Golf

Tiger Woods’ Level of Preparation For A Major: Still Frightening

The PGA Championship starts tomorrow, and as with any tournament Tiger Woods plays in, all eyes will be on Tiger Woods. Of course, the eyes on Tiger aren’t quite for the same reasons as they used to be – people are watching him in hopes he’ll play like vintage Tiger, not out of the expectation he’ll do something spectacular. And even though Tiger’s recent play suggests he won’t be hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday, we can take heart in this: he’s at least practicing like vintage Tiger. Which is to say, maniacally. Via Nike Golf, the scene at Atlanta Athletic Club this morning:

That photo was taken at 6:30 a.m. According to Nike, Tiger was the only person there. Golf Channel’s Jason Sobel said he’d heard Tiger not only arrived before everyone this morning, but stayed after everyone left last night. It’s a terrific photo, the picture of a proud champion determined to regain his old form simply by working harder at his craft than anyone else. Of course, lest we let our guards down, CNBC’s Darren Rovell (who loved the photo himself) can’t get the thought out of his mind that maybe the shot’s a little too good:

The shot of Tiger on the driving range at 630 is awesome. Just hope Nike didn’t put him up to it for some future ad.

It does looks ready-made for an ad, doesn’t it? Like, with a voiceover from Tiger about how when you hit a rough patch, the only way out is to – please, God, no – just do it? (Ugh. Sorry.) Of course, that message will take on a lot more resonance if Tiger, say, wins the PGA this weekend. And if he does that, even if the above photo is part of some shameless ad campaign (which it sort if is already through being posted on Nike Golf’s Twitter feed, we guess), we’ll all be a lot more forgiving.