Tiger Woods has a lot of work to do Sunday at the PGA Championship.
We’re not talking about what it would take to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy come day’s end, because barring a miracle, that appears out of even his remarkable reach, with Woods 11 shots back and 58 players between him and the lead as he starts the final round.
We’re talking about the state of his game amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, with Woods having work to do to get the rust off that’s built in all his down time this year, with the PGA Championship just his second start in nearly six months.
There’s still a lot of opportunity that a strong finish today can can help him seize upon, including the return of some confidence in his putter. He’s 60th in the field in strokes gained: putting.
“We have some big events to be played, and, hopefully, I can shoot something in the red and get it to under par for the tournament,” Woods said after Saturday’s round. “Hopefully, I can do that.”
There’s a lot of big events packed into the remainder of this year’s revised schedule, with the FedExCup Playoffs beginning in a couple weeks, with the U.S. Open next month and then the Masters in November.
Actually, the next 11 months offer him major opportunities like never before, with six majors to be played in that time span.
Woods is looking at the possibility of playing three straight events to get himself inside the top 30 in FedExCup playoff points heading to the Tour Championship. The first playoff event is the Northern Trust, scheduled to begin Aug. 20. He was 28th in FedExCup points when the pandemic shut down play. He’s 48th now.
