Tiger Woods isn’t playing in this week’s World Heroes Challenge – but he’s still making his presence felt.
Woods, which included the pre-tournament press conference some hints about a change in direction for the PGA Tourhas been on property in Albany all week serving as tournament host. On Saturday he stalked the pre-round competition, visiting competitors – including Swede Alex Noren, who he chatted with and asked about his move.
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 world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s game:
“From Scottie’s game? Yeah, I really enjoy seeing him hit the irons, the shape shots he hits, the trajectory, the window changes he has, the distance control, the miss in the right spot, the right 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, using the wind, fighting the wind and controlling the spin is fun to watch.”
(That was just part of his answer.)
Noren is a fascinating guy to watch in practice given his unique pre-lap routines and his penchant for duking it out in the dirt. He’s also in 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 almost didn’t make it.
Whatever Woods said to Noren had a positive effect: He started par-birdie-eagle and played the penultimate par of the final round after a five-under 67. He will start Sunday’s final round in T3, three shots off the lead of Sepp Straka and two behind world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Noren won DP World Tour events in August and September and played in the top 20 in the world; a higher finish would cap a strong final third of his year.
“Last year I took a lot of time off and worked on my game a lot, but this year I tried to play more tournaments this end of the season,” Noren said. “You see where you are for the next year. Then I have about a month and a half to sort out the things I don’t like right now and fix them.”
What about his visit with Woods? Noren could only smile.
“Yeah, it’s amazing. I grew up idolizing Tiger,” he said. “It was a perfect period in my life. I was 18 in 2000, 16 in ’98 when he came into the game. So yeah, I mean, I have a lot of respect and admiration for him.
“And seeing him out there and asking questions (not that he’s asking questions for his own benefit), but I think he just loves golf and it was great to talk to him.”
