AUSTIN, Texas – Tiger Woods smiled following his final tuneup for this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
“It’s been a while,” he said.
More specifically, it’s been a half dozen years since Woods last played the PGA Tour’s version of March Madness. He also could have been referring to his shockingly rare appearance in Texas.
It’s something of a Lone Star curiosity for Woods that the last time he played an event in Texas was 2005 (AT&T Byron Nelson), and he’s won just two Tour events (1997 Nelson and 1999 Tour Championship) in arguably the nation’s most golf-rich state.
This will be Woods’ 12th start in Texas in his career. By comparison, he’s played 51 Tour events in his home state of California and 54 in Florida, his adopted home state.
The annual stops in Texas just never really fit into a schedule that, considering the results, was always beyond reproach. But if his competitive aversion for Texas never matched that of other venues, his affinity for the Match Play has never been questioned.
A week full of matches defined by final-round pressure has historically been when Woods was at his best. Being able to give an opponent the thousand-yard stare was more than enough reason to look forward to the circuit’s annual match-play experiment.
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From his three Match Play titles to the type of beatdown (9 and 8) that turns a proper noun (Stephen Ames) into a verb (as in, you just got Stephen Ames’ed), Woods’ match-play record is exactly what one would expect.
He could do things with a golf ball that other players considered impossible, but broken down in the simplest competitive terms it was his mind that truly separated him from the pack.
“You can’t put blinders on and play your own game, but also I can’t look at my opponent the entire time,” he explained on Tuesday. “It’s the ebb and flow of each and every shot, and each and every hole is its own match. And that’s something that for the better part of my career I’ve been good at, feel what I need to do in that particular moment.”
But for all his success in the mano-a-mano format, it hasn’t always been rainbows and unicorns at the Match Play for Woods. He’s lost in the first round three times in 13 starts, falling to the heavyweight likes of Peter O’Malley (2002), Thomas Bjorn (2011) and Charles Howell III (2013), and has been sent packing on Day 2 three times.
The win-or-go-home urgency has changed since Woods last played the event in 2013, with officials installing pool play for the first three rounds to assure that everyone makes it to Friday. But without any practical experience with the new format, Woods figured it’s best to consider each bout a “must-win.”
That’s not a bad idea considering his Day 1 opponent is Aaron Wise. On paper this might have all the trappings of quick work for Woods. Wise has fewer starts in his Tour career (46) than Woods has victories (80), and the 22-year-old was still a newborn when Woods made his first Tour start as a professional in 1996.
But match play, like Austin, is weird.
“You have to be wary of the guy that just sneaks in, because he’s going to be excited and motivated and it’s an opportunity,” Paul Casey warned of the underdog opponent. “The underdogs sometimes have good history against Tiger.”
Just ask O’Malley, Bjorn and Howell.
But even after all the starts and stops of the last decade for Woods, the injuries and self-imposed exiles from the game, his match-play shine has remained largely untarnished.
“I wish you had to play him, I’ll tell you that. I think you’ve probably seen it, to say that he’s relaxed and maybe more approachable, maybe more humble. I think you could use all those words,” Jim Furyk said. “But as far as like lost an edge or competitiveness, I sure wish you had to play him, instead of me.”
Woods has embraced all of those things since he began his most recent comeback last season. He’s approachable and, yes, even a little humble, but that’s more about the 43-year-old becoming self-aware about his legacy and perhaps his longevity, not being soft.
Six years away from the Match Play have certainly proven that. There’s a unique hunger for Woods this week, not just to go through the motions at another event but to prove that the heart of a competitive assassin still beats in the format that demands clinical detachment.
“I really haven’t played a whole lot of match play since 2013 and I’m looking forward to it,” Woods said. “I’m looking forward to the fact that I just get to focus on one guy. Each and every shot is different, and you don’t really care what the rest of the field is doing. I just have to beat the guy standing in front of me.”
Match play can be cruel. You can shoot 6 under and lose, or 2 over and win. Woods knowns this. But he also knows that this format brings out the best of what made him truly unique.