Tiger Woods’ back holds up in cold-weather golf at Bay Hill

Woods’ new goal: Shoot low scores to avoid chilly, early morning tee times.

Tiger Woods has sought to temper expectations about how he’ll perform in each of the four PGA Tour events he has started this year, and even his own outlook has changed since he had his back fused last April.

Of course, Woods wants to come out on top — especially this week at Bay Hill, where he has earned eight of his 79 tour victories, and again in three weeks at Augusta.

“I have three more days here and hopefully [I can] cap it off with a nice win,” Woods said after firing an opening-round 68 on Thursday that had him tied for fourth and four shots off Henrik Stenson’s lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

But his 4-under (that included a monster birdie putt from downtown on the par-3 seventh hole) put him on his way toward accomplishing his new, post-lumbar fusion aim, if he can go back out on Friday and post another low number: keep his back loose by staying warm.

“I’m not worrying about pain or being sore or anything. I’m just trying to keep my mobility, especially when it’s colder,” Woods, who began his quest for APl win No. 9 on Thursday morning, said as he described what it takes to prepare for a chilly, early morning tee time.


“I was telling Joey,” he added, “‘Hopefully we play well this morning and tomorrow afternoon and we don’t have to deal with any cold mornings anymore.’”

Woods, at 42, has had to alter his pre-tourney routine after undergoing four back operations since March 2014. Long gone are the days of walking onto the range ready for practice, though his much-scrutinized off-course workout regimen has never been that of a slouch.

Now, though he appears healthier and fitter than he has in years, Woods needs more time to do what’s necessary to keep his spine in playing shape, especially when the temperature at eight in the morning can be in the 40s, even in Florida.

“I wish it was. I wish it was but it’s not,” Woods said about whether he could just show up and start hitting balls.

“I have to loosen up, stay warm, keep everything loose, strong, activated. I’m there trying as best I can to keep warm out here. It’s not easy to do because it was cold this morning,” he said. “Warming up here, my hands are cold, my body doesn’t really want to do this because it’s cold, but [I] just push through it and as soon as I get to that tee, the competitive juices start flying and, you know, let’s go.”

Despite his new protocol, Woods sought to allay fears that his back was causing discomfort.

“It’s not painful, it’s just tight,” Woods explained. “With the fusion, unfortunately, I just lost rotation down there and so I need to keep everything as loose as possible. I’m not worrying about pain or being sore or anything; I’m just trying to keep my mobility, especially when it’s colder.”

As far as everyone else’s assumptions about where he is in his recovery, Woods got a tad testy with reporters asking if he had adapted his own tournament presumptions to his changed circumstances.

“You guys are asking different questions than you did when I first came back and that wasn’t that long ago. It was two months ago,” said Woods, referring to post-Hero World Challenge queries that focused on how he felt and whether his back could withstand the rigors of competition.

“The narrative has completely flipped from how you guys asked me questions. I just wanted to remind you guys that it wasn’t that long ago that you were asking a different set of questions,” added a nettled Woods, who disputed a supposition he had to be in contention to savor being back in the game.

“For me to enjoy it, no, I enjoy just playing again,” said the 14-time major champion who’s in the midst of his final tuneup before next month’s Masters. “After what I’ve been through, playing feels good.”

You know what else will feel good? Sunny with temps in the 70s, which is what will greet Woods by the time he tees off at 1:08 p.m. on Friday.