While Tiger Woods is sorting out his private life, it appears that his golf career is getting back to normal. His commitment today to the Players Championship (May 6-9) says two things:
1) Forget the idea that Woods will become a golf recluse, a la Ben Hogan. He is resuming his old, albeit limited, schedule of preferred tour stops, which help him best prepare for majors.
2) Woods is making an effort to become more tournament friendly. In the past, he often waited until the last day possible to make event commitments. Wednesday’s notice to The Players came nine days before the deadline. He also committed early to the Quail Hollow, which begins a week from tomorrow.
At the TPC Sawgrass, Woods will join 2007 champion Phil Mickelson, who committed last week. Woods has not had a lot of success in 12 appearances in The Players. His lone title came in 2001, a year after his runner-up finish to Hal Sutton, best remembered for Sutton talking to his ball in the 18th fairway, “Be the right club today.” When Sutton’s ball landed 8 feet from the cup to clinch the victory, Woods flashed Sutton two thumbs up.
