Tiger Woods’ D.C. event is in trouble, but he still relishes his purpose here

The Quicken Loans National will not be confused with a major championship. But it’s my local event and I think it’s gotten a bad rap over the years (more on that later this week) and I’m here again to take in what is probably the last edition. The field is weak again this year, but Tiger Woods is back and he looked dialed-in during what is admittedly a low-stress, inconsequential pro-am. When I left, he was still T1 on the pro-am leaderboard. Sure, it’s hard to even keep an official score in a pro-am, but T1! You know what they say: you can’t win a PGA Tour event on a Wednesday and you also can’t lose it.

I spent the day walking around the course following the Big Cat and looking for other inanities that you can stumble upon at a practice round at every single one of these events. Here are five, mostly Tiger-focused, observations to get you centered as the Quicken Loans National begins outside of D.C.

Woods has spent a couple decades now trying to reveal as little about himself as possible. There are occasional moments of genuineness, but given the fishbowl on his every move and utterance, he’s become excellent at using a lot of words to say very little. It’s often a guessing game whether a laugh is really a laugh or just kind of a robotic emotional response covering for what he really thinks.

Is he doing something or talking to someone because he has to, or because he wants to? The presumption is that, for a guy who named his boat Privacy, he’d prefer not to be talking to most of you and just wants to play golf, win, and get the hell out of here. Everything else is an obligation.

The one part of his public life where he never seems to have to fake it is with military servicemen and women. And this is often a topic where so many public figures do fake it, wrapping themselves in the flag and shouting “support the troops” as cover while doing or caring little else about the subject.

Tiger does not. His fondness and support for the military is well-documented. Of course there are PR benefits, but his purpose behind it all is not PR. He locks in when he meets an active duty military member or a vet. He locks in a way you don’t really see much any more — maybe when he’s nerding out on some equipment discussion. These Wednesday pro-ams are really just a business outing with some practice sprinkled in between the handshakes, forced banter, and selfies. Most players don’t want to be involved in it but recognize it’s a duty to sponsors that boost and underwrite the Tour.

Tiger is a veteran pro at getting around these games with any and all kind of players. He knows how to have a little fun, smile when he needs to, and maybe pick up a thing or two about the course along the way. It’s still an obligation. The most engaged I saw him, however, came when a serviceman named Adam became his caddie for a hole on the 16th at TPC Potomac.

While his playing partners — CEOs and other notable wealthy individuals — raced ahead, Tiger hung back a couple hundred yards with Adam. All the players talk to military members during this caddie-for-a-hole stunt. For Tiger, it was a reprieve from obligation to something he really wanted to do. One of the few things that truly engages him when he’s got dozens of people and events trying to get a piece of his time.

When the group got to the green, media, agents, PGA Tour reps, and fans shuffled about performing the usual circus routine that follows Tiger everywhere. Woods, who chipped it close and had to wait five or six minutes to putt, blocked out the entire circus around him and was almost nose-to-nose with Adam the entire time. It was the most animated and concentrated I’d seen him, including hitting golf shots, which are still an ancillary part of this hit-and-giggle business outing. It looked like no one else existed to Tiger and it was the most fascinating moment I saw in his pro-am round.

Another media member talked to Adam, who is retiring soon, and said the time with Tiger was an “early retirement gift from the gods.” Tiger’s face changed when he got the question about that experience. That could be because it’s a breather from some question about his health or his equipment or his goals. It could also be because he is genuinely interested in the topic and loves talking about it.

“The troops” were also the fulcrum of his answer on the original mission of this event, which now appears to be on its deathbed with Quicken Loans backing a new event in Detroit next year and a full 2019 schedule expected any week now. Tiger said that inaugural 2007 National, which was put together in a rush, was an attempt more than anything “to celebrate what our men and women were doing in the service, trying to do it on our nation’s birthday ... we really wanted to say thank you.”

You hear this refrain a lot, but it resonates as sincere with Tiger, who was quick to remind, “I was raised in a military background, playing military golf courses.”

He beamed when he was asked about the legacy of this event. “Our heroes tribute wall, we were the first ones to do it and now it’s one of the standards throughout the tour,” he said. “Free admission to all military servicemen and women and their dependents, that’s something — retirees, that’s something that became a standard on the PGA TOUR. We did a few things that I’m very proud of.”

You can roll your eyes or scoff or applaud. Your reaction is whatever you want it to be. No one loves a good joke about Tiger’s #killhouse and Navy SEAL fantasies more than me. I’m just trying to convey what I observed as truly genuine behavior from Tiger with Adam and a tenor that changed to noticeable pride and excitement in the press conference. I thought it was cool and I wanted to get it out there amidst the flood of info about his new putter and before the rest of the week is consumed with his play and the troubled future of this event.

I know this isn’t exactly the U.S. Open, so we’re searching for red meat to chew on ... but can we chill the hell out on Tiger’s putter change? Is it that big a deal? I saw one article characterize the move as “Tiger appears ready to try anything.” Anything!? Let me tell you, the mind can go to some depraved and dark places and switching to a mallet-esque, not even a real full mallet, is not “trying anything.” He’s not changing to some belly-length putter or switching up his grip or breaking out the compass like the beautiful boy Bryson DeChambeau.

He’s testing out a mallet, one of a type that he says he’s always practiced with at home. You get older and you need to make some changes and maybe this is just a quick fling so, as he put it, he can “get that ball rolling on my lines.”

Fluff Cowan lives about 10 minutes away from TPC Potomac, and when he showed up on the range on Wednesday it yielded this clip that should be nominated for best short film. Maybe you need to be a true golf nerd, but this will make you contemplate the big things.

Tiger has seemed much more emotional and reflective throughout this comeback. You’re still trying to find out what’s really genuine, but a lot of that psychotic competitive automaton stuff is gone. On Wednesday, he declined to grade his own comeback and instead said “I am blessed, thankful and it’s basically a gift to be able to play again.” You may need to be a golf nerd or have a history with both in the above clip, but it’s a howitzer right to the feels.

Appearance fees — the act of sliding a specific player some piles of cash just to show up — are technically outlawed on the PGA Tour. They are not on other world tours and that’s why you see some stateside stars play many of those middle east events at the start of the year.

A workaround of that rule is just sponsoring a player you want to play the event where you’re also a title sponsor. It’s not as prevalent as the straight-up appearance fee, but Rickie Fowler is a shining example. He’s backed by cadre of brands, including luxury cars and insurance companies and, yes, mortgage companies. Maybe he’d play Torrey Pines even if it wasn’t sponsored by Farmers. But that fact that it is means he is definitely playing it.

The guessing game here is a littler easier: He’s here this week is because Quicken Loans jumped back on as a title sponsor less than a month ago. Rickie immediately added it back to his schedule.

The first line of his press conference on Wednesday was “Glad to be back.” The second was about how “obviously I have a great partnership with Quicken Loans and it’s been fun to grow that over the years and be a part of this tournament.” He then went on to field questions about and discuss the Ryder Cup, the French Open, Carnoustie, and Bellerive. None of those are PGA Tour events and none of those are this instant event. There was one question from a local reporter about how D.C. has embraced this tournament and that’s it. So yes, the Quicken Loans National wasn’t a priority in talking to Rickie and it’s probably not near and dear to his heart, save for that sponsorship.

This is completely fine. Rickie is entitled to get his and if that impacts where he may or may not play, cool. He led the other marquee pro-am group, playing with Paige Spiranac, a Quicken exec, and gamer “Nadeshot.” I am now an “old” so it was eye-opening to discover that Nadeshot has 2.5 million Twitter followers and his company took a multimillion investment from Quicken founder, Dan Gilbert. I learned things out there on that golf course that had nothing to do with golf.

While following Tiger on Wednesday, the skies opened up a bit. It was nothing too severe, but the rain was not likely and Tiger did not have an umbrella or rain gear, so as to lighten the load for Joey on the back nine. It reminded me that one of the low-key great moments of last year’s PGA Tour season happened in this very spot: umbrellagate.

Do you remember it? Probably not, but you should. Sung Kang got caught out on the back nine in contention on Sunday when the rain started coming in buckets. But he and, more importantly, his caddie left not only his umbrella but also his rain gear in the car after the forecast looked clear for the entire day. Kang got drenched, got ejected with a double bogey on the 17th, and had his chance at winning washed away.

Twitter exploded. Caddies and players started yelling about when you do or don’t pack the umbrella, who was culpable, and a relatively sleepy tournament got some late Sunday juice. I sustain myself on these lesser-known, inane, and mostly forgotten bits of drama so I’m taking it upon myself to remind you of it here. As far as PGA Tour and Golf twitter controversies go, Umbrellagate is highly underrated.