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Tiger Woods is all smiles as he says he’s good to go to start the WGC Cadillac Championship.
DORAL, Fla. – Tiger Woods will play the WGC Cadillac Championship after pulling out of the Honda Classic with back spams.
“It’s better, how bout that?” Woods said at his pre-tournament press conference Wednesday afternoon. “I feel good. It’s been a long couple days of just treatment nonstop, trying to get everything calmed down, first of all, get all the inflammation out and from there, getting the firing sequence right again, getting everything firing in the proper sequence. And once we did that today, feels good.”
He will tee off on Trump National Doral’s redone Blue Monster Thursday at 12:30 p.m. with Henrik Stenson and Adam Scott, who has a chance to overtake Woods for the top spot in the World Rankings this week.
Woods planned only to walk the course with caddie Joe LaCava in order to get some feel for the dramatic changes made by architect Gil Hanse since he won for the fourth time here last year.
“I’ve got no idea about what that golf course holds out there except for what is on video, that’s it,” he said. “Joey came down here and tried to describe some of the holes and I’m like, ‘What, there’s water on that hole?’ ‘Yeah.’
“So there are a few changes I need to go see,” he said. “I’m not going to play. I’m just going to chip and putt and get a feel for how the grass is and if it’s different from what it was the last time we played, green speeds, slopes. Joey has a couple books he wants me to take a look at on the place, and we are going to go from there.”
Chris Trotman/Getty Images
Tiger Woods doesn’t get a practice round in to check out the new-look Trump National like Rory McIlroy (above).
Woods hit balls Tuesday but only 60-yard shots so he could keep his “feels.”
He said it wasn’t the pain that got him Sunday. He just couldn’t turn. He said it was “totally different” than playing through a knee injury and leg fracture to win the 2008 U.S. Open.
“It was totally different, it’s after impact,” he explained. “So my leg was busted. I could deliver the club to however I wanted to on the golf ball. It was just going to hurt like hell afterwards. The ball is gone; it’s already left the face and the pain sets in; OK, fine. This was different because it effects downswing, follow through, and it was getting so tight that I felt like I couldn’t move.
“I was telling (his daughter) Sam when I was walking off that, ‘Hey, Daddy can handle pain,’ but I just couldn’t move out there. I got to a point where I couldn’t twist. So try and explain to your six year old daughter why you quit is certainly a very interesting concept and topic.”
Woods said he would have no hesitancy taking full swings Thursday.
“My treatments have been fantastic,” he said. “It’s annoying being poked and prodded all the time, but it’s got me to a point where I can do this today, and tomorrow I’ll be able to hit more full shots and go all out.”
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