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By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – After a wretched tee shot, as he marched after his ball that sailed 40 yards right of the fairway, it seemed as good a time as any to wonder aloud what everybody must be thinking.
What in the world is wrong with Tiger Woods?
Is it the surgically repaired knee that sidelined him for eight months? Or confidence that eroded while his left knee healed? Or is he simply proving to be mortal, after all?
Maybe all of the above explained why Woods was scowling after hitting an errant 3-wood on the same hole for the second day in a row. He arrived at the ball before his caddie. It sat on a flat shelf on the side of a hill, not far from the water on the 12th hole.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with the 12th hole, unless like Woods you happened to be playing the 14th.
He and the ball stood 180 yards from the green, with one oak tree nearby, and another creeping toward the right side of the green.
“It was a terrible tee shot there,” Tiger said later, and that was a charitable description.
As he contemplated his options – 7-iron, 8-iron, or dump the whole bag into the nearby water? – it was a good time to contemplate our plight. Yes, our plight.
If Woods isn’t the Woods we recognize, the game suffers. He often reminds us he expects to win every tournament he enters, and so do we. After watching him win 14 majors and 66 overall victories, it was easy to expect the same and natural to wonder what’s wrong.
Three events after his long-awaited return, Tiger won the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But two weeks later, in Augusta, he looked less than masterful. After a wonderful 15 holes on the final day, he faltered down the stretch. Last week, in contention again Sunday at the Quail Hollow Championship, he faded and finished fourth.
But Houdini was at his most entertaining when he was bound in chains. So after failing to make a putt longer than four feet in the first round, here, after scrambling upon arriving at the 14th hole, he was standing over a very challenging second shot.
Trading a 7-iron for an 8-iron, he settled over the ball, drew the club back and, once again smacked the ball. The ball took off, rocket-like, safely over the first oak tree, comfortably inside the second oak tree and onto the green, precisely 23 feet from the hole. That’s how far the ball rolled when Tiger struck it with his putter – 23 feet – and the crowd roared when that ball rolled into the cup. It was an exciting moment on a day Woods patched together a 3-under 69.
“Just kind of plodded my way along today,” Woods said. “I got myself back in the ballgame.”
Twice on the front nine, he ended up in sand traps. On the back nine he was in the sand once again and flubbed a chip shot on the 16th. But as Woods pointed out, he’s back in the ballgame.
Seven strokes behind leader Alex Cejka. Two rounds to play. Tiger’s kind of ballgame.
It’s worth noting he has failed to post a top-10 finish in his last six appearances here at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass. It’s also worth noting that more drives like the one he hit at No. 14 will squash his hopes of winning the tournament and proving there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him or his game.
But those errant shots and what followed served its purpose for those wondering what’s wrong with Tiger Woods. The Tiger Woods who exhibited unshakable confidence and unerring precision before the knee injury might not be fully back.
But on Friday, Woods proved he still can provide magic at the most unlikely moments.
That will have to suffice for now.
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