the field in his approach game.
“It wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. I was pretty one-dimensional at the beginning of the week, which is interesting. I was pulling the ball a lot. Now I’m cutting the ball a lot,” Woods said after his round, a wry smile on his face. “Welcome to golf.”
And welcome the frustration that has defined Woods’s major 2024 season. This has been a problem all year, and it Great On Thursday; the irons have been great, and they’ve been terrible; the putter has been ice cold at times and red-hot at other times. In other words, it’s all there – just not all at once.
“It’s your choice of sport, isn’t it? Play too much and there’s no possibility of playing, or don’t play and there’s not as much intensity to fight,” Woods said Thursday.
It’s not all bad. Tiger reiterated Thursday that his body is slowly getting better, and those physical improvements are beginning to show in his golf swing. CBS Sports lead analyst Trevor Immelman said he hasn’t seen this much front foot force in Woods’ swing in a “long time.” On the range Wednesday, he mashed balls for more than an hour without any trouble.
These are not the gradual improvements of a man who finds himself in serious competition every time. But these are the gradual improvements of a man who has spent a long time looking at what he loves most. And that’s the other part of what happened if you were expecting to see a new version of Tiger Woods at the US Open after Thursday’s round was very interesting.
It started on the practice range, where Woods’ back gripped so well on the short shuttle headed to the clubhouse that he hit balls for 15 minutes after His round was over – a rare occurrence in his life after the car accident. He seemed buoyed by what he found in a few minutes of solitude with his irons and a fine driver swing that ran the same line as his other drivers on Thursday and elicited a one-word response: Yes.
But he was most concerned with what was coming after, with his good friend Justin Thomas coming off a poor run of form on Thursday with a seven-over 77. When Woods put his clubs back in the bag, Thomas’ plight could be heard from afar.
“Its so “But here it is square,” Thomas said, disappointed and a little amused, pointing to the golf course. There That’s a million miles right.
If you’ve seen Tiger at a major championship before, you know he doesn’t take much time to show pity to struggling competitors. You may have heard that he has a well-documented legacy of ignoring just about everything (and Everyone) Besides winning.
But for some strange reason, Thursday was different. As Thomas hurled a few more balls into the ether, Woods took a few quiet steps behind him, closely watching his movements on the downswing. He stopped Thomas after the third or fourth swing and a small conversation began.
The two worked together for a while and Woods offered some tips, a brief session that might not have been as noteworthy if it wasn’t Thursday at the U.S. Open and if it wasn’t Tiger Woods.
After talking to Thomas for a few minutes, he left, looking happier. His gaze was less sharp now, and his movements were beginning to slow. He had a long recovery ahead of him, followed by many more hours of physical therapy before Friday afternoon’s tee time arrived. If all went well, he would have to endure this routine three more times.
This work had just begun when a putting session got in the way.
But first it was time to look at the boy in the red striped shirt.
