SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Steve DiMeglio breaks down Tiger Woods' second-round performance at the Hero World Challenge. USA TODAY Sports
SAN DIEGO – Before the thermometer hit 50 and the Tuesday sun had yet to hit the horizon, Tiger Woods rolled into the Torrey Pines parking lot.
It was time to go back to work again.
Woods wasted little time getting to the practice range and then to the South Course for a quick practice round on the back nine with Jason Day and Bryson DeChambeau ahead of Thursday’s start of the Farmers Insurance Open, his first appearance on the PGA Tour in a year.
While he was on familiar ground – he’s won the Farmers Insurance Open a record seven times and captured the 2008 U.S. Open at this seaside golf resort – Woods spent considerable time on and around each of the nine greens to get a feel for the putting surfaces, bunkers and heavy rough.
It was a continuation of the work he’s put in the last three weeks. With his caddie, Joe LaCava, by his side, Woods said he started grinding and amped up his work last week, spending long hours and many days playing and practicing at the Medalist Golf Club near his Florida compound.
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“I’m hitting a lot of golf balls and building up my endurance. You have to do it. You have to beat balls for a little bit of time to build up your endurance and muscles,” Woods said during the round. “I feel like I’ve done that and now it’s time to play a tournament.”
It’s Woods’ first PGA Tour tournament since he missed the cut here last year. The following week he withdrew after the first round in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic with back issues. Ten weeks later he had spinal fusion surgery, his fourth surgical procedure on his back since 2014.
Slowly, he regained his strength and said there are no issues to deal with, that he’s pain free for the first time in years. He looked the picture of health last month in the Bahamas, where Woods tied for ninth among 18 of the game’s best players in the Hero World Challenge.
There were no issues with his back, his ball speed, his powerful swing. On his first day at Torrey Pines in a year, he looked just as healthy and happy.
“Before the Hero I was basically given the OK probably about three or four weeks prior to the tournament and I thought I did pretty good in that prep time,” Woods said. “Now I’ve had a little more time to get ready for this event. I’ve played a lot more golf and overall I feel like I’ve made some nice changes.
“I feel good. It’s just a matter of coming out here and competing again.”
There have been changes since the Hero, however. He has a new driver in the bag – a TaylorMade M3 with its twist face technology – that he’s been working with for a month. And he no longer has a coach. Woods split with Chris Como on Dec. 22 and decided to be his own coach.
“The only big deal about it is that no one really understands what it’s like to have a fused back and be able to play,” Woods said. “It’s not about how the swing actually looks like. You can get into positions and things of that nature and there are a lot of things I can’t do anymore because of the nature of the fusion. So I’m relying on feel and my past performances.”
