The Waste Management Phoenix Open is often called the Greatest Show on Grass. As in many big productions there are big hits and big flops. Today the show was a flop for the greatest player of our time.
Tiger Woods brought his injury free body and new swing to Phoenix for the first time since 2001 and the fans and fellow professionals were primed for a big start from Tiger. 
Unfortunately, Woods didn’t deliver. If this was a Broadway show it would have closed down on opening night.
Tiger has been searching for more speed with his swing and if that is all he was looking for today was successful. According to the Golf Channel Woods swung the club at 121.46 mph, the fastest swing speed since 2008. But he couldn’t seem to square the clubface and we saw an assortment of pushes, slices and hooks that left Woods visiting the desert more often than he would have liked.
It didn’t matter if it was driver, three wood or irons he was spraying the ball with them all. But we have seen that before but Woods could always score. In his prime Tiger could make a birdie from the parking lot because his short game was so good he could recover from anywhere.
This is what was so very shocking about Woods’ game today. He only hit ten of eighteen greens and he would need his chipping game to bail him out. But to say he struggled with his chipping doesn’t convey the level of ineptitude that Woods displayed during this dreadful round.
He tried bumping some short chips up the slopes but that failed. He tried standard chip shots but that failed. Bumps with 4-irons, chips and flops with sand wedges saw the ball land short of the greens or squirm past the hole and off the green.
The greatest player of the day looked like a 20 handicapper as he chunked, skulled, bladed and flopped his way to al level of mediocrity he’s never seen before.
It was so bad, his confidence shaken so greatly that he was reduced to using his putter from off the green. Now I bet if Woods was playing a friendly game with his buddies Michael Jordan or Ahmad Rashad and they pulled out the putter on a chip shot he would have given them the business.
But that was how bad it got for Woods today. Putter from off the green is a standard play at St. Andrews but TPC Scottsdale is a long way from a links.
I can imagine what his partners were thinking. Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth didn’t light it up and I can’t help but wonder that Woods was dragging them down.
It’s difficult to play and focus when one in your group is hacking it around like a true beginner. And witnessing Woods’ freefall had to be painful.
Woods finally made some good shots late in the round and was able to eagle thirteen and birdie seventeen but he had ballooned to five over by then. It was scramble to get back to two over par for the day.
Tiger has certainly had worse scoring rounds but this was his highest score to open the season since he turned professional.
The score shouldn’t be what worries Woods. It’s the total lack of a short game. Woods once ruled the world because of his chipping game and his putter. There was no sign of that gifted short game today.
He needs to find it quickly or he’ll be spending the weekend watching the Super Bowl pre-game.
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