Tiger Woods turned around his putting in one round. He has one subtle fix to thank

Putting, putted, putts. 

Three times, over his first answer and about the first 30 seconds in his press conference after Saturday’s Genesis Invitational third round, Tiger Woods said a variation of one word. It was both a point of emphasis and pride. 

“Tiger, great playing today. Just a general assessment before we take some questions.” 

“Yeah, today was better,” he said. “I felt like I made some nice adjustments with my putting, and that was the thing that held me back yesterday. I’ve driven it well the last three days. My iron play has been good. And the firm conditions I like; that’s kind of right up my alley with iron play. Just wish I could have putted a little bit better yesterday. I made a few adjustments today and some of the putts went in.”

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Let’s stick to the press conference theme for a second, and go back to Friday, and the second round. Our word of the day was on repeat there, too, right from the start. 

“Tiger, tough finish. Just some comments on the day.” 

“Yeah, that did not — I did not putt well today, I blocked a lot of putts early, and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today. Probably should have shot probably five or six better than this easily. Just didn’t make the putts early and the middle part of the round, when I had those opportunities. And they weren’t very hard putts. I just hit bad putts and obviously had a very bad finish, too.”

If you’re keeping track at home, that’s three ‘putts’ on Saturday, and five on Friday. How fitting. 

At the Genesis, in this latest Woods return, we knew this would be an area of concern. He hadn’t played since the Open Championship last July. He had played just nine rounds last year overall in his return from multiple leg injuries. Touch would take time. 

There was hope Thursday at Riviera. He shot a two-under 69, finishing birdie, birdie, birdie — and one-putt, one-putt, one-putt. But you know how Friday went, and here’s the bottom line: In a round of 74, he ranked 105th in Strokes Gained: Putting (-1.699) — a drop of 85 spots (!) from round one. Nothing was clicking.

Of course, you already know he turned things around. On Saturday, he birdied his opening hole, the 10th, on a 15-footer. On 14, he rolled in a 24-footer for birdie. On 5, an 11-footer. No three-putts. He shot a four-under 67. In his press conference, he said Saturday was his best round since this comeback started, at last year’s Masters. He ranked 16th in SG: Putting (1.029). 

That’s a good leap. But the fix was subtle, and he alluded to it on Friday.

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“No, I just blocked them; they were just bad putts.” he said. “They were not very hard, good reads. I brought Joey [LaCava, his caddie] in on a couple of them, and I just hit bad putts. So I could have easily got off to a very hot start, and I did not, and then middle part of the round, I could have turned it around a little bit and I did not.”

Then he did. Then he un-’blocked.’

On Saturday, a reporter asked him about it. 

“That adjustment you made on your putting, did you feel it, did Rob [McNamara, a Woods confidante] see something, did you look at it on the telecast, that block? What was it?”

“Well, I just said, hey, I’ve always been a person who likes to hook my putts, so I just tried to feel like I went back to releasing the putter blade more, more right hand, more release,” Woods said. “I just hate that blocky feeling, which I had yesterday, which I can’t stand. So I go back to hooking my putts and it felt like my normal stroke, which was good.”

That’s a bit technical, but in non-15-time major winner talk, he worked on getting his putter face left, not right, or the ‘blocked’ direction. Remember the concern about developing feel? This is that. (If you’re interested, this 2019 GOLF.com article digs in deep on the Woods putting stroke.)

And the putts — there’s that word again: putts — started to fall. In the press conference, a reporter asked Woods whether things are starting to “just kick back in.”

“Yeah, feel-wise, yes, I do,” he said. “As I was saying earlier, I can hit golf balls, I can do all that stuff, I can chip and putt back home and I can do all that stuff. But I haven’t walked and played a lot, so that’s the challenge. The ebb and flow of adrenaline, I haven’t had adrenaline in my system for a while, so getting the numbers right, that’s taken a little bit of time. Joey and I have been in lockstep in making those adjustments.”