ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s been 20 years since Padraig Harrington first played Tiger Woods in a major weekend, and he’s been watching closely ever since.
He doesn’t think Woods is over. Harrington says if Woods can get to his last nine holes, he’ll already have one major win.
“I’ll never kick Tiger out,” said Harrington after watching Woods play for two hours at a 10-hole exhibition made for TV last weekend. “But actually he’s… I think he’s in a better place than I thought.”
Nevermind that the 15-time major champion turns 47 at the end of the month and has had as many (if not more) surgeries as Woods has won a major.
Plantar fasciitis in his right foot kept Woods out of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas two weeks ago, and if he wasn’t allowed to go karting, he would be competing at the PNC Championship this weekend with his 13-year-old son. I wouldn’t have played.
no matter.
“There are two things that make up a golfer: their talent and their resilience,” Harrington said Thursday after a storm washed away the PNC Championship pro-am. “Most of the time they are very talented but not very resilient. Or they are very resilient but not very talented. Tiger has had both throughout his career. This is very It’s rare.”
“So I never doubt.”
His view contrasted with what Colin Montgomery said on a podcast earlier this week that he doesn’t think Woods can win again.
“Listen, yes, he’s great,” said Montgomery. “But Tiger now doesn’t have to go back to the standard he was performing in. He needs to improve it. The standard is improving all the time and now there is one man who can beat him. Or not two, there are 22. So Tiger isn’t trying to get back to what it was before, it’s trying to reach a standard it’s never reached before, and I don’t think it’s possible.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen. I hope it happens because it’s great for the game. I hope he wins. But I can’t see it happen.” .”
Woods has played only 172 holes in the tournament this year. He tied for his 48th place at the Masters and on a cold day in the Southern Hills he withdrew after the third round of the PGA Championship, missing the cut at St. Andrews. He partnered Rory McIlroy in the karting team match last Saturday.
“There’s not much left in this leg,” Woods said in the Bahamas, referring to his shattered right leg in a car accident in Los Angeles in February 2021.
Harrington and Woods first met in the third round of the 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black, where Woods won his second major in a row. They have been friends ever since, and Woods respects Harrington’s work ethic.
Harrington used to say his goal was to confirm where he was on 63 holes and show what he had on the final nine. He won three majors in 2007 and 2008.
It was the speed Woods showed in his swing that inspired him watching the 10 holes of last week’s game. He thought it was powerful enough to keep up with today’s generation and at least get back to his nines.
“A little bit of speed in the first 63 holes would help him…you know, who would want to play Tiger?” Harrington said. “He knows he can do anything at that stage. I think he’s in a better position going into the last nine holes.”
In his third appearance at the PNC Championship, Woods will reach the last 9 after just 27 holes. Woods and his 13-year-old Charlie finished his one-shot behind John Daly and his son a year ago.
Competition at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando can get serious, but it’s mostly about time spent between fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.
Everything always feels bigger when Woods is involved, no matter how much time he has left.
“He keeps doing more than we thought he could, so we’ll never know how much money is out there,” Stewart Sink said. He really continues to defy all conceivable possibilities.”
Leave a Reply