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Tiger Woods and Oak Hill’s Greens, The Saga Continues

Published

12 years ago

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Tiger Woods’ opening-round 66 at Firestone was notable, to be sure. The world No. 1 made it around the South Course’s front nine (his back nine) in an impressive 4-under after a ho-hum opening nine.

However, for 14-time major winner, who has won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational seven times, a quality opening round is routine. Ripping the greens of the course that’s slated to host the next major, less so. Thus, Tiger Woods’ remarks Wednesday about the course he played Tuesday — Oak Hill, site of the coming PGA Championship — continued to dominate Woods-related headlines Thursday, as it were.

As Woods said Wednesday about the greens at Oak HIll,

“They don’t have much thatch to them, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do for the tournament and how much they’re able to speed them up with kind of a lack of grass.”

Further, the golfer indicated that the greens were rolling near a nine on the Stimpmeter during his practice round, which is unsatisfactorily slow for a major championship, obviously.

Predictably, intrepid reporters clamored to get the New York course’s superintendent, Jeff Corcoran, on the horn Thursday.

Eventually, Corcoran provided both explanations and puzzling soundbytes Thursday, such as the following:

“You don’t tell a marathon runner to go out and run a marathon just before you run a marathon.”

Further, Oak Hill’s super said:

“In regards to Tiger’s…comments, he hit it right on the head. We were trying to give the greens a rest before we head into a very stressful week. …When he was here [Tuesday], we were playing defense. We didn’t mow that day, didn’t roll [the greens] that day. We’ve had an extremely tough summer. We’ll have the green speeds up; they’ll roll fine.”

Well enough. If the superintendent says the course will be ready, we have to take him at his word. What do we make of Tiger’s comments, though?

Did Woods offer a casual, honest assessment, which leant itself to “Tiger Calls Oak Hill Crap” type of incendiary headlines? When asked how the course played during his practice round, should he have said, “It was great, next question!”

Under the “everybody plays the same course” school of thought, there’s not a great deal of sympathy when players are critical of course conditions, generally speaking. Was Woods really being critical, though? He certainly didn’t seem to be dishing out praise, at the very least.

Regardless of what we consider Woods’ intent to be in making his blunt assessment, it’s almost certain the saga will continue: We’ll hear much more about Oak Hill’s greens, and Woods will be hit with continued questions in the coming week.

Woods, at least, was impressed by something: his playing partner Thursday, Hideki Matsuyama.

“He has a boatload of talent,” Woods said about the 21-year-old Japanese standout. “He knows what he’s doing out there. And the more time he is out here, the older he gets, he will develop more shots. The talent is there.”

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Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Tiger Woods

    Aug 5, 2013 at 11:50 am

    Stop bashing me guys! I’ll stop responding now and go back to my girlfriends… I mean girlfriend. Whoops.

    Reply Report comment

  2. Whatever

    Aug 4, 2013 at 9:19 am

    Who cares what he says about anything……….blah blah blah.

    Reply Report comment

  3. Ryan

    Aug 2, 2013 at 4:44 pm

    A little dissapointing that golfwrx allows these types of articles to be put on their site.

    Reply Report comment

  4. Michael

    Aug 2, 2013 at 2:09 pm

    If you listen to the entirety of Tiger’s comments, the buzz about the greens is much ado about nothing. He was answering an interesting question honestly, and gave Oak Hill their props acknowledging the grass has been under stress and affirming they are doing what it take to get them ready for next week.

    Reply Report comment

  5. RCM1301

    Aug 2, 2013 at 2:03 pm

    The problem is not Tiger, it’s the Media.

    Reply Report comment

  6. Timothy Young

    Aug 2, 2013 at 11:55 am

    Agreed, this is very non-headline making. Yet the media HAS to make it so because its Tiger. He just answered a question honestly. When he was there a week prior to the major event the greens were slow and he wasn’t sure if they’d be able to do anything about based on what he saw.

    Reply Report comment

  7. Steve Barry

    Aug 2, 2013 at 11:09 am

    Unreal, and people wonder why Tiger is so robotic when it comes to answering questions. He gives one honest answer and this is what happens. Everything he said makes sense and it was an honest assessment. He didn’t say they were crap or unplayable or anything like that, just said they were slow and there wasn’t a lot of grass to work with. What’s wrong with that?

    Reply Report comment

  8. sturg

    Aug 2, 2013 at 11:09 am

    I don’t get the headlines. He didn’t “rip” the course. He was asked a question and gave an honest answer. The are rolling at a 9, which is too slow for a major championship

    Reply Report comment

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