The U.S. Open invites Tiger; as it should have

The United States Golf Association offered Tiger Woods an exemption into the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Anyone have a problem with that?  

I don’t.  

And one assumes NBC-TV, which has the contract to televise the tournament, doesn’t either.

Sports are about entertainment as much as they are about competition.  And in the individual games, golf, tennis, it’s the stars, the names, who bring us to the course or the courts, or the TV screen.

Four majors in golf, all of which have been won by Woods, and three, the Masters, PGA Championship and Open Championship, or British Open, give the winner a lifetime invite. You did something special, and you’ll be rewarded in a special way.

Unless it’s America’s national championship, the U.S. Open. Thanks, but in a few years you’ve got to qualify with the other guys, and don’t let the trophy get tarnished.  

Woods is not going to win. Not at age 48, with that beat-up body. He probably won’t make the cut. But as long as he’s able and willing, get him and the other former champions into the field as they do at Augusta or will do at Troon, in Scotland, where the Open is scheduled, or Valhalla, the site of the PGA Championship in May.

Golf is the forever game, with 25-year-olds challenging for the honors achieved by an older generation. Someone we barely know teeing off in the same group with someone already famous. Or about to be. 

No, you didn’t want to turn it into an invitational, but how come the British Open, the oldest event of them all, can find room for its former champions, and except for rare exemptions, such as this — and the U.S. Open can’t?

Woods seemed as excited about getting one more chance to play an Open as anyone.

He’s won three Opens, the last, in 2008 at Torrey Pines, when, with a leg so painful he grimaced on every shot, Woods beat Rocco Mediate, in a playoff that went 19 holes.

“This U.S. Open, our national championship, is a truly special event for our game, one that has helped define my career," Woods said in a statement. "I'm honored to receive this exemption and could not be more excited for the opportunity to compete in this year's U.S. Open, especially at Pinehurst, a venue that means so much to the game.”

Tiger himself did so much for the game. He brought in a different audience, which included various ethnic groups so long unaccepted in the game, and which also helped turn him into an attraction that before his time would have seemed unimaginable.

The U.S.G.A. did right by Tiger Woods and golf. It will be good to see him in The Open no matter how well he does play.

Tiger sets another record — 24 straight Masters cuts

AUGUSTA, Ga. — He was talking like a man who believes he still has a chance because in his mind Tiger Woods always has a chance if he’s still in the tournament.

And Woods who Friday set a record by making the cut in the Masters for the 24th straight time — or every time he’s played as a pro — definitely is in this one.

Look, we know that with only two rounds left and behind players such as Max Homa, 2022 Masters champ Scottie Scheffler — the current No. 1 in the world rankings — and 2020 U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau, Woods isn’t going to win.

But Tiger doesn’t know it, or if he does, he never would admit it.  He’s come from behind so many other times, although, yes, now Woods is 48 and has been hurt so often it’s remarkable he still can walk, much less make birdies. He made enough in what virtually was a round and a half of golf at Augusta National.

Because darkness kept Woods and others from completing Thursday’s first round, Tiger had to play 14 through 18 Friday morning, then after a 50-minute break, tee off in the second round. He did so in a very Tigerish style, responding with an even-par 72 after a one-over 73.  That 145 total may have put him five shots to the rear of Homa’s 138, but Tiger has won the Masters five times.

"I'm tired," Woods said after the second round. "I've been out for a while, competing, grinding. It's been a long 23 holes, a long day. But Lance Bennett (his caddy) and I really did some good fighting today, and we've got a chance."

Which means the telecast (Saturday and Sunday on CBS, after the first two rounds on ESPN) has a chance to attract a massive amount of viewers. Not much else is going on this weekend and Tiger on the tube lures people who normally wouldn't watch.  

There’s golf, and then there’s Tiger. When Woods is involved, so is the public. Especially at a major championship. Especially when that major is the Masters.

“I’ve always loved playing here,” said Woods. “I’ve been able to play here since I was 19-years-old (After winning the U.S. Amateur). It’s one of the honors I don’t take lightly, being able to compete.” 

He’s not alone. As winter ebbs, pro golfers become obsessed with finding a place in the Masters. Tiger, along with the rest who made the cut, has that place. The ride should be very entertaining. Enjoy!

At the Genesis Cantlay, Tiger, and a caddie’s 600 mile round trip by car

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Two kids from southern California, separated by years and a notable degree of success, returning once more to a course and a tournament so much a part of their lives.

Riviera Country Club, where photos of movie stars line the clubhouse walls and a statue of the great Ben Hogan stands alongside the practice green. Day one of the Genesis Invitational, successor to the Los Angeles Open and as almost always the last event of PGA Tour’s West Coast swing. An almost perfect blending of history, memory and possibility, and where else but in the place nicknamed “La-la-La-Land.”

The No. 1 story on opening day, Thursday, was a matter of opinion and perhaps not so much a matter of news judgment as emotional linkage.  

Maybe it was the 7-under par 64 good for first place by Patrick Cantlay, who is from Long Beach and went to UCLA, virtually across famed Sunset Boulevard to Riviera.  

Maybe it was the 1-over-par 72 by 48-year-old Tiger Woods, who was playing competitively for the first time since withdrawing from last April’s Masters with an injury to his right ankle requiring fusion surgery.    

Maybe it was Alex Ritthamel, the caddy following last week’s WM Phoenix Open, drove the 600-mile round trip, LA to Arizona and back, to bring the clubs here. As Tiger, Griffin shot a 1-over 72, on Thursday.

You’ve heard the line from the pros, you can’t win a tournament in the first round, but you can lose it. Numerous golfers made sure this first round they weren’t going to lose it. In addition to Cantlay were most top golfers. Following Cantlay at 65 were Cam Davis, Luke List and Jason Day. At 66 were Jordan Spieth and Will Zalatoris.

“I thought it was a good round,” said Cantlay, who has a reputation for not smiling — California Cool— and making putts practically from everywhere. He has won 8 times, including the FedEx Cup.

“I think I am really comfortable at this place,” said Cantlay, and why not? He played it numerous times while on the UCLA team. And since then as a pro. Cantlay is opposed to rolling back the length of the ball, which the U.S. Golf Association wants to do because of increased yardage and reduced scores.

“I think it would be good for the game to keep it the way it is,” he said. “I think more people are excited about golf than ever, hearing some of the numbers. Hearing some of the numbers that there’s been more rounds played the year before than ever in this country. I think that’s fantastic and I know it is growing worldwide as well. That should be the emphasis.”

The emphasis for Tiger Woods is staying healthy and being able to play month after month. “I love the game,” he said again. 

On Thursday those who love to see Tiger play the game had their first chance in months.

“Definitely nervous,” Woods admitted about the comeback. “I care about how I play and certainly I was feeling the nerves starting out.”

“I got off to a good start birdieing the first and getting right back up on the next two holes and made a couple more birdies. It was one of those days, just never really got anything consistently going and hopefully (Friday) I can clean it up.”

Woods (yes) shanked his approach on 18. That was rare. Overall, so was the entire first round of Genesis.

Tiger back to place he started—and never won

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — He’s back to the place where it all began, back to where Tiger Woods played a Tour tournament for the first time, back to golf with a newly fused ankle and an old hope, to get a victory at Riviera Country Club.

So many rounds of golf, so much success, at St. Andrews and Pebble Beach, at Royal Liverpool and Augusta National. But never at Riviera, tucked in a canyon off the Pacific, where on Thursday the Genesis Invitational returns.

And so does Woods.

“A nice W would be nice, right?” Woods said Wednesday, a redundant aside that was as much a statement as a question. “I haven’t ever won this event. I’ve played in it since ’92.” (when he was a 16-year-old amateur).

And it’s extremely doubtful that at age 48, not competing in anything since the ankle repair last April, other than the father-and-son competition in December, he could win this Genesis.

Still, if there’s something we’ve learned, from the time he was five down to Steve Scott in the final and won the 1996 U.S. Amateur to his triumph in the 2019 Masters, it’s never wise to underestimate

He’s golf. Period. Especially to people only peripherally interested in the activity.

Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and the others fill our screens, and with those amazingly large payoffs, fill their bank accounts, yet they’re merely role players.

This is a true story. Last summer after the British Open, we were in Paris, at the Louvre. A guide asked about my line of work.

“Sportswriter,” I conceded.

“Do you know Tiger Woods? “ she asked.

Everybody knows Tiger Woods, of course. The people who run golf as well as those who play it, also know there’s no one as transcendent.

He’s the franchise and seemingly always will be.

The elements came together, and with the departures from competition of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Watson, Tiger Woods burst onto the scene at the most critical of times. These days, as his career ebbs, Tiger is grateful for being able to walk and swing without pain.

“I'm just happy to see the man not limping as much,” Max Homa said. “It’s pretty amazing what he brings to an event with his presence on the golf course. ... You have less people watching you play golf, but there are more people watching golf.”

Woods, while not giving any hints he will retire — he hasn’t undergone the medical procedures just to sit around — has expanded his horizons.

Woods joined the Tour board and was involved in negotiations that led to Strategic Sports Group becoming a minority investor in a deal worth as much as $3 billion. 

“Ultimately we would like to have the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) be a part of our tour and a part of our product,” Woods said Wednesday at Riviera. “Financially, we don't right now.”

Ultimately, it would be great to see Tiger Woods win at Riviera. To end with a flourish at the place he started.

NFL, NBA — and the return of Tiger Woods

This is what Tiger Woods means to golf: ESPN on Thursday afternoon felt compelled to interrupt its incessant reporting of the Dallas Cowboys to give us news of the Hero World Challenge.

It’s an unofficial PGA Tour tournament. It’s also where Woods is playing competitively for the first time since April. In the opening round he didn’t play particularly well, shooting a three-over-par 75 at the Albany Golf Course in the Bahamas, which was 18th in an elite field of 20.   

Yet what counted were not the strokes but the fact he was making them.  And making the sporting world aware. 

It’s late autumn. The NFL is in full stride. The NBA is holding some marketing device called the In-season tournament. Alabama is about to play Georgia. And golf was getting attention simply because of the one man involved once more.

Individual sports always needed individual stars. There are no home teams. But there are great players who become the lifeblood, overcoming national to get noticed, players such as Jack Nicklaus and Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Tiger Woods.  

It may not be correct to say Tiger is bigger than the game, but he’s invaluable. One minute we’re getting analysis of the Cowboys-Seahawks game, a minute later we’re hearing Tiger analyze his own game. 

It was not a satisfying overview, Woods told us how much he missed the sport. Not only connecting with a ball but also connecting with his contemporaries, sharing wisecracks and laughter, being “out there,” as golfers say.

Finally, Thursday, for the first time since he withdrew from the Masters with that aching foot, there he was if struggling. 

No pro golfer ever could be pleased with a double bogey and two bogeys on 15, 16 and 17, a finish that turned an acceptable round into a lousy one. However, Woods conceded he is not in shape. He played a lot of golf back home in Florida, but it’s hardly the same as golf on the Tour.

He said once more he was rusty.  How long does it take for a golfer his age, who has overcome numerous physical problems, for rust to be scraped and polished away?

“I would be thinking,” he said. “Should I do this or not? By then I’m pulling the trigger. I shouldn’t really pull the trigger. Hit a bad shot. I kept doing it time and again. It was a lack of commitment to what I was doing and feeling. I’ve got to do a better job.”

Tiger’s back; he missed golf, golf missed Tiger

For a great athlete, a sport is more than catching footballs or hitting baseballs. It’s a way of life, one from which he or she is embraced and has no wish to escape.

Tiger Woods reminded us when he spoke Tuesday about returning to golf after weeks away because of surgery on the right ankle that was damaged in that 2022 auto accident.

“I love competing,” said Woods. “I love playing, I miss being out here with the guys. I miss the camaraderie and the fraternity-like atmosphere out here and the overall banter.”

The fun at the office, as it were, the chance to talk and laugh, and no less, as anyone in virtually any line of work, to achieve a sense of self-satisfaction.

“But what drives me,” Woods emphasized,” is that I love to compete. There will come a point in time — I haven’t come around to it fully yet that I won’t be able to win again. When that day comes I’ll walk away.”

Right now he’s walking towards something, perhaps a renaissance. At the least towards the first tee.  

Woods, whose last previous competition was in April when he was forced to withdraw from the Masters because of the ankle, is playing in the fall event he’s long been involved with, now named the Hero World Challenge.

It’s an unofficial tournament, previously played at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks outside Los Angeles, but now is held in the Bahamas. 

Hero, in this case, refers not to Tiger, but to the sponsor of a motorcycle company in India.

If Woods understandably missed golf, then golf, understandably, missed Woods. There have been other fine players since Tiger burst onto the PGA Tour in 1996, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Rory McElroy, and lately Jon Rahm, but none had the magic combined with the game.   

Tiger brought in a new audience and filled grandstands and TV screens. People who didn’t know a divot from a dandelion knew Tiger.

In an earlier time, when baseball dominated our sports scene, Babe Ruth was America’s unique attraction, identifiable by just a first name. If Tiger isn’t another Babe, he is damn close.  

But Woods will be 48 in December, and even with his success, the 15 majors, the 82 total Tour wins, he knows the future can never match the past. The idea now is to be in the hunt and then with a key putt or two again be in the winner’s circle. 

“I’ve been playing a lot,” he said of his practice rounds, “but not with a scorecard and a pencil. My game feels rusty.”

As it should be. You’ve heard this before, but there’s a difference between going out on the course with your pals at the club in Florida and true competition.

“I’m excited to compete and play,” said Tiger. “I’m as curious as all of you are to see what happens. Because I haven’t done this for a while.”

Whatever happens is less important than it happens at all. Welcome back, Mr. Woods.

For U.S., a Cup of Ryder road woes

This was a while ago, and Davis Love III was in the process of returning to his South Carolina home from a tournament when a neighbor offered a greeting and a question.

”He asked me what the Ryder Cup was,” recalled Love, “And how did we lose it.”

The years pass, and if the event, the biennial golf competition between the United States and Europe, can easily be explained with four-ball, foursomes, and singles. The results of many recent matches are less so.

Even to the-called experts. Perhaps most of all to so-called experts.

America has had the best players, right? Other than, previously Seve Ballesteros and currently, say, Jon Rahm. But that’s only two.

So why does Europe keep thumping the Americans? Particularly when America is the visiting team, as it will be when the 44th Cup is held in the suburbs of Rome Friday through Sunday. America has lost the last six matches when passports are a requirement. They — we, if you choose — have been beaten in England, France, Wales, Spain, Scotland and Ireland. If not in that particular order. Of course, they’ve also been drubbed back in the U.S., although they have won the last two in America.

As a yardstick, it is how ineffective various groups of Americans have been. Consider the 2004 matches that were held in Detroit, the U.S. team included Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and was an embarrassment.

What’s wrong with America? Or right with Europe? Theories are as numerous as shots at the practice tee.

We’re told U.S. golfers are too individualistic to care about team play. We’re told the Euros come from more humble backgrounds and that winning the Cup means more to them — and their countries.

For sure they celebrate the success loudly and boisterously, the musical lyrics, “Ole, ole ole,” resounding from their team rooms and from their fans.

It isn’t the 49ers vs. the Cowboys or the Yankees against the Red Sox. It’s them against us — or more specifically against the U.S.

And fans are incorrigible. Yes, the Olympics involve more nations in more sports. But in the Ryder Cup, the fans are pinching in close.

“It’s one-sided,” Fred Couples, a former Ryder Cupper, told Golf Channel. “You can feel them breathing down the back of your necks. They‘re waiting for you to screw up.”

Lanny Wadkins played his college golf at Wake Forest, which despite numerous stars never won a team championship. “I guess we didn’t pass the ball around enough,” he said with more than a bit of sarcasm.

In the Ryder Cup, what the American team needs to pass is the test. It has to start quickly — the first-day leader is the inevitable champion — and start well.   

And finally, stop losing a Ryder Cup match in Europe.

Masters: Tales of Koepka and Tiger

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Part of the deal. Brooks Koepka said it. He understands you can’t do a thing about the weather, major golf championship or not. He also understands how to play the game, whatever the conditions.

As indicated by his place on the scoreboard, which is better than anyone else’s through a Masters which was supposed to be over, but like one those old European films that just keeps going and going.

Then again it is over. Probably. Technically. Koepka is running away with the thing — sorry, sloshing away. It’s been wet — “Super difficult,” said Koepka. “Ball’s not going anywhere.”

However, Koepka, who’s already won two U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship, almost certainly is going on to a victory and the green jacket presented to Masters winners.

When on this cold (55 degrees) soggy Saturday play was suspended yet again, Koepka had a four-shot lead over Jon Rahm and 30 holes remaining. Yes, there’s a lot of golf left but the other guys are the ones struggling, not Koepka, who like most who win the Masters, turns the par-fives into fours and never blinks.

The only real question when Friday’s worrisome second round, the one halted because of falling trees and fleeing spectators, resumed Saturday morning was whether Tiger Woods would retain his impressive record of never missing a Masters cut. He would.

Woods has now expanded his streak to 23 in a row. From 1997, the year he won the first of his five Masters, and shares the mark with Gary Player (1959-1982) and Fred Couples (1983-2007). 

"I've always loved this golf course, and I love playing this event," Woods said Saturday. "Obviously I've missed a couple with some injuries, but I've always wanted to be here. I've loved it.”

He’d love to win again and tie Jack Nicklaus’ total of six championships, but his body is against him after that 2021 car accident, and so is time. Woods is 47,  which is 15 years older than Koepka, who, having recovered from his own injuries, a knee requiring surgery, appears as strong and no less eager than a couple years back.

“I’m not too concerned with playing 30 holes,” Koepka said of his Sunday round, which after the storms is supposed to be held in acceptable weather.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be up for it, considering it is the Masters.”

If he isn’t there’s something very wrong.

Masters: Old names, new games

AUGUSTA, Ga. — They’re knee-deep in nostalgia at the Masters. The opening shots of round one Thursday were struck by guys in their 70s and 80s, former champions Gary Player, 87, Jack Nicklaus, 83, and Tom Watson, 73, who once shot in the 60’s.

Then after waking up the echoes, providing a few moments to recall how it was, the year’s first major steps back quickly to the way it is. To a new generation, to names like Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm, and straight from his self-chosen disappearance on the LIV Tour, Brooks Koepka. Big hitters, boomers, and big names. That’s usually been the case at the Masters, where the grass, with an exception, is short and the tee shots long, where you can score low.      

It was the late Tony Lema, who said in so many words, the U.S. Open, where the fairways are narrow and the hazards severe, is hard work, a struggle, but the Masters is a pleasurable bit of recreation, entirely almost predictable, and fully enjoyable.   

In golf and tennis, the fans want success for the favorites and at the Masters that’s what they get, Nicklaus won six times, Tiger Woods five, and Arnold Palmer four. 

Eighteen holes into the 2023 Masters, Hovland, Rahm and Koepka are tied at 67, five-under par. Koepka has won three majors but none since he took the money and fled to the Saudi-finance LIV Tour — LIV in Roman numerals is 40, the number of holes for that tour’s tournaments.    

Rahm has won a U.S. Open and for most of this season was No. 1 in world rankings. Hovland, the Swede, seemingly always is in the contest. Not an anonymous soul in the group, normal for a Masters. The event brings out the best of the best.  

No, Woods, tied for 54th or something like that after a two-over 74, isn’t up there, but, hey Tiger is 47 and dare we remind you again, only two years away from that car accident which, if it didn’t take his life, took away much of the strength in his legs. 

Of the three tied for the leader, Koepka may be the most surprising, to us, not to himself. He did it with back-to-back U.S.Opens and a PGA, but other than being mentioned as a footnote in the war between the PGA and LIV tours there’s hardly been a word about his play. There was, however, television coverage of his lifestyle in the Netflix series Full Swing.    

Koepka, whose swing is very full, was told in one episode of the show that his game appeared to be far away from a great Masters round.    

“Anytime with something like that,” Koepka insisted. “You don’t see everything right, a lot of it was injury-based. They (the doctors) told me after (knee) surgery it was going to be pretty much a year and a half; I mean getting out of bed takes 15 minutes.”

Then, asked if the LIV issue puts more pressure on him in the Masters than when he’d been on the PGA Tour Koepka said, “I don’t really think about things like that. It’s just a major.”  

Hard to imagine Jack or Tiger saying that.

Tiger, Genesis both winners

PACIFIC PALISADES — Those guys high on the leaderboard three rounds into this very-much-in-doubt Genesis Invitational are some of golf’s current big guns. Jon Rham, Max Homa, and Keith Mitchell.

That guy who made the run on Saturday nobody expected — except him — is arguably the biggest, the top gun if you will, Tiger Woods.

He’s not going to win, not going to gain 12 shots on Rahm, who shot 65 for a 15-under total of 198, or Homa, who had a 69 for 201.

But in a way, Woods already is a winner — and so is the Genesis, which surprisingly, will have the unmatched attraction of Tiger for four rounds.

In virtually his hometown, or at least  40 miles away from his hometown in Orange County.

On a course where in 1992 he played for the first time in a PGA Tour tournament, famed Riviera — Hogan’s Alley — where despite all his success, Woods never has been a champion. 

Surprisingly, because after a 74 Friday that pushed Tiger to the edge of the cut line and had everyone concerned with Woods throwing a Tampon at playing partner Justin Thomas, Tiger on Saturday shot 67 — his lowest since the car accident two years ago.

“The golf has been nice,” Woods’ caddy Joe LaCava, told Barstool’s Dan Rapoport. “But the fact that he’s been holding up, looking healthy, and not tiring at the end of rounds is a good sign.”

That he’s not retiring at the end of the round if it’s a good normal round. Woods was on two as are most Tour pros. He was in the hole-in-one, an eagle, as are some of the pros. The roar rolled down to the coast a half-mile away.

“Yeah, today was better,” said Tiger.

His smile was worth more than words. 

“I felt like I made some nice adjustments with my putting and that was the thing that held me back yesterday. I’ve driven it well the last three days, my iron play has been good. And the firm conditions I like, that's kind of right up my alley with iron play.’’

Homa the Cal grad, as Tiger was a kid from Southern California, Valencia. He said he took up golf as a youngster after watching Woods on TV at the 1997 Masters.

That’s an explanation often heard from many of the Tour’s new stars. Now they’ve moved into territory once claimed by Woods.

That’s the way it’s always been in all sports. New people move in as older stars slip away. Not that Tiger Woods, 47, is ready to take his leave.     

“I was saying earlier, I can hit golf balls,” said Tiger. “Thinking about the future, I can chip and putt back home and I can do all that stuff. It’s taken a bit of time.”

Golf is a sport without a clock. You play until you are not able. Tiger showed he still is able.

A joke turns bad for Tiger and Thomas

PACIFIC PALISADES — So what was supposed to be a joke between a couple of guys named Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas drew more grimaces than laughter.

Then what was supposed to be an affirming round for Tiger — and the Genesis Invitational — turned into a string of missed putts if not a missed cut.

If you thought golf was unpredictable, how about humor?

We’re halfway through the Genesis, the last event before the PGA Tour leaves the West Coast, and the leaderboard has names such as Keith Mitchell, Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy, and Jon Rahm up high.

One of the names down low is Tiger’s, who in his first tournament since the British Open last July, seemingly will play all four rounds — the cut not being made until Saturday morning because Friday’s second round was unfinished.

That Woods, now 47 and still rehabbing after that serious car crash two years ago, almost certainly will be around a larger and more boisterous group of spectators. You should have heard the crowd Friday as Woods, finishing on nine at Riviera Country Club, bogeyed the final two holes.

The gasps were inescapable. As was the response to the frat-boy shenanigans Thursday involving Tiger and Justin Thomas. Maybe Tiger had been out of touch for so long that he forgot how much attention someone as famous as he generates over nothing. Or in this case, something.

Tiger and Thomas wondered among themselves whether Woods, away from golf, had lost his power. When his tee shot carried beyond Thomas; Tiger pulled out a Tampon and handed it to Thomas. 

As if you hit like a girl. As if girls, or women, can’t power the ball, which is nonsense. As members of the LPGA prove. 

Thomas, even more than Tiger, should be aware of how the smallest incident, intended or not, can become uncontrollable. Two years ago after a bad tee shot, Thomas berated himself with a phrase that was picked up by a TV microphone. He subsequently was dropped by two endorsing firms.    

Before he started his round Friday, Woods apologized.

“Yeah, it was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn't turned out that way,” he conceded. “If I offended anybody, it was not the case, it was just friends having fun. As I said, if I offended anybody in any way, shape or form, I'm sorry. It was not intended to be that way. It was just we play pranks on one another all the time and virally I think this did not come across that way, but between us it was — it's different.”

Different, also an appropriate word for his round, 2-under 69 on Thursday, a 3-over 74 on Friday.  

“I did not putt well today,” said Woods.

You might say his round was no laughing matter.

Big odds against Tiger who had a big day

PACIFIC PALISADES — So the odds on Tiger Woods just making the cut at the Genesis Invitational, 10-1, are the same as Scottie Scheffler winning the whole thing.

Why not? It used to be that golfers only gambled on themselves, making sure they got strokes from those willing to give them in friendly games. 

Now as with every other sport, golf is awash in betting.

And as you are aware the oddsmakers merely are trying to establish an even floor. They’re not rooting against Tiger. Or for him. They’re rooting for everyone else to offer their hard-earned cash for the chance to win. 

If you can’t drive or putt — or bring a wedge shot down a couple of feet from the pin, like Thursday’s unsurprising first-round leaders Max Homa, Keith Mitchell or Jon Rahm, then betting on them gets you into the game.

Golf historically is a sport of gambling. When the purses were small back in the late 1930s and early 1940s, a pro could earn more by winning a bet than by winning a tournament.

And even now, when they can get rich by getting a victory, pros bet during practice rounds. So as they say, there’s something at stake.    

What’s at stake in this Genesis is a $20 million total payoff with $3.6 million to the guy who ends up in first Sunday afternoon.

After 18 holes at Riviera Country Club on a cool, overcast Thursday — hey, it’s winter even in Southern California — Homa and Mitchell were tied for first with a 7-under par 64 and Rahm was a shot behind at 65. Yes. Those names have been noticeable in the last few tournaments.  

Homa, the Cal grad who was a winner at Riviera in the past, was just outside the top 10 at Pebble Beach two weeks ago. Mitchell was tied for fourth there. Rahm made a run at Phoenix, where Scheffler won for a second straight year.

Earlier this week in a pre-tournament media session someone asked Homa who he would pick between Rahm and Rory McIlroy. Maybe someone should have asked McIlroy, who opened with a 4-under 67, who he would choose between Rahm and Homa.

On any given day, no matter the odds, the average fan would choose Tiger. And in his first Tour event since missing the cut in the British Open last July, Woods had a 2-under 69. Scheffler had a 1-under 70, and you wonder what that does to the Tiger vs Scheffler bettors. If it does anything. 

The crowd was Tiger-crazy, seemingly as thrilled to have him back as he was thrilled to be back.

 “It was a lot louder than I had remembered-- I haven't played in any tournament in a long time,” said Woods, repeating himself. “I was trying to calm my nerves. I didn't really look up as much. I probably should have, but I didn't. I was trying to calm myself down all day, trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing out here because I haven't played. I had to try and figure out what the chess match is going to be.”

As opposed to what the odds are.

Tiger talks about winning and LeBron

PACIFIC PALISADES — He said he is grateful to be here, surrounded by memories, facing possibilities a sporting hero recalling his own heroes and reminding us that his only reason in playing the game is to win.

That so many of us doubt it’s still possible doesn’t deter Tiger Woods. It’s the way he was raised. It’s the way he always will believe.

The way so many people, especially those captivated by his fist-pumping success at the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st, believe nobody else in the sport is quite his equal.

Or draws the same attention.

Woods, beginning Thursday will be in the Genesis Open, at Riviera Country Club, where in 1992, an amateur, he first was accepted to play at PGA Tour events.

He was 16, loaded with talent. He would be awed by the number of unstriped balls available on the practice range. We were awed by potential to be realized in 82 Tour wins, record stretches as world No. 1 and in becoming along with Ben Hogan the only man to win three majors in a calendar year.

You are familiar with the subsequent details, the headline grabbing affairs, the back surgery and most significantly the accident two years ago when the car Woods was driving probably too fast, overturned on a hillside road maybe 15 miles from Riviera.

An LA County Sheriff said Tiger was lucky to be alive. A severed foot was reattached. Months of rehab — still ongoing — have enabled him to play. Walking is difficult, however, and to play in a tournament, a golfer must walk.

Still, at age 47, while being asked about LeBron James and Tom Brady, one man who at 37 remains a force in the NBA having just overtaken Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time points leader, the other at 45 hanging up the cleats after hanging up the all-time mark of quarterbacking seven Super Bowl victories.

They kept going. Tiger keeps going.

“As far as the LeBron record,” said Woods, “what he accomplished is absolutely incredible of just the durability, the consistency and the longevity.

“I never thought — I grew up watching Kareem here, never saw him play in Milwaukee, but he was the Cat, that's all I remember, the Showtime Lakers and watching Cat run down there with goggles and hit the sky hook That record we never thought it would be surpassed. But what LeBron is doing — but also the amount of minutes he's playing, no one's ever done that at that age, to be able to play all five positions, that's never been done before at this level for this long. As far as our equivalent to that, I don't know, maybe you look at maybe me and Sam (Snead) at 82? It takes a career to get to those numbers. That's how I think probably best how you look at it.”

To look at Tiger Woods, one must put aside any thoughts of being a ceremonial golfer, content to be in the field when he’s no longer in contention.

“I have not come around to the idea of being — if I'm playing, I play to win. I know that players have played and they are ambassadors of the game and try to grow the game. I can't wrap my mind around that as a competitor. If I'm playing in the event I'm going to try and beat you. I'm there to get a W, OK?

OK. Who are we to disagree with Tiger Woods?

These shots from Tiger are vocal

Interesting what’s happened to golf. It used to be known as the gentleman’s game, one in which you may have missed a critical putt but rarely missed a chance for an appreciative handshake. Now? Certain people are at such odds it’s remarkable they aren’t at each other’s throats.

There’s a tournament this weekend in the Bahamas, the Hero World Challenge, a limited-field event that might not mean much except for Tiger Woods. He has plantar fasciitis and withdrew because he can’t walk. However, he can talk, particularly about Greg Norman.

Norman once was known as the most sympathetic figure in golf. He blew a six-shot lead, lost the 1996 Masters to Nick Faldo and responded like — well, he did win many other tournaments including two British Opens, so champ would be a fine word.

For the PGA Tour, the best word might be pest. As you know, Norman, with Saudi Arabian money, is involved with the rival LIV Tour, which with shorter (54-hole) events and higher payments is stealing players from the PGA Tour. The hope is to force the PGA Tour to accept the LIV, creating one very wealthy if unhappy family

Apparently for this to take place, Norman will have to take off.

“Greg’s got to leave,” said Tiger when asked at the media conference about the possibility of a merger — which was what the Saudis, in the process of trying to upgrade their image through “sport washing,” want anyway.

In other words, Norman will be forced to make the ultimate links-connected sacrifice, his dream buried in a shallow bunker — but, this being golf, not without a large-sized financial gain.

“Right now,” said Tiger, “is not right, not with their leadership, not with Greg there and his animosity toward the Tour itself.

“As Rory (McIlroy) said and I said as well, Greg’s got to leave and then we can — eventually, hopefully — have a stay between the two lawsuits (one by each side) and figure out something. But why would you change anything if you have a lawsuit against you? They sued us first.”

Did someone out there add “Nah, nah”?

What Pat Perez added two weeks ago after Woods previously knocked the LIV was, “That’s the stupidest spit I’ve ever heard in my life.” Only he didn’t say spit. The question is, whether with 54-hole events and guaranteed money, golfers still would have incentive.

Perez, who played the PGA Tour for more than 20 years, is 46 — a few months younger than Woods, who will be 47 at the end of December. He grew up in San Diego and faced Tiger in junior tournaments. There’s respect but no idolizing.

Claude Harmon III is Perez’s swing coach (and son of Butch Harmon, who used to be Tiger’s coach). Harmon III pointed out that Woods still had “incentive” to compete despite getting money up front.

“He’s made so much money off the course, he found incentive to go,” Perez added. “But again, he only played how many tournaments? He didn’t go — I never saw him at John Deere, never saw him supporting all these events.

“He played in the majors, he played in the WGCs and that was it. But he’s worth every dime. In fact, like I said, he’s two billion short of where he should be, I think.”

Fore!

Seeking sports’ new hero we can all look up to

That was an interesting quote from Rory McIlroy about his rival, his idol and, as you interpret it, of sports as a whole. “He is the hero we all looked up to,” McIlroy said about, who else, Tiger Woods.

The players know. The fans know. The folks in management, the people who run the events, who own the teams, who make the deals, certainly know.

Did some observer really tell us that sports were the opera of the poor, long before the time when if you couldn’t afford a night at the Met you most likely could afford a day with the Mets?

Now, from arias to home runs, everything is high-priced. Including the salaries or, in the case of DeShaun Watson, the fine he must pay, $5 million, just to get back on the field after accusations of sexual misconduct. Sex sells.

The numbers make us crazy. And also help make our games what they’ve become, a fascinating blend of star power and high finance.

Maybe when President Biden is talking billions, we don’t even shrug if ballplayers or quarterbacks are talking millions.

ESPN knows. So do the other networks. Who do we want to see? Or, according to the ratings, who do the networks, the producers, the directors, believe who we ought to see?

Sometimes it seemed the only female tennis player was Serena Williams, the only pro golfer Tiger Woods, the only quarterback Tom Brady. Enough already. Or was it not enough?

The Lakers just re-signed LeBron James for two more years, and for $97 million. Bill Plaschke, the fine L.A. Times sports columnist, thought it was a bad deal. The Lakers were mediocre (or worse) with James last season, so why bring him back?

Because he is basketball in Los Angeles, the second biggest TV market in the land. It doesn’t so much matter what the Lakers accomplish, but what James can accomplish. The so-called ultimate team game is dominated by individuals. As are all our games.

You know the famous Michael Jordan response when he was told there is no “I” in team. “But,” he pointed out so accurately, “there is in win.”

Golf has been beholden to Tiger for a quarter-century. People who didn’t care much for golf still cared about Tiger. Or Serena in tennis. Or Brady in the NFL. Or Ronaldo in soccer. Or Justin Verlander in baseball.

Night and day, our games are on, mornings from the Premier League, evenings from some ballpark or tennis complex. Who’s going to bring us in? Who’s going to keep us there?

That’s a question pro golf faces essentially with the rebel LIV Tour challenging the established PGA Tour.

Go after the big names, pay them big bucks — though to Tiger’s credit, he turned down something like $700 million from the Saudi LIV group. The hope to create the excitement that will resonate when new TV contracts are decided.

Woods is very much a part of the action, as he should be. “His voice carries further than anyone else’s in the game of golf,” said McIlroy, who has a significant voice of his own, about Tiger.

The hero golf looked up to is in the process of stepping away. Yet, who knows what’s around the next field or diamond, or court or fairway.

Some 50 years ago, in what turned out to be his last column, the great Red Smith closed, “I told myself not to worry. Someday there will be another Joe DiMaggio.”

There hasn’t been, but there’s been a Hank Aaron. And a Roger Federer, a Michael Jordan, a Tiger Woods, a John Elway, a Joe Montana and so many others.

We await the greatness that was. The hero we can all look up to.

Not a good ending for Tiger

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — This is the way it too often ends, not with a bang or a whimper but a farewell that couldn’t come too soon.

Tiger Woods entered this landmark British Open with the belief — or was it merely the hope? — that a return to the Old Course, where he had won the Open, where he emphatically reminded us of his greatness, would be a step back in time.

But others own pro golf now, and surely this will be Woods’ final Open, except perhaps in a ceremonial role. It is not quite a passing of the torch — no one out there can carry the flame and the game as Woods did — but a sad concession to reality.

The thinking was that a flat links land course, where the ball rolls and rolls, would give a 46-year-old a chance against the 26-year-olds. But Tiger began with a double-bogey on the first hole after hitting into the burn that fronts the green and finished with a 6-over 78.

Woods was unable to take advantage of the favorable conditions, overcast and almost no wind. The tone was set right away on that first hole, leading to the first of five bogeys.

He finally made his only birdie of the day at the par-5 14th, but he'll go to the second round a daunting 11 shots behind the clubhouse leader, Dustin Johnson.

In other words, Woods' main priority on Friday will be making the cut. That's a far cry from his previous performances at St. Andrews, where he won the claret jug in 2000 and 2005.

Woods walked off the course tied for 133rd, having bested only two other players to complete their rounds. He was tied with 65-year-old Tom Watson, who had a 76 in his final British Open. It is a trifle ironic that Rory  McIlroy, who is supposed to be the next Tiger, shot a 4-under 66, 12 shots lower than Woods.

"Guys have been shooting good numbers," Woods said. "Unfortunately, I did not do that." Instead, he was headed for a missed cut for the third time in his last four majors.

At least after his ultimate putt, Woods displayed class and respect, doffing his white hat with the familiar TW logo to the fans who stayed the course, after 9 p.m.

The celebrated start Thursday of the 150th British Open gave way to Cameron Young making his debut with an 8-under 64 for a two-shot lead over McIlroy, and Tiger Woods making what could be his last competitive appearance at St. Andrews a short one.

His score would indicate as much. Woods ended his round by taking three putts through the Valley of Sin for a par and a 78, his second-worst score in his Open career.

Woods will try to avoid leaving early from St. Andrews for the second straight time.

The Old Course gets Tiger talking

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — This was a golfer of our time embracing the game and the course for all time, a man aware of his past and, as all of us, uncertain of the future. But for once seemingly delighted to tell us what he feels.

Tiger Woods and the Old Course, so much history and a perhaps a wee bit of mystery, coming together for the 150th Open Championship.

It was as if Babe Ruth had emerged for a World Series game at Yankee Stadium, a man of the past unworried about the future, regaling us with nostalgia of the good times and the great rounds.

You know he’s ready for the Open, which he won twice here — and even at age 46, and after the injuries from the car crash, has an outside chance to win again.

We didn’t know he was so willing to be part of golf’s past, an aging player who grew up idolizing the names and locations that make golf the beautiful and compelling activity it has become.

“This is where it all began for me as an amateur,” said Woods. “My first chance to play in The Open Championship was here. I'll never forget I played with Ernie Els and Peter Jacobsen the first two days. We had a chance to play with some greats in practice rounds — Freddie Couples, Raymond Floyd, Ollie, (Jose Maria Olazabal), Bernhard Langer.

“I had a great time as a young little kid, and they showed me the ropes of how to play this golf course and how many different options there were. It was eye-opening how this golf course can play as easily as it can be played and also as difficult it can play just by the wind changing.”

Maybe no Scot ever said “Nay wind, nay rain, nay golf,” but those challenges of nature are so much a part of the game along the restless North Sea, the weather cannot be ignored.

Nor can that final walk on the bridge that spans Swilcan Burn on the Old Course’s final fairway.

Every great has stopped there to pose for a minute or so before finishing what he knew would be his last round at St. Andrews. For Tiger, it’s only speculation. He could return. He probably won’t.

“I have a photo in my office when I first played my first practice round, me sitting there, and it means a lot,” he said. “I mean, the history and the people that have walked over that bridge.

“(Monday) to have Lee (Trevino) and Rory (McIlroy) and Jack (Nicklaus) and just stand there with them, that's history right there. The telecast would come on at 5 a.m. on the West Coast to get a chance to watch them play and to see them hit the shots, and listen to Lee Buck talking about the small ball playing over here and what he used to do with it. These are things that makes it so special.”

Woods was asked about the LIV tour, and he dismissed the idea. He remains loyal to the PGA tour, which has enabled him to become a billionaire.

Having shown his appreciation for golf’s history, Tiger was asked if he knew that the new kids, now in their 20s and 30s, would now be as enthusiastic as they went along.

“In what way?” Woods wondered. “I'm trying to understand. The fact that you love the history of the game, and the modern kid probably couldn't tell you the first thing about who won what before Tiger Woods. Well, I think it's different. I guess nowadays you can just look it up on your phone. And you don't have to go to the library and try and figure out who won what. The world has changed dramatically. The history of the game is certainly something that I've taken to the challenge.”

There is not much to challenge when it comes to Tiger Woods.

After PGA, Thomas elated, Tiger sore

On a Sunday to remember, a young man who had referred to himself as an underachiever came from seven shots behind to win a major golf tournament.

His golfing future seems secure.

On a Saturday to forget, a not-so-young man who often had expressed confidence in himself was hurting physically and mentally and withdrew from this one.

His golfing future seemed questionable.

Justin Thomas at last accomplished what he had set out to do, and in such a momentous way, meeting expectations and becoming one of the game’s elite with a victory in the 104th PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa.

That was some 24 hours after the player recognized as the finest of the era, Tiger Woods, proved all too human in attempting to repeat his surprising post-accident success of the Masters.

Aching and frustrated, Woods shot a 9-over 79 Saturday, subsequently dropping out of a major as a pro for the first time in his career.

“Well, I’m sore,” he said in explanation. Which might have been predictable. Not that very much is with Woods from this moment.

Tiger always told us he never entered an event unless he thought he could win — and of course he did win so frequently, 82 times, including the 15 majors.

One of those was the PGA at Southern Hills back in 2007, when Woods was healthy enough and younger. Now he is 46 and, after the March 2021 car accident that nearly cost him his right leg, is in need of continuing treatment.

Not many believed Woods would play the Masters in April. He not only played, he made the cut. A couple days after the first round, even he was unsure about making the PGA.

Again he made the cut in a major, but his game became a problem after his body became a problem.

After his 4-over 74 on day one, there was a brief return to the Tiger of the past, a 1-under 59. Then the weather turned nasty.

In the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma, the wind “comes sweeping down the plain.” In the PGA, it swept over fairways and greens, chilling and challenging.

Woods wasn’t the only one affected — Thomas shot 74 Saturday, and 67 in each the other three rounds in regulation — but Woods was the only one who had been undergoing daily therapy.

All of a sudden, that romp (plod?) to a win in the 100-degree heat of the 2007 PGA (the tournament was held in August that year) was impossibly distant.

He alluded to himself Friday after the round as “Humpty Dumpty,” his team of doctors and therapists rebuilding him each night. Yet ever the strong-willed individual, he refused to blame his play Saturday on finishing late Friday and having no time to recover.

“It’s not bad,” he had insisted. “I just didn’t play well. I didn’t hit the ball very well and didn’t get off to the start I needed. I thought I hit a good tee shot down 2 and ended up in the water and never got any momentum. I didn’t hit many good shots and consequently ended up with a pretty high score.”

His playing partner, Shaun Norris of South Africa, said of Tiger, “You feel so so sorry for him having to go through this. He’s swinging nicely. I think he’ll be back.”

Maybe not for the U.S. Open in June at The Country Club outside Boston but probably for the British Open at St. Andrews in July.

Thomas will be at every major. He’s a two-time PGA champ. Maybe not Tiger Woods, but not bad for a former underachiever.

Daly and Tiger: At PGA, the past was present

TULSA, Okla. — One of the best things about golf is you never get old. We’re speaking virtually, of course. Life is all about playing hide-and-seek with Father Time.

But in what other sport does a 50-year-old like Phil Mickelson win one of the big events, or a 46-year-old like Tiger Woods make a comeback?

Some of the people we used to watch, we’re still watching. Such as John Daly, who because he once won the event and is a lifetime invitee not only is in this 104th PGA Championship but, for a few minutes in Thursday’s opening round, was in the lead.

That’s because he was in the opening threesome and, like those “grip it and rip it” days of yore, birdied the first and fifth holes.

You knew it wasn’t going to last, and it didn’t. In a stretch of three holes, he tumbled from seventh to 51st, eventually sinking into the 70s after a 2-over-par 72.

That was two strokes better than Woods, who after his impressive return from the near-fatal car accident to make the cut in last month’s Masters couldn’t regain that bit of magic.

At least Tiger, who deserves the listing professional as well as a major champion, was willing to explain what went wrong: the irons were off target.

At the end of his round, the 56-year-old Daly waved off would-be interviewers and silently slipped away.

Which doesn’t make sense when you’re trying to peddle various endorsed products, if not necessarily yourself.

Golf, as in most every sporting activity from checkers to jump rope, has chosen to associate with some sort of gambling operation. According to a story in USA Today, somebody made a bet on Daly that would pay off $100,000 if John looked great with 17 holes to go.

How John looks physically is another issue. After starting cancer treatments, he stopped shaving or visiting a bar. His flowing all-white beard and locks make him seem like a character in an old western movie, rather than a two-time major champion.

Seeing Daly playing the game brought him to our attention. He only got into the 1991 PGA when someone dropped out, the final qualifier — and he won.

The victory transcended golf. He was on TV. He was at major league stadiums hitting tee shots into the great unknown.

And then Daly’s life, a mixture of booze, bogeys and domestic battles, came apart. Then conveniently, perhaps both for golf and for Daly, along came Tiger.

That Woods and Daly after their quite different setbacks were able to play at Southern Hills is, even ignoring the wager and other incidentals, a show of persistence. They both have endured pain, if of different types.

For Tiger there’s the ongoing, if impossible, attempt to duplicate the brilliance to which we had grown accustomed.

“I did not hit a lot of good iron shots,” Woods said of his Thursday round. “I drove it well, but my iron shots were not very good. I didn't get the ball very close. I got off to a great start and didn't keep it going. I really didn't give myself any looks for birdie.

“I was struggling trying to get the ball on the green, and I missed quite a few iron shots both ways. It was a frustrating day.”

Asked about his condition, Woods said, “Yeah, my leg is not feeling as good as I would like it to be. We'll start the recovery process and get after (Friday).”

Thanks, Tiger. Wish John was just as communicative.

Golf, politics and money: a PGA without Phil

TULSA, Okla. — How the 104th PGA Championship got here is a tale of golf, politics and money. And why Phil Mickelson, who a year ago became the oldest man to win the tournament — and thus the oldest to win a major — isn’t here. Yes, a tale of golf, politics and money.

This PGA was going to be played in New Jersey, considerably east of Oklahoma. On a course owned by a man named Donald Trump, who at the time was president of the United States of America.

But then came the election, and Trump’s refusal to adhere to the law, which he had pledged to uphold. And when Trump not only did nothing to quell the Capitol — whatever, uprising, riot, insurrection — but actually encouraged it, the good people of the PGA made the move to Southern Hills.

Whether Mickelson is making any moves — he hasn’t played competitively since March — remains a mystery. The PGA wanted him here. After all, how many times do you have a 51-year-old defending champion? (Answer: never.) But Phil didn’t come out of his hiding place, if that be the proper term.

We’ll know more about Mickelson when a book by Alan Shipnuck comes out in a matter of days. Already we found out from Shipnuck’s teasing emails that Mickelson lost so much money gambling, in excess of $40 million, he was forced to join forces with rich Saudi oil sheiks, whom he refers to as murderers and mother-bleepers, to bail him out.

Shipnuck has brought in Michael Bamberger, a former colleague at Sports Illustrated, as part of a writing project called “Fire Pit Collective,” and Bamberger did much of the research on Trump’s course in Bedminster, N.J.

Jack Nicklaus, who built courses for Trump and many others, and not incidentally won 18 majors, called the decision to take the PGA away from Trump ”cancel culture,” yet the PGA was thinking of it not so much of a cancellation as adaptive. It wanted a sporting event, not chaos.

In the periphery is Greg Norman, who, because all of golf is one unhappy family, joined the Saudis (and their finances) to support his own interests against the PGA Tour. Norman was no minimal figure in Mickelson’s dealings, Phil wedging his own struggle against the Tour.

When he appeared for a media interview on Monday, Tiger Woods, not surprisingly, was asked about Mickelson’s situation.

“It's always disappointing when the defending champion is not here,” said Woods. “Phil has said some things that I think a lot of us who are committed to the Tour, and committed to the legacy of the Tour, have pushed back against, and he's taken some personal time, and we all understand that.

“But I think that some of his views on how the tour could be run, should be run, has been a lot of disagreement there. But as we all know, as a professional, we miss him being out here.”

And then we swing back to money, because the word professional is in the label; the better the entry list, the better the TV ratings and eventually the better the payoffs. 

“I mean, he's a big draw for the game of golf,” said Woods. ”He's just taking his time, and we all wish him the best when he comes back. Obviously we're going to have a difference of opinions, how he sees the Tour, and we'll go from there.”

It’s hard to say where golf is going, but we know where it went, from a course owned by a former U.S. president to one in Oklahoma, hoping to escape as much controversy as possible.

Fore!