Tiger Woods’ ‘fresh’ swing changes could spell disaster at The Players

Tiger Woods, following a Sunday breakup with girlfriend Lindsey Vonn and reflecting on the anniversary of his father’s passing, was in a pensive mood Tuesday after a practice round ahead of this week’s Players Championship.

In a post-practice round interview, Woods summed up the progress of his game since his struggles at the start of the year (“Huge”) and perhaps tipped his hand that “fresh” swing changes could be a problem on the challenging TPC Sawgrass track. He also conceded that personal matters left him rather drained.

“A little bit,” Woods, who has not played since tweaking his wrist on Sunday at Augusta and finishing T17 at the Masters, said about whether there was some rust to kick off his clubs. “More than anything, just a little bit tired.”

Woods opened up about how difficult this week has been for him since his father, Earl Woods, died nine years ago last Sunday. Add to that his split from Vonn, which he and the championship skier announced on Sunday, and it’s been an emotional few days for the former world No. 1.

“I haven’t slept,” said Woods. “These three days, May 3 through the fifth, today, is brutal on me. And with obviously what happened on Sunday it just adds to it.”

Regarding what the coming week may hold for him on the course, Woods, who has two Players wins that include a title from the last time he played the event in 2013, exuded confidence about his short game. He seemed tentative, however, about what to expect from the rest of the clubs in his bag.

Questions about Woods’ efforts with his wedges arose after he chunked his way to a last-place tie at his Hero World Challenge in December. Alarms went off when the problems were magnified by a career-worst 82 and missed cut at the Phoenix Open followed by a first-round withdrawal from the Farmers Insurance Open that Woods blamed on a balky back.

The former world No. 1 who’s now ranked 125th, took a two-month break from the PGA Tour, during which he said he “worked his ass off” to regain the touch he used to have around the greens. His efforts paid off in a successful return to competition at the Masters in April, though new worries emerged about his accuracy off the tee when he was able to find only two of 14 fairways in regulation on Sunday afternoon at Augusta.

“I’d like to say ‘yes,’” Woods replied on Tuesday to a query about whether he could build on momentum coming off his performance at Augusta. “I’ve had some pretty good practice sessions. My short game still feels really good and we made a couple, little swing tweaks since then to keep improving, to keep working on it, to keep getting it better, and so that part’s still a little fresh.”

Tiger watchers did not like the sound of what could be Woods’ new code word for “Fore!” after on-site observers reported a bunch of wayward shots from Tiger’s tee.

Things were not all bad, work-wise, for Woods, who judged his Masters start “a big step” after those two terrible turns earlier this year forced a layoff to fix what many termed the chipping yips.

“Take what I was at Phoenix and Torrey, to go from there to fifth place going into the last day on Sunday -- to go from all the problems I had with my short game, all the problems I had with my swing -- to put all that and get it to where it was good enough to give myself a chance,” Woods said about the results at Augusta. “To go from where I was to being in contention like that, that was a big step.”

Indeed, Woods was even more effusive in assessing his comeback.

“I’ve made some huge strides since what I was at Torrey and what I was at Phoenix. Huge,” he said. “To go from that to where I was at Augusta, I worked my ass off to get to that point. I really did. I worked hard and to change all that and to go into a major championship basically untested and then do what I did, I thought, was pretty good for three days.”

Sunday at Augusta was a different story for Woods, who struggled all day to find the short grass. He ended up with a sore wrist after clipping a tree root with an iron and then claiming to pop a dislocated joint back into place.

That’s Tiger’s story and he’s sticking to it.

“It was just a joint that kind of slipped out and I put it back in. I don’t know how,” he said. “I pushed down on it and I could feel it just -- it’s like anything, when you crack your back or your neck, right, and you adjust it? It’s relief … It’s like a self-adjustment on your spine; I just did it on my wrist.”

After a week of post-Masters ultrasounds, icing, anti-inflammatory medications, and no heavy lifting, the wrist was ready to tackle TPC Sawgrass. The question, heading into what tour commish Tim Finchem likes to brand the “fifth major,” was whether Tiger’s game was in similar shape.

“When you’re on this golf course, it doesn’t seem that hard. You can really go low. You feel like every round you should shoot 67 or lower,” said Woods. “And then you get days where I feel like I can’t break 75 here.”

It really is anything goes at The Players for Woods, who has, in addition to the pair of Ws, four other top-10 finishes in 15 previous starts as a professional, as well as two WDs, a T53, T40, T37, T35, and T31.

The roller-coaster ride for Woods, Adam Scott, and defending champ Martin Kaymer starts Thursday at 1:49 p.m. ET on tee No. 1. All aboard!