Tiger’s 85 is a sledgehammer to the side of the head, says Faldo
third round at the Memorial tournament in Ohio.
“Three Masters ago, I was on the (practice) range watching Tiger hit beautiful fades and draws. He was hitting the ball fabulously. (Then) he walks to the first tee, two snap hooks.
“From that day on, I thought to myself, he’s not comfortable, he’s starting to fear shots. When you are fearing a shot before you hit it, we’re all in serious trouble.”
Woods’ score at Muirfield Village was not exactly out of the blue. Four months ago he shot an 11-over 82 at the Phoenix Open, his short game in disarray and his long game not much better.
However, he found some form in time for the Masters, finishing a respectable equal 17th. But he clearly he has not solved his problems.
Faldo said Woods was still searching for a swing fix during a practice round this week accompanied by coach Chris Como. “One of the players playing a practice round with Tiger heard him (Woods) say four times (to Como) ‘OK, what am I trying now’.
“So they are just searching. It just doesn’t look right.”
Faldo said: “This is a sledgehammer to the side of the head. Tiger is going to walk away saying to himself, what am I going to do next? How do I pull this back?I’m not too sure how much he can handle all of this.”
Yesterday, Woods scratched out a two-over 74 in the final round, showing glimpses of good form but once again coun- tering it with plenty of bad.
Buoyed by hitting nine of 14 fairways, the most of the week, Woods had five birdies in his round and at one stage looked like he may have turned a corner at three-under through 12 holes.
But two bogeys and two double bogeys on his last six once again exposed flaws.
The 39-year-old remained last in the tournament at 14-over 302, the worst 72-hole total of his career, but was pleased with some aspects of Sunday's play.
“Today was a lot better ballstriking wise but I didn’t finish off very good. Today was what I’ve been doing on the driving range and that was nice to see. I got a solidness back, I was hitting the driver with both shapes, cuts and draws,” Woods said. – Reuters