Tiger Woods’ press conference at the Hero World Challenge makes it sound like he’s about to retire

tiger-woods-sad

For almost 20 years, Tiger Woods’ press conferences have been twice as popular as any other player’s. Even at this year’s Open, where a 21-year-old Spieth with two Majors under his belt had a shot at making history, his press conference was nowhere near as well-attended as Tiger’s. It doesn’t matter that Tiger hasn’t won a Major since 2008 and is now ranked 400th in the world, he’s still the main attraction. 

The irony is that Tiger is an expert at saying very little worth listening to during his press conferences. His go-to talk of ‘repetitions’, ‘motor patterns’, ‘focus’ and ‘one swing at a time’ is hardly a headline writer’s dream.  

But his press conference yesterday, at the Hero World Challenge, was a different story. Tiger was open, honest, candid and thoughtful. He offered genuine insights into his state of mind, how his recovery from injury is coming along (it isn’t), and his future in the game. 

In short, for Tiger fans, there wasn’t much to get excited about. The tone was little short of depressing. There were plenty of clouds, and a distinct lack of silver linings. Woods sounded more fatalistic – more defeated – than we’ve ever heard him before, even during previous injury layoffs and subsequent periods of hide-behind-the-sofa-he’s-about-to-hit-a-driver poor form. 

Having waited almost two decades for the greatest golfer of a generation to provide us with some killer soundbites, we almost wish he hadn’t. Here’s what the former world number one had to say…

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