After tough year, Tiger Woods looking to get back in the swing of things
In a video conference call for the Chevron World Challenge, top golfer Tiger Woods opened up to the media about his unusually winless year.
“I learned a lot about myself, and I learned how things went wrong, why they went wrong, and had to take a pretty deep and introspective look at myself. And there wasn’t a lot of things I like about it.”
Woods went on to say that although the year was difficult for so many reasons, he feels more grounded then ever.
“I think that I come from a much better place, much more grounded place now than I ever have before,” said the golfer, who is set to lose his long-held number one ranking, after a year in which he was
rocked by a huge media firestorm over an infidelity scandal, the dissolution of his marriage, a break from golf and a return to unspectacular results.
Tiger and Foley showing progress
Tiger’s year has been sub par by his standards, with his best finishes being ties for fourth coming at the Masters and the U.S. Open. He remains optimistic about what the future holds. Earlier in the year
his coach of six years, Hank Haney, resigned and for a three month stretch Tiger played the roles of both player and coach. Finally Woods approached Canadian Sean Foley, who has been lauded my many professionals and coaches fellow tour pros Justin Rose and
Hunter Mahan among others.
Woods has been working with Foley since mid-summer and the pair has been focusing on getting Tiger more on top of the golf ball both at address and impact.
Tiger said the swing changes made with Foley were easier than his previous two swing overhauls made with swing coaches Butch Harmon and Hank Haney. Perhaps the reason for this is that the concepts taught
by Foley mirror Tiger’s form as a young professional. Haney taught Tiger a much more round and upright swing that minimized the hands and emphasized the body whereas Foley is returning to the more aggressive and steeper plane swing that characterized his early
years on tour.
Tiger said he understood that highs and lows that are part of the swing adjustment process because his previous two experiences with Harmon and Haney have taught him the necessary patience.
"I've been through it with Butch, I've been through it with Hank," Woods went on to add,"I've been through it before and it's taken some time, and I understand that. I have no problem with that, as long
as I keep making progress along the way."
Woods admits that he does not "have it all dialed in yet” but finds a silver lining in the way he played in the the singles match of the Ryder Cup.
Capping off the year
Indeed, Tiger’s last event played – The Ryder Cup – saw him go 3-1 on the week and nine-under through 15 holes on the final day singles match to beat Francesco Molinari.
At the Chevron press conference, he commented on his Ryder Cup singles match saying: "Well, I felt like that was coming. I had played well in spurts like that by the time we played an entire round or match
at that level. But I've been hitting shots like that intermittently throughout the matches."
His next event will be the HSBC Championship at Shanghai in early November where he will have a chance to regain his number one world golf ranking which will be taken by Westwood at the end of October
once the ranking points are revised.
His final two events of the year will be the Australian masters, where he is defending champion and his Chevron World Challenge which will be played at Sherwood Country Club in early December.
Despite having a disappointing year both on and off the golf course, Woods remains confident going into his final few tournaments.
“my game is coming around...hopefully, I can get two more Ws before I get to Chevron, and see what happens.”
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