One word best describes Tiger Woods’ history at Liberty National, where the Northern Trust begins Thursday as the first of the three-leg FedExCup Playoffs: complicated.
Woods has played two previous tournaments at Liberty National — the golf course that represents the gold standard in television eye candy with majestic views of the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty — and finished second in both, in 2009 and 2013.
That might suggest that there’s a simpatico between Woods and the golf course. Except that hasn’t necessarily always been the case.
Liberty National’s par-5 13th hole became one of the most harrowing places of his career when he fell to his knees writhing in back pain after trying to reach the green with a 3-wood in the final round in 2013.
Four years later, with his career in peril after a fourth back surgery, Woods, as a non-playing vice captain for the U.S. in the Presidents Cup at Liberty National, told reporters, “I don’t know what my future holds for me.’’
When asked if he could see a scenario where he could not return to competitive golf, Woods said, “Yeah, definitely.”
And then, of course, there was Woods’ first visit to Liberty National, at the 2009 Barclays, when he jokingly told a pro-am partner that he wondered if course co-designer Tom Kite had designed Liberty National “before or after he had his eyes fixed.’’
In fairness to Woods, who undoubtedly was having a laugh with his pro-am partners, he was unfairly outed by the guy who was quick to blab it to a reporter.
Later that week, when Woods was asked what he thought of the golf course, he didn’t exactly make amends for his Kite comment when he said, “It’s interesting.”
Asked to elaborate, Woods repeated: “It’s interesting.”
As ringing endorsements go, it was a triple bogey.
When Dan Fireman, the president of Liberty National and son of its founder, was asked Wednesday about his recollection of those early Woods assessments, he said, “Obviously, it didn’t feel great. But we’re big boys, and we recognize that every great course changes over time.’’
One high-ranking long-time Liberty National official told The Post, “The things Tiger said really hurt the club for a couple of years. It took us a while to recover from that.’’
In 2010, at the request of the PGA Tour, which wanted to conduct more events at the course, and at the suggestions of some players the Firemans consulted (including Phil Mickelson, who’s a member), changes were made on 15 of the 18 holes to soften the course.
When I asked Woods after his pro-am round Wednesday how he’d characterize his relationship with Liberty National and if he felt badly about some of the negative comments he made in 2009, he deftly answered the question as if he hadn’t even listened to the contents of my actual question.
“Well, the golf course has a lot of movement to it,’’ Woods began. “It’s got a lot of undulations on the greens. It’s got a lot of undulations in the fairways, and especially off the fairways. This course puts a huge premium on driving the ball in the fairway.’’
Um, OK. Now that we got that out of the way … what can we expect out of Woods this week?
He raised eyebrows on Wednesday by opting not to hit a full shot in the pro-am on the back nine. The last driver Woods hit was on No. 8 and the last full shot he hit was his approach into No. 10. Other than that, all he did was chip and putt.
“[I was] just feeling stiff, [and] being smart about it,’’ Woods said. “[It’s] what I did pre-Augusta, where I chipped and putted for nine holes. Same thing.’’
Woods played nine holes on Tuesday with Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Harold Varner III and said he felt “great.’’
“Some days I’m stiffer than others,’’ Woods said. “[Tuesday], I was out there hitting it great, driving it out there with Brooksy and DJ. Today, I’m stiff. Hopefully I’m not that way tomorrow.’’
Which leads us to this question: Which Woods will show up this week at Liberty?
The Woods who won the Masters in April, or the Woods who since that Masters victory has missed cuts at the PGA Championship and British Open, tied for ninth at the Memorial and tied for 21st at the U.S. Open?
“That’s part of the intrigue of Tiger,’’ NBC analyst Paul Azinger said. “What Tiger is going to show up? The intrigue [is] like watching these heavyweights come into the ring and the anticipation of when that bell rings what’s going to happen first. We don’t know. That’s why the mystery surrounding Tiger I think makes him that much more intriguing.’’
This is why we all tune in.
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