The early takeaway from Tiger Woods’ return to competition this week with the Japan Skins and his appearance in the inaugural Zozo Championship suggests he’s thinking about playing more golf, not less.
Woods further opened the door to the possibility he will add himself to the playing roster for the U.S. Presidents Cup team he will captain in Australia in December now that he has fully recovered from an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee performed in August.
He also said he wants to qualify for the Olympic Games in Japan next August.
How Woods plays this week in the Zozo Championship will likely factor into whatever decision he makes about adding himself to the Presidents Cup team. He is slated to announce his four captain’s picks Nov. 4.
If he plays well, he can quiet the sure-to-come squawking when he picks himself. If he looks rusty – or worse, old – then Tiger may opt to accept standing on the first tee watching every match begin without him. In terms of interest, this Presidents Cup needs Woods to play but that can be said of most events.
As for the Olympics, Woods needs to be one of the top four Americans inside the top 15 in the world ranking on June 22, 2020, to qualify. He is currently 10th in the world ranking with six other Americans ahead of him.
Having the knee procedure, which Woods said he delayed because he played so well in the latter part of 2018, has encouraged him about his upcoming schedule. He had intended to have the cartilage work done after last December’s Hero World Challenge but he delayed it so he could play at Torrey Pines in January.
“(The procedure) made me more hopeful that I could do all of the above, play (in Japan) this week, play Hero and play Australia. The way I was feeling towards the middle part of the year, it was going to be a tall order to be able to do it all. Started to struggle with it, it started affecting my back and the way I was walking and trying to play, trying to read putts,” Woods said.
“So I’m excited about having this end-of-the-year run where I’m feeling much more fit and I don’t have the achiness that I’ve been dealing with for the last couple years.”
Two tournaments – the Zozo Championship and the WGC-HSBC Champions – remain before Woods will announce his Presidents Cup selections. A potential wrinkle was thrown into Woods’ decision-making process when Brooks Koepka tweaked his previously injured knee during the second round of the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges in South Korea last week, prompting him to withdraw from that tournament as well as the Zozo Championship. It’s uncertain whether Koepka, who recently underwent stem cell treatment for a partially torn patella tendon, will be healthy for the Presidents Cup.
As for the Olympics, Woods needs to be one of the top four Americans inside the top 15 in the world ranking on June 22, 2020, to qualify. He is currently 10th in the world ranking with six other Americans ahead of him.
“I would love to play in an Olympic Games. My dad and I, in ’84, Long Beach was right down the street from our house (in California) and right next to Eldorado, and we went to the archery games, so I got a chance to experience the Olympics at a very early age and didn’t really understand it. But over the years, having friends compete in the Olympics, seeing golf be part of the Olympics, it would be an honor to represent my country in an Olympic Games,” Woods said.
Chip Shots
• It’s inevitable with someone like Justin Thomas, who has now won 11 PGA Tour titles six months before his 27th birthday, to wonder how big the arc of his career might be.
He’s won as often on the PGA Tour as Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth won before their 27th birthdays and only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods won more by that age.
Thomas is a classic modern player with a game built on enormous power and an aggressive attitude that allows him to play with his foot on the pedal. Was the wrist injury that sidelined him for a time last spring a sign of trouble or just a one-off?
Hopefully, it’s just a tiny footnote in what is shaping up to be a spectacular career. Among the best of Thomas’s many talents is his knack for closing the deal. He’s won eight of the 11 times he’s held the 54-hole lead or co-lead.
“I don’t think you can ever necessarily call yourself the best closer,” Thomas said after winning the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges on Sunday. “I’ve only won 11 times. I feel like once I get to 40 or 50 times and I’ve closed a lot of those, I think that’s kind of different.”
Here’s the best part of what Thomas said after his most recent victory: “I feel like if I can improve a little bit every year, then there’s not really a ceiling that I feel like I can’t reach. I just want to try to win as many tournaments as I can.”
• No surprise that McIlroy struck just the right tone when asked during the Japan Skins about Koepka’s recent comments that he doesn’t see a rivalry with McIlroy, saying what Koepka said “wasn’t wrong.”
“I think if you take what Brooks said out of context, then obviously it can be this big thing that it had become. But Brooks and I are good. We’re good friends. I’ve been really happy for him to see how good he’s played the last couple of years. And I’m sure he’ll continue to do so, just like we’re all trying to play as good as we can,” McIlroy said.
• While much of the attention at the Zozo Championship will focus on Woods, it could be another step forward for Spieth as he tries to work himself back into form.
His T8 finish at the CJ Cup last week was a promising start to his new season and while he still struggled to hit fairways consistently, Spieth hung in on the weekend, which was a problem last season.
Spieth ranked ninth and first, respectively, in first- and second-round scoring average last season but his weekends were flameouts. Spieth ranked 170th in third-round scoring and a dismal 187th in final-round scoring, undercutting the solid work he tended to do at the start of tournaments.
He has finished T12 or better in three of his last five starts so there is reason for optimism. A good week in Japan could add to that.