Tiger’s New Attitude

by Jeff Skinner

After Tiger Woods’ world unraveled in such a public way I thought he could never surprise me again.  But don’t ever count Tiger out when it come to surprises.  He actually said he tried to play relaxed on Saturday and it didn’t work out for him.

Q.  Does it just boil down to the first eight holes yesterday?

TIGER WOODS:  Yeah, absolutely.  I was right there, and I was telling Peter over there, that I came out with probably the wrong attitude yesterday.  And I was too relaxed, and tried to enjoy it, and that’s not how I play.  I play intense and full systems go.  That cost me.

Q.  Is that something you’re consciously trying to change, because the weekends  

TIGER WOODS:  I was just trying to,  I was trying to enjoy it, enjoy the process of it.  But that’s not how I play.  I play full systems go, all out, intense, and that’s how I won 14 of these things.

You know, that’s something I rectified today, and I played a lot better because of it.

Q.  You said you changed your mental approach to enjoy a little more yesterday; why would you change, when you know how to get it done and you’ve done it so many times before?

TIGER WOODS:  I was just trying to be, you know, a little bit happy out there and enjoy it, and that’s unfortunately… that’s not how I play.  You know how I am.  I’m intense and I’m focused on what I’m doing and nothing else matters.  I got back to that today and I hit some really good shots and I played the way that I know I can play.

That’s classic Tiger: everyone else tries to relax on the course but he can’t play unless he has that gargantuan chip on his shoulder.  He was too relaxed and tried to enjoy it but that didn’t work out for him.  Man, he’s a different breed of cat.

Then he said something that has to make Tim Finchem smile.  That there are some big tournaments coming up.

Q.  You have worked so hard to get yourself into contention in the majors, three off the four majors this year    what’s the difference and how do you explain?

TIGER WOODS:  The thing is, to keep putting myself there.  I’m not going to win them all and I haven’t won them all.  So I certainly have lost a lot more than I’ve won.  But the key is putting myself there each and every time, and you know, I’ll start getting them again.  So we got a lot of golf to be played the rest of the year, some big events coming up and The Ryder Cup at the end of it.  So looking forward to that.

Hmm…big events?   Could he mean the FedEx Cup Playoffs?  Wow, who is this guy?  For years it was all about the majors for Tiger.  His life revolved around the majors and a season without a major was a failure.  Well since his last major win at the 2008 U.S. Open his attitude has changed.  Now without a major in over four years maybe the FedEx Cup Playoffs have become relevant?  Funny how perspectives can change.