Tiger Woods enters ‘very different world’ at Muirfield Village

DUBLIN, Ohio – There’s nothing like a Tiger roar.

It reverberates around a golf course, shakes the ground, echoes from the trees, and hits every spot on the property. When Tiger Woods does something great, which has been often over the last two-plus decades on the PGA TOUR, his competitors know. It’s unmistakable.

At Muirfield Village, where Woods has won the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide five times, the highlight reels are seemingly infinite. The chip-in on 14 in 1999. Or what about the one on 16 in 2012? In each of them, along with the shot and a Woods customary fist pump or primal scream, you see raucous galleries going nuts.

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And why wouldn’t they be excited. They’ve seen greatness up close. Witnessed history. Been given a story to tell the grandkids.

Those roars not only sent shivers down many a competitor of Woods – who now knew they had another step on the mountain climb – but they invigorated Woods himself. The energy would flow through the feisty competitor and seemingly spur him on to even greater heights.

So with all that being said, what is Woods going to do this week at Muirfield Village when he makes his long-awaited and much-anticipated return to the PGA TOUR? The Memorial initially was slated as the first Return To Golf event with spectators, but the continuing COVID-19 pandemic has ensured this won’t be the case.

Woods will play his competitive rounds without an on-site gallery. Without the roars. Will he be able to summon the same competitive fire?

“There's nothing to feed off of energy-wise. You make a big putt or make a big par or make a big chip or hit a hell of a shot, there's no one there,” Woods said Tuesday as he readies himself for his first TOUR event since February.

“That's what the guys are saying now, that it's a very different world out here, not to have the distractions, the noise, the excitement, the energy, the people that the fans bring. It's just a silent and different world.”

The Tiger effect, as it has been called in the past, extends beyond the roars. Woods pointed out that he’s had cameras on him his entire TOUR career and even had large galleries during college and amateur golf. With that comes constant hustle and bustle, movement, things that can get in the mind of some golfers.

Woods, however, had been trained by his father Earl from his toddler years to be able to deal with distraction. As Tiger grew older and began to enter competitions, his father would deliberately do things to try to put his son off mid-swing. Woods quickly developed an ability to stop mid-swing and to block out the circus around. Over the course of his incredible career and his record-tying 82 TOUR wins, Woods has been able to use the circus to his advantage.

“For most of my career, pretty much almost every competitive playing round that I've been involved in, I've had people around me, spectators yelling, a lot of movement inside the gallery with camera crews and media,” Woods noted.

“Watching the players play over the last few weeks, that hasn't been the case, and that's very different, and for the players that are a little bit older and that have played out here for a long time and have experienced it, it is very different. For some of the younger guys it's probably not particularly different. They're not too far removed from college or they've only been out here for a year or two, but for some of the older guys, it's very eye-opening.”

On Sunday, on Muirfield Village’s famed 18th green, Justin Thomas made a huge 50-foot putt for birdie to potentially win the Workday Charity Open in a playoff. It was the type of moment Woods has produced on countless occasions. But Collin Morikawa countered with a 24-foot birdie bomb of his own and would eventually win the playoff two holes later. Woods said Morikawa, who is one of the young guys recently out of college, would have faced a much tougher scenario with spectators in attendance.

“A lot more difficult,” Woods said of Morikawa’s putt had there been on-site fans. “To see J.T. make that putt, he's screaming, but no one else is screaming. And then when Collin makes it, he didn't have that much of a reaction, but the whole hillside on 18 would have been just erupted.

“I've been there when they're throwing drinks towards the greens and people screaming, high fiving, people running around, running through bunkers. That's all gone. That's our new reality that we're facing.

“It's so different not having the energy of the crowd, and for me watching at home as a spectator and one that has played this golf course and have heard the energy that the fans bring to these holes and these situations, not to have that is very different, very stark really.”

So does Woods have a game plan for the new reality? TOUR events for the rest of the season will occur without on-site spectators. It could stretch into the new 2020-21 season also.

“For me in particular, I'm going to have to just put my head down and play. But it's going to be different, there's no doubt about it,” he says. “That's one of the more interesting things that it'll be going forward. I think this is going to set up for not just in the short-term but for the foreseeable future for sure.”

Woods enters this week having not played since the Genesis Invitational he hosted in February. His surgically fused back caused him trouble after that event and he had to skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and was a scratch from The PLAYERS Championship before it was canceled after the opening round due to the pandemic. Since then he has taken the safer at-home route – except, of course, for his efforts teaming with Peyton Manning to beat Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity in May.

“Physically I was very stiff at LA. I was not moving that well. Back was just not quite loose. It was cold. I wasn't hitting the ball very far, wasn't playing very well, and consequently I finished dead last,” Woods said. (He actually finished 68th, last of those to make the cut).

“Fast forward five months later… as far as physically, I feel so much better than I did then. I've been able to train and concentrate on getting back up to speed and back up to tournament speed.”

Woods is no stranger to coming back to competition off a long rest. Last October, he joined Sam Snead atop the all-time wins list in capturing the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan after undergoing knee surgery few months earlier. Coincidentally, one of the rounds was played without spectators due to storms.

Woods also played without fans in the third round at the 2012 AT&T National at Congressional Country Club, an event that would end up as TOUR win No. 74 in front of raucous final-round crowds. Perhaps these can all be good omens as he tries for a sixth Memorial title and record-breaking 83rd win.

“Over the last few years I've been used to taking long breaks, long time off and having to build my game and build it to a level where it's at a TOUR level at home and then come out and play,” Woods said.

“I would like to say that I'm going to win the event. That's certainly the intentions. Whether that plays out come Sunday, hopefully that will be the case. It was three tournaments ago at ZOZO. There's no reason why I can't do it again this week. I've just got to go out there and do my work and make that happen.”

If he does win, we might hear the roars from the litany of living rooms around the country after all.