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After five months away from tournament golf, Tiger Woods was ready to play again.
He wasn’t quite ready, however, for everything crusty Muirfield Village threw at him across four hot days at the Memorial Tournament, where he finished at 6-over-par 294, shooting a pair of 71s and a pair of 76s.
“It was nice to get my feet wet and compete and play again,” Woods said. “Tough, tough conditions to start out my first week back, Thursday and Sunday. But it was good to get the feel and the flow of competing again.”
Woods dealt with two primary issues at Muirfield Village:
He fought a tight back on Friday and needed to birdie two of his last three holes to make the 36-hole cut on the number and he never got comfortable on the baked-out greens.
“I didn't putt well. I didn't feel comfortable playing break,” Woods said. “I've been in Florida playing Bermuda and seeing minimal break, come out here and playing 10, 12 feet of break was a bit different and something I'm going to have to get used to.”
It led to the inevitable question of where Woods will play next. He is not in the field at the 3M Open in Minneapolis this week and has not indicated whether he will play in the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational the following week, one week before the PGA Championship.
In a brief interview after his round, Woods danced around a direct answer about his schedule. The back and forth with reporters went like this:
Do you feel like you would need more reps before you went to Harding Park?
“Competitive reps or more reps? More reps, yes,” Woods said.
Competitive reps?
“I definitely need more reps,” he said.
As for the state of his back, Woods said days like Friday when he struggled to fully turn away or through the ball, are part of his new way of life. Some days he feels fine, other days he doesn’t.
“Aging is not fun,” the 44-year old said. “Early on in my career I thought it was fantastic because I was getting better and better and better, and now I'm just trying to hold on.”
Ron Green Jr.