Tiger Woods gearing up for U.S. Open

For the second year in a row, Woods failed to advance to the Tour Championship. Woods followed a T-58 finish at TPC Boston with another largely listless performance at the BMW Championship, failing to break par in any of his four rounds on the difficult North Course at Olympia Fields.

Needing a top-5 finish at the start of the week, Woods was outside the top 50 when he signed his final scorecard of the season.

“I didn’t play as well as I wanted to the first couple days,” Woods said after a final-round 71, his best score of the week. “Today was nice. I hit the ball really well and made only a couple putts. But today was more indicative of how I want to play in a couple weeks.”

The 2019-20 season hasn’t been normal for anyone on the PGA Tour, but Woods’ schedule was especially altered in light of the COVID-19 conditions.

While he won his first start of the season at the Zozo Championship, he made just six more starts the rest of the season.

Although he won’t defend his title, he might well do it at an old haunt.

The PGA Tour officially announced Monday night that this fall's event will move to Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, and be temporarily rechristened the Zozo Championship @ Sherwood.

Per the Tour's release, the move is the result of "unprecedented challenges" and "unique circumstances" — namely, the ongoing COIVD-19 pandemic. The Zozo, scheduled for Oct. 22-25, made its Tour debut last year, with Woods winning his 82nd Tour title, tying Sam Snead for the all-time record.

These last two weeks were the first time he played in back-to-back weeks since December, when he went straight from the Hero World Challenge to the Presidents Cup. Woods described it as “a very awkward year” and a “difficult season” amid unprecedented conditions and cancellations.

But while he left last year’s BMW at nearby Medinah and went straight to the operating table to clean up his balky knee, this time around he intends to maintain both his focus and prep with another major just around the corner – and a Masters title defence still looming.

“This was a great ramp-up for me for the U.S. Open,” Woods said. “I wish I was playing next week, but I’ve got a couple weeks off.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3blvTx7