Fred Couples ignores short game shambles and proclaims Tiger Woods ‘fine’

Tiger Woods, fresh from the Colorado ski slopes following a career-worst 82 in Scottsdale, said on Wednesday that scuffling around nine shaggy holes on a Torrey Pines track that’s yielded him eight wins was all part of the “process.”

Struggling to regain a short game that was once among the best in the sport and is now flat-out abysmal, Woods duffed and shanked his way around the practice range and in the fog-shortened pro-am ahead of this week’s Farmers Insurance Open. And while he looked barely ready to make the cut at Torrey Pines, let alone contend at Augusta -- as always, the goal for the 14-time major champion -- old friend Fred Couples was unconcerned.

“I think he’s very capable of [turning his game around],” Couples, on vacation in San Diego and at the course to pay off 10 Super Bowl bets (the Seahawks fan unwisely did not back the Patriots), told GolfChannel.com. “And that’s what I told him. He’s fine.”

Not yet he’s not, what with his quest to find the correct “feels,” and his stroke caught between “different release patterns” taught by former swing coach Sean Foley and current advisor Chris Como. “I know what the fix is, but can I save it during the swing itself?” wondered Woods, who noted he struggled with the same issues when he left Hank Haney for Foley in 2010. “My good is really good. Unfortunately, my bad is really bad.”

The latter is what Golf Channel viewers witnessed when the network went on air Wednesday just in time to show this hideous skull shank:

Woods jetted away from the Phoenix Open on Friday after finishing in a tie for last so he could work on what’s ailing him.

“I was in the back yard chipping a lot ... hitting golf balls, analyzing it, and just trying to commit to the pattern,” Woods said about how he spent his time between skipping Sunday’s Super Bowl and watching skiing girlfriend Lindsey Vonn race in Beaver Creek.

A cottage industry of analysts offering quick fixes and long-term solutions has sprung up since Woods’ astounding fall from the pinnacle of the game to his current 56th world ranking.

“My phone’s been off the last couple of days,” Woods said about whether he had heeded any of the advice from hither and yon. “I’ve just been working on my game, just Chris and I.”

Couples, no stranger to spinal woes, believes the back injury that required surgery and cut short Woods’ 2014 season represented the primary obstacle Tiger must hurdle if he’s to notch the three wins he needs to pass Sam Snead’s all-time mark of 82 and chip away at Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors.

“He has got a lot of speed. He’s hitting it a mile,” Couples told AFP. “He hasn’t played much golf in a year and a half and I don’t know how good anybody would be after that.”

Perhaps Woods can find the elusive answers with a little help from his friends. Before hitting the course, he got chipping tips from the immortal Billy Horschel and Pat Perez.

“Tiger’s been a good guy to me the last couple years I’ve been out here and I want to see him get back to the level that he’s capable of playing at,” Horschel, the reigning FedEx Cup champion, told Golf Channel -- comments from a three-time PGA Tour winner that had Woods’ watchers’ heads spinning.

(Perez took to Facebook to deny he and others were passing out pointers to Woods. The confab was nothing more than “a handful of new guys talking golf, life and Instagram stars,” wrote Perez, who quipped the players were also discussing the interception that won the Pats the Super Bowl. “‘Again, I say we hand the ball off to Lynch.’”)

While Perez was ripping the press for its “false narrative,” Horschel begged to differ.

“I was giving him some tips and hopefully it works out for him,” Horschel said. “He’ll figure it out, he’s [a smart guy] and I think we’ve seen in his history that whenever he’s struggled with something he’s figured out some way to recover.”

But can he do so by April 9?

“The whole idea is to make sure I’m ready for Augusta,” said Woods, who conceded that being a single father cut into his practice time. “So I’ve got a lot of rounds to play between now and then.”

With this week’s tilt, the Honda Classic at the end of the month, and Bay Hill in March the only tournaments currently on Woods’ schedule, according to Golf Channel’s Tim Rosaforte, and his eligibility for Doral no gimme, a big question is how many competitive rounds he’ll get in before the Masters.

“If I happen to play well enough to get into Doral, then great,” said Woods, who entered the week after missing two straight cuts for the first time in his career. “But I have to go out and earn my way there. I’m just going to have to play better than I did last week.” And the tournament before that one, December’s unofficial Hero World Challenge, where he also tied for last after nine ghastly chunked chip shots.

Woods will also be playing Torrey with a heavy heart, after barrier-breaking Charlie Sifford died Tuesday night.

“It’s been tough, very tough,” said Woods, who called Sifford, the man who desegregated the PGA Tour, “the grandpa that I never had.

“It’s been a long night and I’m sure it’ll be a long few days,” he said. “He fought, and the courage it took for him to stick with it and be out here and play, I probably wouldn’t be here because my dad wouldn’t have picked up the game. Who knows if the [Caucasian-only] clause would still exist or not, but he broke it down.”

Woods, Horschel, and Rickie Fowler will tackle Torrey’s easier North Course -- where Tiger battled his short game and his full swing during the pro-am -- on Thursday before taking on the more challenging South Course on Friday.

Tiger made his 2014 debut last year at Torrey by missing his first-ever 54-hole cut.