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SAINT ANDREWS, Scotland – Tiger Woods has reached the historic crazy 150th British Open and has brought his voice, all won, found and experienced. On Tuesday morning he sounded like a statesman as he spoke reluctantly about the glaring and blatant problem that plagues his sport: the Saudi-funded rupturist LIV Tour. He even rejected the idea of loud music.
He soon began his press conference, asking a question about the decision of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews disliked Greg Norman because of the distracting noise Norman’s presence could cause given his presidency of the LIV Tour.
“The R&As obviously have their opinions and their decisions and their decision,” Woods said. “Greg has done some things that I think are not in the best interest of our game, and we are probably returning to the most historic and traditional place in our sport. I think that ‘s right. “
He later specified a few answers: “I know what the PGA Tour is and what we have done and what it has given us, the ability to pursue our races and win what we achieve and the trophies we have been able to achieve. play and the story that has been part of this game. I know Greg tried to do this (a rival tour) in the early 90s. Then it didn’t work, and now he’s trying to make it work.
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“I still don’t see what the best interest of the game is. What does the European Tour and the PGA Tour represent and what have they done, and also all the professionals: all the governing bodies of the game of golf and all the major championships, as they run it. I think they see it differently than Greg sees it. “
And he did not shy away from his calm response to a question about the group of players who have already deserted and which includes top winners Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen.
“I don’t agree with that,” Woods said. “I think what they have done is that they have turned their backs on what has allowed them to reach this position. Some players have never had a chance to experience it. They have gone straight from the ranks of fans to this organization and never had a chance to play here and feel what it’s like to play a tour program or play at some important events. And who knows what will happen in the near future with the points of the world ranking, the criteria to enter the big championships. The governing body will have to resolve it.
“Some of these players may never have the opportunity to play in major leagues.… We still don’t know for sure. It’s up to all the major league bodies to make that determination. But that’s a possibility, that some players will never, ever have a chance to play in a major league, they will never have a chance to experience this right here, (or) walk the streets of Augusta National.This, to me, I don’t understand.
“I understand what Jack (Nicklaus) and Arnold (Palmer) did (when they started the PGA Tour in the late 1960s) because playing professional golf at the tour level versus a (professional) club level is different, and I understand the transition and this movement and the recognition that he is a touring professional versus a club professional.
“But what are these players doing for guaranteed money, what is the incentive to practice? What’s the incentive to get out there and beat it to the dirt? You just pay a lot of money up front and playing a few events and playing 54 holes. They’re playing music everywhere and they have all these different atmospheres. “
He trolled very gently.
“I can understand that 54 holes is almost like a mandate when you get to the Senior Tour. The guys are a little older and a little more angry. But when you’re at that young age and some of those kids, they really are kids who have passed. from amateur golf to this organization, the 72-hole tests are part of it … It would be sad to see that some of these kids never get a chance to experience it and experience what we get a chance to experience and walking through these sacred lands and playing in these championships “.
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Woods said he was “very optimistic” about the future of the sport, noting “the biggest golf boom that has occurred right now because of the covid” and how golf became a respite from the outdoor interior insulation. “Just look at the tour,” he said, “the average age is getting younger, and they’re just getting better and faster and they’re winning at earlier ages.
He spoke at length about the most sacred of those lands, Saint Andrews, as he celebrates a birthday with the number “150” ubiquitous on the T-shirts and signs here. “It’s my favorite,” he said of the course, and recalled playing the 1995 event as an amateur alongside Ernie Els and Peter Jacobsen for the first two days. He talked about how timelessness has overtaken technology, so with rough winds on Tuesday, “On the 10th, I hit a 6 iron from 120 yards.”
And he spoke like a big one when he said, “And with fast, steady runs, it allows older players to run the ball out there and have a chance.”
This course will not challenge his body as did the strong ripples of Augusta National at the April Masters or the slopes of Southern Hills in Tulsa at the PGA Championship in May. In these cases, walking overtook golf as a challenge for a damaged lower leg damaged and impregnated with hardware after its terrifying car accident in California in February 2021.
“It’s not easy yet,” he said. “Okay, the gradients aren’t pronounced in any way. They’re not, the descents aren’t pronounced. But it’s the gradient that’s still costing me. I have a lot of hardware on my leg.” He said: “Playing Augusta, I didn’t know it. My leg wasn’t fit to play 72 holes. It just ran out of gas. But now it’s different. It’s become much stronger, much better.” .
When he once came here and asked for a wooden plank in his room to harden the mattress on his back, he said, now he asks for “more ice”.
In the end, he asked another apt question for a statesman, about whether he believes the new generation shares his appreciation for history. And while he said they could check out history on their phones today, he waxed more about the history of golf he knows. “I saw Bob Charles out there on the 18th hitting,” he said. “I think he won the 63 (accurate) or something. Just to be able to see it in person, live, God, was so special. I just hope the kids appreciate it. ”He finished,“ They never gave you anything. You have to get out there and win it, and I won it through the dirt. I’m very proud of that. “