Playing golf with Tiger Woods feels different now

As a player this week, Woods can still intimidate his opponents, but around his teammates, he happens to be the same accessible leader as as an assistant captain at the 2016 event, when he shared his knowledge and encouraged American players to tap into his experience. He showed them a team that older players were entitled to, such as when Bubba Watson, 39, played in a tournament in Japan years ago and worked with Woods on video games.

But the week after the Ryder Cup, the calendar of the golf season is back. When Woods returns to the competition – probably not until the beginning of December at the event he is hosting in the Bahamas – it will be interesting to see which Tiger the other players will face.

Will it be College Woods who spoke with DeChambeau at TPC Boston and Rory McIlroy on Sunday at the championship? Or the Woods who have been isolated from the world and have disconcerted their opponents by introducing themselves? Woods told a friend last year that he hoped the youngest players would feel the heat of playing the last nine games of a tournament on Sunday when he was in the lead, a scenario that took place in the Championship. of the Tour.

"A lot of these guys have not played against me yet," Woods said. "I think when my game is there, I think I've always been a hard person to beat. They joked that "we want to go against you". Here. "

Playing with the lead on Sunday, Woods took a conservative approach and let McIlroy and Justin Rose, his two closest rivals enter the final round, fight, which they did, covering the last 18 of seven combined . It looked strangely like 2008 once again, when Woods' opponents knew he was going to win and he knew his opponents knew he was going to win.

"It was a different atmosphere around Tiger at that time, and he used it to his advantage," Scott said.

Billy Horschel was second in the championship, finishing two strokes after scoring five times better than Woods, 71. While heading to the 17th start of the East Lake Golf Club, Horschel battled Woods. who was walking the 14th fairway. Horschel thought of saying something to Woods, but he saw his expression. Horschel stopped and let it pass, as a tennis player giving way to another at a change, and never uttered a word.

Why?

"Tiger looked like the old Tiger," said Horschel.