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Tiger Woods shows frustration at Deutsche Bank Championship (Photo: Associated Press)
Norton, MA -- First, little-known Y.E. Yang beat up on Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship. Then, unheralded Heath Slocum slammed the door on the world’s number one golfer at The Barclays.
Yesterday, Steve Stricker said he’d “gotten over” whatever other-worldy aura Woods had that somehow intimidated his PGA Tour playing partner into submission.
“I am comfortable playing with him,” Stricker said after firing an 8-under 63 during the first round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston. “I guess I’m comfortable with what I’m doing, and I’m really not worrying about him.”
Gasp! Not worrying about the world’s top-ranked golfer? What in the name of Jack Nicklaus is going on?
Game on. For Stricker, who has two wins and nine top-10s this year, it’s his rejuvenated game. Conceding that his playing “didn’t stack up” when Woods first joined the tour, Stricker said that’s all behind him now.
“I’m over that,” said the number two player to Woods’ number one (for now) in the FedExCup standings. “I don’t care.”
You hear that, Tiger? Stricker said to bring it on!
Well, maybe not quite. But playing with Woods Friday certainly did not faze Stricker or Slocum, whose 2-under 69 for the day was a stroke better than Woods’ 70.
Slocum, who schooled Woods at The Barclays last week, said earlier this week that he gave not a moment’s thought to the guy he was chasing at Liberty National Golf Course.
“I was so focused that I didn’t have to pay attention to that and I wasn’t paying attention to that,” Slocum said on Wednesday. He noted that ruminating about the big names (like Tiger Woods) on the leader board would make playing PGA Tour golf “a daunting task.”
Salting the wound, Slocum added,” I think that’s why we all practice and stay in our routines is maybe so we don’t have to think about stuff like that.”
Frustrating day. Woods, for his part, seems to have fallen back to earth with the rest of golfing humanity. He’s missing putts (he needed 30 on Friday) and struggling with his clubs.
“I felt terrible over any tee shot,” Woods said after carding a 1-under on the 7,304-yard TPC Boston layout. “Didn’t matter what club it was, whether it was an iron on a par-3 or a driver on any hole. Iron shots into greens were not very good, and...I didn’t make any putts, either.”
Woods took out his issues on the course, slamming his club into the turf after hitting a poor tee shot on the par-4 fifth. A moment of frustration? a reporter asked.
“How about every hole?” responded a man unhappy with his golf game.
What’s that about? Is Woods just generally out of sorts? For a guy who measures his words extremely carefully, he pretty much stunned the golfing world with his rather withering remarks about Ernie Els and his work habits (or lack thereof, to hear Woods tell it).
“Ernie is not a big worker physically,” Woods said Thursday, referring to the South African’s post-knee surgery rehab efforts, “and that’s one of the things that you have to do with an ACL repair is you’ve got to really do a lot of work.”
Woods went on to say that he felt “pretty good” with his own comeback from knee surgery. Els, however, “could have worked a little bit harder,” Woods added.
It’s hard to imagine that Woods’ comments had any impact on the easy-going Els. But the big guy shot an uninspiring 4-over on Friday, a day after sounding relaxed and confident about his game.
Heading over to TPC Boston? Check out Saturday’s tee times.
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