What we learned from Tiger Woods’ underwhelming Wells Fargo Championship

Tiger’s last two starts at Augusta and this week at Charlotte have been far from the Florida swing fireworks earlier this year. But a “meh” week isn’t always bad.

As he did at Augusta National, Tiger Woods went quietly at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte. Woods hovered on the cut line for the first two days at Quail Hollow, making it to the weekend with a birdie putt on his very last hole Friday afternoon, and then played the final 36-holes in even-par. There were no birdies on the card on Sunday. That’s just the sixth time in his career he’s had no birdies or eagles in a round and the first time he’s done that since early 2014 the week before he decided to have back surgery.

These last two events have been a long way from the late Sunday drama Tiger provided over three pre-Masters starts in Florida. Those events ignited the Tiger hysteria back to 2000s levels and probably threw us off the scent of a measured outlook for this comeback season.

So what do we make of this Wells Fargo result? He made the cut and stayed healthy, which was the bar for resounding success at the start of the season. So it’s hard to call the week a failure. But he also never threatened the first, or even second page of the leaderboard. He’s probably pissed and disappointed about the drop-off from what we saw in Florida. It’s not a failure, but it’s a regression. I would still probably put it in a positive bucket based on where we’ve been the last three years. Here are some thoughts on Tiger’s meh week at Quail Hollow.

The shotmaking is still there and we should revel in it.

Let’s start with the positive because the ugliness is probably what you’ve heard most about this week. Tiger still hit shots that make you mutter expletives in disbelief. It’s is in there and maybe it’s not happening with the same frequency as 10 years ago, but it’s still happening and we shouldn’t overlook it or take it for granted. Tiger hit some 20-yard draw around a limb to a peninsula green at the 16th on Thursday. It’s one of the best shots there all week. Moments later, he launched one from a fairway bunker 185 yards out and stopped the ball on a dime inside 10 feet. It was a dazzling, holy sh**! moment that Tiger is still capable of providing several times during a 72-hole tournament.

We have not really watched those moments since 2013, which was a long time ago in golf years. It’s awesome that we’re getting that again, even if it’s just a micro moment and flash of brilliance. So before we get to all the underwhelming stats, there are still so many ways in which, visually, this comeback looks different and so much better than the other recent embarrassing failures to launch.

The putting was hot garbage.

This is an obvious takeaway. Tiger’s putting absolutely sucked all week. He said as much, the numbers said as much, and his scores suffered because of it. He may not finish the tournament in dead last in putting, but he’ll probably be in the bottom five. Those weeks happen. The alarming part was how often he missed short putts. Whether it was misreads or poor strokes, he wasn’t coming especially close to the cup from short distances to save pars or convert birdie chances.

Aging as a golfer doesn’t just mean you lose distance or get injured more often. Perhaps the most insidious effects of getting older as a golfer are losing your touch around and on the greens. It’s not as visible as plummeting driving distances or hobbling along with some old man injury. This week is not evidence of Tiger losing his touch as a putter. That’s been a strength of his this year. It’s most likely an outlier, but while we talk about his ball speed and 330-yard drives, his putting stats will be worth monitoring closely throughout the summer.

Tiger hates slow greens and has throughout his career. If they’re slow, he rarely misses a chance to mention it, whether it’s a major or just a regular season event. He was quick to point it out early this week too, citing how firm and springy the Quail greens were but just how slow the ball was actually rolling. We tend to associate firm with fast rolling greens but that’s not always the case and wasn’t this week, according to Cat. He never got the speed down and it showed until the very end on Sunday. What would be wild, and awesome, is if they set up TPC Sawgrass next week with those frictionless glass-like debacles from a couple years ago. Tiger might love it while everyone else lost their minds.

A Scraggy Tiger

Woods will never appear gaunt in his Nike polos. But he’s definitely wearing a different cut this year and it was most noticeable in the first two rounds playing alongside Brooks Koepka, who was swelling through his Nike blade collar. His sleeves were about an inch away from running up as high as one of those homemade cutoffs you made with your mom’s scissors back in 5th grade (shout out to the Lou Roe/Marcus Camby-era UMass teams, the first I saw roll out with the scissored sleeves and inspired me to do the same).

Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Koepka looked the way Tiger used to look. That’s not to say Tiger couldn’t pull it off, but he’s absolutely wearing a different cut and going for a different appearance. He looks much healthier than the puffed up version in recent years. Some of that could be due to the body he’s trying to optimize for a 40s golf career after multiple back surgeries, but he also probably looks healthier because of his treatment for a painkiller addiction last summer. All of it contributes.

We’re not exactly at the baggy elbow-length Vijay style, but Tiger looks normal and healthy for his age and playing next to the ripped 20-something Koepka accentuated that.

Coming to terms with middling

Injuries and chipping yips can end a career. But another threat to Tiger playing deep into his 40s is how he could handle being “another guy” on the PGA Tour. It’s the deepest, most competitive Tour in the world and it’s never been stronger. Tiger is a 42-year-old with four back surgeries and almost no playing experience over last five years. That he slots somewhere in the middle of this PGA Tour is a distinct possibility. That’s much better than so many of those ignominious rounds in 2015.

But how long will he, arguably the GOAT and the most psychotically competitive player, be able cope with that? We’re not close to that right now, but what if the rest of the season is a bunch of Masters and Wells Fargo results. And the next season after that. Tiger stays fit and healthy and hitting it 300-plus yards but is just another guy with a bunch of T35 results. There will be a few top 10s, and maybe he picks off a win, but how does he handle a month or two or those middling and quiet finishes.

Those are respectable results and seasons for most golfers, but not for Tiger Woods. Or at least the Tiger we used to know. He’s returned with tempered goals and expectations for himself and a slightly different mindset than the recalcitrant and crazed competitor of years past. The Florida swing was an incredible three-event run, but there are going to more tied for 35th finishes. He’s currently T55 at Wells Fargo, and I think it is, in toto, a positive week. A season of those is an improvement over the n/a golfer of the last two years. But would he have the patience for that?

Confidence man

Some of his quotes on Saturday, when he shot his lowest round of the week, a 68, were evidence of the old Tiger lurking and with no patience for middling scores. They were of 2005 vintage, as Tiger said he was “so close to shooting about 7 under on that back nine.” He went on with “It was one of those rounds I could have easily shot 7 or 8 under par without doing much.” That may not totally portend great things for that “coming to terms” point above but it’s amusing and kinda hard to tell one of the two best players ever to pump the brakes, so just enjoy it.

Getting back to the Monster lifestyle

After these two little detours to Georgia and Charlotte, Tiger now gets back to ground zero for enthusiasts of the Monster life: Florida.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Woods has won The Players Championship twice, but it’s not one of those courses that he’s owned throughout his career like a Torrey or Firestone or Bay Hill. He’s got some poor showings there and you need every club in the bag to be working to contend in the way he threatened at the previous Florida events. Here’s hoping a more hospitable Monster environment produces similar Florida-man results.