Tiger Woods is a mediocre tour pro right now but he’s still better than expected

Woods is back to struggling to make the cut but that doesn’t mean his week so far at The Players has been a failure.

Tiger Woods has accomplished everything in the game of golf. He’s a legend in 10 different ways and now he’s quickly becoming a legend at grinding to make the cut on the number. A week after he rolled in a birdie putt on his 36th hole Friday afternoon in Charlotte, Woods spent all day Friday at TPC Sawgrass walking the cut-line tightrope. Friday at the Masters was a similar dash to get to the weekend. He opened the season at Torrey Pines with a putt on his 36th and final hole to get two more rounds there.

This Friday, he may have to sweat it out as the second half of the draw plays what is an easier-than-normal Sawgrass setup. Woods walked off the course on the right side of the cut line at 1-under, but only by a shot. That cut line could move from even-par to 1-under and he may be heading back down to South Florida two days earlier than planned.

There are obviously a couple ways to look at this Tiger trend.

1. The pessimistic view is that grinding to make the cut means you’re miles away from contention with minimal chance to win over the final 36 holes. It means you’re probably far from playing your best golf and it puts a lot of stress on you early in the week — stress that should be reserved for Sunday afternoon and not Friday afternoon.
2. The optimistic view is that you’re still better than half the field and you get 36 more holes to play your way into contention, even if you’re starting at a significant disadvantage. It also is a pressure test and if you pass, that’s a good thing!

This is where we load in all the Woods-specific context and choose to take path No. 2. This is Woods’ eighth start of the season after missing the last two years. It was unclear if he’d ever play again. On the rare occasion the last few years we saw him playing he couldn’t finish rounds or was never even threatening the cut line. That’s an improvement over struggling to walk and embarrassing yourself on the course. That he’s made every cut but one (so far) in those eight starts should not be cast aside a meager accomplishment given where we’ve been.

Within that context, what has been most impressive to me is still the shotmaking that exists in Woods’ broken down 42-year-old body. He obviously wouldn’t be playing if he didn’t think he could be competitive, but that doesn’t mean it’s not startling to see him still pull off shots that feel like their from another, more dominant Tiger era. On Friday, there was this recovery shot from the pinestraw and buried behind trees that led to a birdie on the must-make-birdie par-5 16th.

I mean, Woods may or may not make the cut and he played not that great, but can we enjoy these shots in a vacuum? I am going to right now. That may change if we get a full season or a couple years of cutline grinds like this, but not right now. It seemed likely his career was over a year ago! Now he’s back to hitting stingers and they might be more erotic than ever.

ProTracer makes everything better but I honestly think this may be the exception. Watching the ball sans tracer take off just above the turf against the green background made me yelp in real time.

This kind of shotmaking should, if we’re being honest, yield lower scores than what he’s posting. But there’s still trash bin of sloppiness — he’s throwing shots away and just not sharp. And when he’s not capitalizing on some brilliant execution with a birdie, he’s fighting to get back in play after another wild drive. So there’s plenty that still needs work and that’s why you have a player hovering on the cut line in three straight events over the last month.

We may get 36 more holes from Woods but that’s not a given late on Friday. The Tiger hype often far exceeds the reality of what’s happening on the ground. That’s what made the Florida swing in March so outrageous — Woods was actually meeting the hype for a minute and contending on Sunday to win real, actual PGA Tour events. If Woods is now a player that does that for one burst a season and then spends the rest of the year fighting around the cut line, well, it’s going to be a huge drop off from the Woods most people remember and want again.

If that doesn’t do it for you, that’s fine too but you’re going to watch either way. It won’t be especially fun or impressive. But take the shots in a vacuum, hold them, love them, and maybe consider that it’s still better than expected following the last few miserable years.