Tiger Woods getting fitter, faster, stronger

After the playing of a video clip of highlights from Tiger Woods' golf trip to India in February, Woods stepped to the microphone yesterday at Isleworth Golf and Country Club and joked: "That's the last good round I played all year."

Woods had 10 birdies in his February 4th round of 63 at the par-72 Delhi golf course. In 18 completed rounds in PGA Tour events after his India trip, Woods' lowest score was a 65 in the third round of his next competitive event, the Honda Classic.

Woods withdrew the next day, during the fourth round, with back pain in what became a familiar refrain.

He took nearly four months off after back surgery, and after missing the cut at the PGA Championship last month, he shut down his 2014 season again.

He has not swung a club since, he said yesterday, but hopes to make his next start at his World Challenge event, to be held here the first week of December.

“I miss competing, I miss playing, I miss being out here with the guys, I miss all that,” Woods said, “but I’m not physically ready for it yet.”

Woods, 38, used the unveiling of his tournament's new title sponsor, the India-based Hero MotoCorp, to provide updates on his physical condition and coaching search; to address whether he came back too soon after his first injury timeout this year; and to respond to the world number one Rory McIlroy's innocuous comment last week that Woods and Phil Mickelson are getting into "sort of the last few holes of their career."

Woods has regained his strength, he said, and is working on his explosiveness and conditioning so that he can make the golf ball do more with less effort.

It is an aspect of his rehabilitation that, in retrospect, he said, was not quite where it needed to be when he returned to competitive golf at the end of June with an eye toward competing in the British Open, where he missed the cut.

“I wasn’t as conditioned as I needed to be, so as the tournament would wear on, I would get more and more fatigued and tired, and I wasn’t as explosive,” Woods said.

“I wasn’t as strong because I couldn’t burn the candle at both ends. I couldn’t lift the weights that I’m used to, or accustomed to lifting as well as playing and practicing.”

He added: “Eventually the game started to deteriorate a little bit because physically I couldn’t - I wasn’t in good enough shape to maintain it.”

Woods’ discourse on the exercise physiology behind his swing served as a reminder of how he changed the game with his focus - some might call it a borderline obsession - on athleticism and not only swing mechanics.

Like Washington's injured quarterback Robert Griffin III, Woods plays a different game from his peers, one more taxing on his joints and more violent.

His challenge has always been to find a swing and a fitness level that could accommodate his body’s torque and the rigors of the PGA Tour schedule and his trips to distant places like India to try to build the game.

“I’ve got my strength where I want to have it,” Woods said. “Now I just need to get my fast twitch going and get my speed back, and that’s going to take a little bit of time.”

He added: "I'm right on my timeline, so that's perfect." Last month Woods stopped working with Sean Foley, his swing coach since 2010 and the third he has employed, after Butch Harmon and Hank Haney, since turning professional in 1996. "Am I looking for a new coach?" Woods said. "As of right now, no, I'm not."

As long as his focus is on his gym work, Woods said, he is in no hurry to hire an instructor. McIlroy’s suggestion that Mickelson, 44, and Woods are well into the back nine of their careers made Woods laugh. “I thought it was funny,” he said.

With a laugh, he added, “Phil has less holes to play than I do, though.” Mickelson has won five majors and is preparing for his 10th Ryder Cup appearance, a feat Woods described as “pretty remarkable.”

New York Times