Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia have had their moments and may treat the golf world to another round of Big Cat vs. El Niño if they make the cut and somehow find themselves with the same Saturday or Sunday tee time at this week’s Dubai Desert Classic.
Sergio Garcia is ‘proud’ Tiger Woods joined TaylorMade
Sergio says it will be ‘very difficult’ for Tiger to regain his world-beating form, but is happy to have him on team TaylorMade.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Should that happen, it sounds as if the 37-year-old Spaniard is not exactly scared of facing the former world No. 1.
“If you mean like the way he played like in early 2000 and stuff like that, it is difficult,” Sergio said Wednesday from the Emirates Golf Club about whether Woods would ever reclaim the type of killer instinct he displayed during the duo’s famous 2013 Players Championship tilt. “He’s got a lot of qualities and he can obviously get to a high level.”
The primary challenge facing the 41-year-old Woods is Father Time, Garcia observed.
“I think to get to that level is very difficult, even for him, because he’s 40 now,” said the 20-time PGA and Euro Tour winner. “So his body doesn’t move the way it used to move when he was 20, 25.”
Garcia pointed out nothing that Woods himself is not aware of and his comments were hardly incendiary enough to provide bulletin-board material for the 666th-ranked player in the world.
In fact, Garcia was among the pros in a new commercial who marvel at Woods’ ability to win 79 times on the PGA Tour.
He also welcomed Tiger to the same team that now supplies equipment to the two players.
“We’re all professionals here,” said Garcia. “I’m proud that he chose to join TaylorMade and obviously TaylorMade were very keen about it. So am I.”
He was less bullish, though, on Woods’ future.
“Everything is a little bit of a question mark, just to see how he’s going to respond physically and everything,” Garcia said. “So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Yes, we will, especially since Woods will go back to back after missing the cut at Torrey Pines in his first official PGA Tour start in 17 months and then embarking on a back-breaking journey of some 8,000 miles to the Middle East. For sure, Woods’ surgically repaired back will be put to the severest of tests.
Plus, Sunday night’s flight was his first commercial trip in a decade, according to ESPN.com. The plane was also delayed by protesters rallying Sunday night at the Los Angeles International Airport against President Donald Trump’s executive order.
So small wonder that Woods said he barely slept before hitting the range, bare legs and all (thanks to the European Tour letting players wear shorts to practice) around noon on Tuesday.
Woods, playing the tourney he has won twice for the eighth time, will tee off in the first two rounds with reigning Masters champ Danny Willett and Matthew Fitzpatrick. They are scheduled to start the first round at 11:15 p.m. ET Wednesday, which will be 8:15 a.m. Thursday in Dubai.
See More:
