Tiger Woods’ game remains a mystery after week at The Players

The exuberant fist pump and huge roar from the crowd at TPC Sawgrass were vintage Tiger Woods.

“It felt good,” a cheerful Woods said after draining a clutch putt on his 18th hole of the day. “I hit a really good putt there.”

The problem was, the celebration was not for a Sunday victory but to make the cut, on the number, on a Friday at The Players Championship.

The two-time Players winner ended up in his lowest finish ever at the tournament (T69 in a field of 75) and was long gone from the grounds at Ponte Vedra before those in contention even began their final round.

The prevailing sentiment -- that it was a positive step for Woods to play four consecutive rounds in two straight official PGA Tour events for the first time since September 2013 (no matter how well or badly) -- is where we are in the annals of Tiger Woods, circa May 2015.

“It was a mixed bag pretty much all week,” Woods said after posting an even-par-72 in Sunday’s finale that put him at 3-over for the week. “A lot of really, really good stuff out there, some mediocre and some bad. What did I have? Three 7s on the week. That’s not very good.”

Woods may call his play good, mediocre, and bad, while others may label it the good, the bad, and the ugly.

There were positive signs, for sure. Two months ago, Woods could not hit a wedge shot without stubbing or blading it; his 18 birdies last week were among the most in the field, thanks in large part to his short irons.

His overall iron play was strong as well, as long as he was hitting from the fairway. His stiffed shot to five feet from 153 yards out on the 10th hole in Sunday’s finale was evidence of that.

On the other hand, a case of the yanks kept putting him in positions off the tees that we’re guessing few players had ever seen. His shot went so far left off the fifth tee on Sunday that it found a part of the property that architect Pete Dye likely never considered a part of the hole.

The same for his pulled drive on No. 14 on Sunday that found water and was enough off course that he had to take a drop back toward the tee and ended up making the wrong kind of history.

And, oh, that 4-iron on the par-3 eighth on Thursday that splashed down in a creek no one really knew was there.

Despite all that, Woods’ game is on an upward trajectory — especially since that career-worst 82 and missed cut in Phoenix and early withdrawal at Torrey Pines forced him out of competition for two months.

“We’re progressing,” said Woods, who finished T17 at last month’s Masters. “It’s a matter of putting the pieces together first. I mean, look where it was at on the West Coast and to where I’m at now. So let’s just keep progressing, keep putting the pieces together, keep chipping away at it. And I’m very pleased at the way we’re just chipping away at it. We had some glaring weaknesses at the beginning of the year. Those are now gone. And now we can start cleaning up some other stuff, too.”

Not everyone would agree with Woods’ assessment.

“He says he is not getting much out of his game and that he is playing well. I don’t agree. I think he is playing pretty bad,” NBC’s Johnny Miller said after Tiger carded a 75 on Saturday. “The only thing I can say that is pretty good about his game is that he is a darn good iron player with the shorter irons. He has good rhythm.

“I probably shouldn’t say this, but I think he needs to get another teacher and get a whole different line of thinking,” said Miller, referring to Woods’ swing consultant Chris Como. “What he is doing now is not working.”

Woods, now ranked 133rd in the world, will next tee it up in competition in three weeks at the Memorial and his play remains almost as much a mystery as when he entered The Players. It is difficult for Tiger fans to watch him barely make the cut — and react to accomplishing such a feat the way he used to when winning each of those 14 major titles.

But that’s the way it is these days on the Tiger Trail. With a relatively full calendar at least until the PGA Championship in August (he has yet to commit to the final major of the season but it’s hard to imagine Woods not starting at Whistling Straits), we should all gain more clarity into the state of Tiger’s game in the coming months.

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