Tiger Woods isn’t playing this week’s Hero World Challenge — but he’s still making his presence felt.
Woods, whose pre-tournament press conference included some hints about a change in direction for the PGA Tour, has been on property at Albany throughout the week serving as tournament host. On Saturday he stalked the range pre-round, visiting with contenders — including Sweden’s Alex Noren, who he chatted up and queried about his swing.
We’ve seen and heard plenty of evidence already this week that Woods is invested in the modern game; read how Woods described what he admires about the game of World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler:
“Of Scottie’s game? Yeah, I truly love watching him hit irons, the shaped shots that he hits, the trajectory, the window changes that he has, the distance control, the miss in the proper spot, the proper spin in certain pin locations,” Woods said. “These are all subtle things that mean a lot over the course of 72 holes. That to me is impressive. If you don’t have trajectory control, you can’t have distance control. To see him move it up and down in different windows, use wind, fight wind and control spin is fun to watch.”
(That was just part of his answer.)
Noren is a fascinating guy to watch practice given his unique pre-shot routines and his inclination to dig it out of the dirt. He’s also at a fascinating place in his career, the kind of guy who served as assistant captain for this year’s European Ryder Cup team but also nearly played his way onto it.
Whatever Woods said to Noren had a positive effect: he started par-birdie-eagle and played his way into the penultimate final-round pairing after a five-under 67. He’ll start Sunday’s final round in T3, three shots off Sepp Straka’s lead and two behind World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Noren won DP World Tour events in August and September and played his way inside the top 20 in the world; one more top finish would cap off a strong final third to his year.
“Last year I took a lot of time off and kind of worked a lot on my game, but this year I tried to play more tournaments this end of the season,” Noren said. “You see where you’re at for next year. Then I have about a month and a half to kind of fix the things that I don’t like right now and fine-tune it.”
As for his visit with Woods? Noren could only grin.
“Yeah, it’s amazing. I grew up idolizing Tiger,” he said. “That was a perfect time in my life. I was 18 in 2000, 16 in ’98 when he kind of came on. So yeah, I mean, I have so much respect for him and admiration.
“And seeing him out there and asking questions and — not that he’s asking questions for his own [benefit], but I think he just loves golf and it was good to talk to him.”
Woods, who turns 50 later this month, has a career resume that’s the envy of the entire golf world. But at 43, Noren has something Woods desperately wishes was his:
A chance to win the Hero World Challenge on Sunday.
