56 Tuesday May 17 2022 | the times
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return to make a Masters Sunday with-
in 14 months added to the legend — and
airbrushed any past misdemeanours.
In a way Woods has already won
again, at least when it comes to his rival-
ry with Mickelson. His own reputation
was also in pieces in 2010 when he
came back from the detritus of scandal
to face the music at the Masters. That
included the famous violin solo from
the Augusta National chairman Billy
Payne, who reminded us that the
philanderer’s “egregious” conduct had
upset the grandkids.
If the “crime” was different, chasing
women rather than dollars, the dis-appointment also stemmed from du-
plicitousness. Now the top brass can’t
get enough of Woods, especially with
Greg Norman threatening to choose
this week to release the first names of
those signed up to the Saudi-funded
LIV Golf Invitational Series.
Woods played a practice round on
Sunday and was in an upbeat mood.
“I’ve gotten a lot stronger since the
Masters,” he said afterwards. “We went
back to work on Tuesday. Monday was
awful — I did nothing — and Tuesday
was leg day. We went right back after it.
Everything is better.” A 358-yard drive
suggested that the power levels are up.Woods, who won at Southern Hills in 2007, said after Sunday’s practice round that he is “a lot stronger since the Masters”Phil Mickelson may have bigger things
to worry about these days, but it is easy
to imagine him sitting in self-inflicted
exile and bristling as his old nemesis
basks in the warm glow of his own
revival.
Mickelson will not be at Southern
Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma this week to
defend one of the most remarkable
PGA Championship triumphs of all,
when he set a new record as the oldest,
if not necessarily wisest, major winner
as a slimmed-down 50-year-old.
Instead, he will be in limbo after being
exposed as a key figure in Saudi Arabia’s
$2 billion (about £1.6 billion) break-
away.
Effectively, the six-times major win-
ner admitted to using Saudi interest to
gain leverage and force the PGA Tour
to offer better financial returns. The
human rights issue was acknowledged
and dismissed, money outweighing any
qualms about people he called both
“scary motherf***ers” and “visionar-
ies”, but the ensuing furore provoked
his present career break. For all we
know he is banned, but the inexplicable
lack of transparency at the PGA Tour,
where disciplinary measures are kept
secret, means nobody is saying. Either
way, he is not ready to return, but Alan
Shipnuck’s new biography, Phil, is out
today for those needing a fix.
Many will think that Mickelson and
the Saudis deserve each other but in his
absence Tiger Woods, only 46, will line
up for the first time since he made the
cut at the Masters last month. After fin-
ishing 47th at the Augusta National,
while the likes of Jordan Spieth, Brooks
Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau
missed the weekend, Woods said it was
his greatest non-win.
“I wake up and start the fight all over
again,” he said of his plans. America
swooned. He also repeated his time-
worn mantra: the one that sounded like
pure denial during five years without a
win and 11 without a major. “If I feel like
I can win, I’m going to play,” he said last
month. “If I feel like I can’t then you
won’t see me out here.” When he won
previously to end those droughts, at the
Tour Championship in 2018 and then
the Masters in 2019, Woods was back on
the pedestal. To then come close to los-
ing his leg in a car crash last year and
As it happens, Southern Hills has a
history of true crime and real scandal.
In 1981 a Tulsa businessman and club
member named Roger Wheeler was
shot dead in the car park after his
Wednesday game, a victim of corrupt
FBI men and the Winter Hill Gang
headed by the notorious Boston
gangster Whitey Bulger, who was later
portrayed by Johnny Depp in the
Hollywood film Black Mass. Wheeler
had found out that the gang and their
connections were “skimming” money
from one of his businesses. The PGA
Championship was staged at Southern
Hills the following year. Decades later a
mob hitman, Johnny Martorano, cut a
deal and confessed to 20 murders
including that of Wheeler. He got out of
jail in 2007 and was given $20,000 of
government money to start a new life.
Five months later, Woods won the PGA
title at Southern Hills, the 13th of his
15th majors.
His chances of winning there again
are modest but surely better than at the
Masters. This is the new reality for
Woods as he makes slow progress.
Having distanced himself from the
Saudi millions — why would he need
that sort of baggage or money? — he
will play sparingly. At Augusta, when he
finished with a pronounced limp, he ad-
mitted that he will never get any more
mobility in his damaged leg but said it
would get stronger. He hasn’t finished
in the top ten since January 2020 and
hasn’t won a tournament since October
2019, although those displays are recent... and he has previous form here
This is the fifth PGA Championship to
take place at Southern Hills in Tulsa.
The previous one was 15 years ago and
was won by a comparatively youthful
Tiger Woods. After an opening round
of 71, he shot 63 on the Friday,
equalling the record at the time for the
lowest round in major championshiphistory, before recording back-to-back
rounds of 69 over the weekend to
secure his 13th major title. Woods won
the US Open the next year before
embarking on an 11-year major
drought, which ended at the Masters
in 2019. Can he roll back the years
and deliver No 16 in Oklahoma?Par Birdie Bogey ScoreThe day Tiger conquered Southern Hills
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 70Par 4 4 4 4 5 3 4 3 4 35 4 3 4 5 3 4 4 4 4 35 70
Round 2 3 4 4 3 4 3 5 3 3 32 3 3 4 4 2 3 4 4 4 31 63OUT IN2007 PGA Championshipd
i
j‘Secret’ trip and sunnier outlook
raise hopes of a Tiger fairytale
enough to suggest that his talent is not
yet burnt up if he can cope with a lack
of competitive warm-ups.
One man backing Woods to fare well
is Cary Cozby, the Southern Hills
director of golf who caddied for him
during a reconnaissance trip a fortnight
ago. That, too, caused a murmur of
disquiet, with the wife of Patrick Reed
believed to be behind a tweet that
referenced a photograph of Woods and
Cozby alongside the message: “I
wonder what it’s like to have the
director of golf at Southern Hills give
you ALL the course notes for the up-
coming PGA. Do all players get this
treatment? For Tiger this is just embar-
rassing that the PGA posted this photo
and very telling.”
It turned out that Reed had also been
warmly welcomed at the course. Per-
haps the disgruntlement arose because
Cozby said Woods’s arrival had been
akin to Beatlemania, whereas Reed’s
mission roused as much interest as a
bloke playing the spoons in the local bar
and grill.
During this supposedly “secret” trip,
Cozby said that there was a helicopter
on the 2nd, about 70 people watching
from a hill and another 40 in trees op-
posite the 6th. “It’s amazing what he has
to deal with on a daily basis,” Cozby said
of Woods, before suggesting changes
made to the course since 2007 would
help him. “I think he can contend. He’s
like Michael Jordan late in his career,
playing defence and hitting jump shots.
Whoever wins here is going to have to
be a great chipper and he is still that.”
Watching Woods at the Masters, and
listening to him, made it easy to believe
the car-crash comeback is a challenge
that has given him a new incentive and
appealed to his indomitable will. For
Seth Waugh, the chief executive of the
PGA of America, which stages the
event, Woods will be the ideal boost
after Mickelson’s withdrawal and all the
Saudi talk.
Shipnuck’s book provides insights
into the Woods psyche as well the
Mickelson one. According to Shipnuck,
Mickelson is a gambler and egotist,
signing autographs for effect, the man
that his mocking peers dubbed “Gen-
ius” and “FIGJAM” (f*** I’m good, just
ask me), but also a man capable of acts
of random kindness and care. He has
had to deal with intrusive rumour, even
getting a private investigator to find out
who was spreading unfounded ru-
mours of a love child. The subtitle calls
him golf’s most colourful player and his
obvious concern about what Shipnuck
was writing is an instructive subplot.
Shipnuck’s book also includes testi-
mony from Charles Barkley, the former
NBA player who has known both well.
“Tiger won a bunch of tournaments but
there wasn’t much joy in it,” he said.
“Sure, Tiger is the better golfer. You’re
just in awe of his talent. But it’s not fun
to be around him. Everyone in his world
is uptight [and] afraid to say or do the
wrong thing. Tiger himself always acted
like he’s under siege. Gimme a f***in’
break — you’re just a golfer, dude.
When you’re with Phil, you’re guaran-
teed to have fun.” He concluded: “One
of the reasons Phil has lasted so long is
because he has had a joyful life.”
Woods now seems happier too,
which might be the final insult. The
reversal of fortunes means that, regard-
less of whether he plays this week,
Woods will continue on what is likely to
be a long and celebrated final chapter,
while the PGA champion makes do
with his memories and Saudi millions.ANDREW REDINGTON/GETTY IMAGESPGA
ChampionshipSouthern Hills, Oklahoma
Thursday to Sunday
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from 1pmRick Broadbent