Monday 7:29 in the morning. Tiger Woods tees up his ball on the 10th hole to play the second nine holes of Pinehurst No.2 alongside Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth and kick off the US Open 2024. The reality is that Ten Golf joins that round a few minutes later, when Tiger’s ball is landing in the centre right of the 12th hole fairway.
Just two hours and seven holes later, there are more than enough elements for Tiger Woods to know where the shots are going this week. No one will have to tell the man from Cypress where the drama will be in Pinehurst, because the reality is that he has already experienced it first hand today. It should be remembered that this is not his first test here this year, he played the course yesterday and last Tuesday he was also able to recognise the terrain.
The cod this week for the man from Cypress is cut by hunting fairways and catching greens. Anything that goes beyond that will have the nickname of suffering, not only for Tiger obviously, but it is a differential factor if we take into account the pace of competition and how marked his game is due to injuries.
In two holes where he has not been very precise from the tee, Tiger has had to play from the bushes that protect the course. Here there is not the usual rough that the USGA is used to, but beyond the fairways we find large bushes of wiregrass and pineweed in the middle of a sandy terrain.
On the 13th hole tee shot, he went straight to that area but was lucky and the ball ended up resting in the middle of the sand without any shrub nearby. He was able to hit a good shot and left himself the clearest birdie option in the stretch we went with him.
He was not so lucky after missing, again to the right, the fairway of the next hole. There he was seen thinking and rethinking how he could face the shot of a ball, which without being in the middle of a bush, was quite close to one. He was raising and lowering the club seeing how to enter the ball and that after having been a while deciding what club he could play. The reality is that he could not control the ball much and crossed the hole on the left side. We will not tire of repeating it, playing from there is not easy and also depends a lot on the luck of the place where the ball ends up resting.
Woods’ first objective, therefore, is none other than to try to fine-tune as much as possible from the tee to avoid getting into trouble from the beginning of the hole. Tiger’s, we insist, and everyone’s.
By the way, despite being an early Monday start, from the first hour thousands of people have accompanied the champion of fifteen Majors. They support him from the first to the last minute, what a draw Mr. Woods has. The result and the game is the least of it. Everyone wants to see and immortalise the moment.
Returning to the golfing aspect, the second objective is clear and focuses on the short game. This is actually the most important thing. He knows he’s not going to catch all the fairways or all the greens. The Pinehurst greens are protected with large run-offs that can make the ball roll many metres. How to play from these run-offs is something the players are still trying to unravel. On each hole, the four players were seen sharing experiences and types of shots: very long distance putts, chips, rolled chips and even some lobs, although to be honest, we have hardly seen the latter. They were quickly discarded.
Throughout the round, the complicity between Tiger and his son Charlie could be enjoyed, with whom he discussed all possible scenarios and shots to be had and yet to come. Young Charlie has a good teacher.
From these limits of the green, Woods has been left hole after hole testing how the greens react to each type of shot. In fact, Tiger has been the last to arrive at the next tee almost every time. He is very clear that he must be fine around the green to make the cut. He knows that his options go through there. For example, on the long par 4 of the 16th hole, despite having caught the centre of the fairway, he was not able to reach the green. Neither on the first nor on the second attempt.
On the 14th hole, as we were commenting a few paragraphs above, he also went on an excursion through the run-offs, with a great recovery shot by the way. In Augusta, Tiger started very solid around the green and as the week progressed it became more complicated for him. In the PGA Championship he suffered a lot in this area. If he wants to play the weekend, he cannot give an inch in his short game.
As an anecdote, it is worth highlighting the good relationship between Charlie Woods and Justin Thomas. They were seen talking a lot during the round and at the end of the nine holes they made a bet between them. Charlie had to make two putts from the upper platform of the green to a flag that must have been about twenty metres away. He did not succeed, good laughs and a lot of complicity with a Justin who was holding the flag and cheering on the youngest of the Woods family.
