Tiger Woods walked the PNC Championship voluntarily.
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Photographs
Their fifth strive on the PNC Championship was the closest Tiger and Charlie Woods have come to taking the Willie Park Trophy belts, however probably the most encouraging factor the elder Woods did this week had nothing to do with the 27 birdies and one eagle Crew Woods carded.
Ever since Tiger made his first PNC Championship look after his February 2021 automobile crash, he’s taken benefit of the match’s standing as a PGA Tour Champions occasion and brought a cart to get across the golf course.
All through his comeback, Woods has been adamant that his recreation and swing should not what holds him again in 72-hole occasions, however quite simply merely strolling 18 holes in a day.
Within the lead-up to this week, although, Woods eschewed a cart throughout his Friday pro-am spherical, which proved to be a harbinger of issues to come back.
Woods walked 37 holes within the competitors as nicely. That’s not essentially a stunning accomplishment as Woods has walked 36 holes or extra now 5 occasions this season — and nobody is evaluating a flat Ritz-Carlton Golf Membership to Augusta Nationwide — however that is the primary time he has hoofed it voluntarily on the PNC. When he tees it up in a significant championship or on the Genesis Invitational, Woods doesn’t have the choice to take a cart, nor would he wish to.
Woods was requested in 2021, when he made his first post-accident look on the PNC, if he would ever apply to make use of a cart on the Tour below the People with Disabilities Act.
Crew Bernhard Langer beats Crew Tiger Woods for sixth PNC Championship title
“Completely not,” he mentioned. “Not for a PGA Tour occasion, no. That’s simply not who I’m. That’s not how I’ve all the time been, and if I can’t play at that degree, I can’t play at that degree.”
But it surely’s a perk he did benefit from that week in Orlando and in his subsequent PNC begins, earlier than selecting to tempo the fairways this week.
It didn’t appear to harm his recreation, both, as he and Charlie, he mentioned, “ham-and-egged it” within the scramble format to a match record-tying 28 below for 36 holes. Whereas Charlie’s ace Sunday was by far the most effective shot the group hit all week, Tiger had loads of his signature elite iron play to indicate off, like his escape from the bushes on the opening gap Sunday.
Woods even dazzled with a dramatic driver-off-the-deck play on the par-5 14th that clocked 173 mph ball velocity and held the inexperienced, giving the group an eagle look.
After he and Charlie ultimately fell to Bernhard and Jason Langer in a playoff, Tiger once more downplayed his recreation.
“I’m nowhere close to aggressive form,” Woods instructed Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis. “I’m an important scramble companion. We made an important group this week and that’s the entire pleasure of it.”
Woods has almost two months earlier than the Genesis Invitational (historically his first look of the season) and solely time will inform whether or not his recreation shall be prepared. But it surely appears he would possibly at the very least be up for the stroll.
