The Reviews Are In...

... and the consensus is that another few weeks of out-of town tryouts are indicated.  Unfortunately the show has a hard open on July 17th in Liverpool, and there's no opportunity for further rehearsals.

Karen Crouse, reviewing the two-act play in Pravda, gave it 1 1/2 stars:

Fore Left: Why the worry, his lines look perfect here.

Woods, playing in his first tournament in more than 100 days after having back surgery, followed his 74 with a 75 to miss the cut by four strokes. A double bogey on the front and four consecutive bogeys on the back sealed his fate. It was only the 10th 36-hole cut Woods has missed since turning professional in 1996.

But surely, given the quality of performers involved and their previous fourteen smash hits, there must be something you liked, Karen?

Fore Right:  He's even working it both ways.

In his two rounds, Woods carded 12 bogeys, seven birdies and the double bogey, which came at No. 5, a par 4, after his approach plugged in a greenside bunker and he needed two swipes at the ball to get it out. In a microcosm of his week, Woods missed the bogey putt. He was a yard or two off on his yardages and putted poorly (after 31 putts on Thursday, he needed 30 on Friday). 

Woods said he could take “a lot of positives” from the week. “The fact that I was able to even play; I came back four weeks earlier than we thought I could,” he said. “I had no setbacks. I got my feel for playing tournament golf.”

Hmmm....when the only positives come from the producer's press release, that's not very encouraging...

Steve DiMeglio can't see his way to more than one star, though he gave us this from the headliner:

"The thing I was worried about most was hitting driver, and I roasted most of them the last two days."

Roasted?  Is this now a golf term?  How about all the putts that didn't get halfway to the cup, were those blanched?

Jeff Rude dispenses some tough love, giving the production no stars:

Tiger Woods said he was encouraged. But he’s not ready. 

Not ready to contend any day soon, anyway. 

He may find something between now and the Open Championship July 17-20 at Hoylake, where he won in 2006. But that might be difficult to accomplish without more competitive rounds to chip off the rust that was apparent at the Quicken Loans National.

Both Rude and Shackelford argue that Tiger should play The Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen the week before The Open Championship.  I'd add my voice to that if anyone was listening, but here' how Geoff put it:

The second round viewing from the Quicken Loans National was both fascinating and discouraging, as Tiger Woods made a miraculously fast recovering from back surgery only to look and sound like the same less-than-once-in-a-lifetime golfer he had become just before the surgery. 

Constantly mentioning he needs "reps," Woods made clear after his 74-75 MC that his priorities lie elsewhere these days by refusing to even consider adding more to his schedule. For those hoping he'd return refreshed with the desire of old and a desire to do anything possible to win, Woods made clear this is his only start before The Open Championship at Hoylake. As theAberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open lures a great field the week prior to the Open, the mystery remains, why does Woods insist on getting to the UK as late as possible when a great week at Royal Aberdeen is an option?

That's certainly how it looked to me, as no part of his game was sharp.  As an aside, Shack refers to missing the cut at "The Quickie," which has the benefit of being amusing on multiple levels.

John Paul Newport, in his weekly golf column for the Wall Street Journal, had this from swing guru Sean Foley:

Sean Foley, Wood's coach, made the analogy to a fighter pilot. "He can fly on the simulator for

weeks, but the first time he sees another plane in combat, chemically it's going to be different. The adrenaline is going to be different," Foley said in an interview. The key after layoffs for any player is to quit thinking so much. "You know what to do, but it's time to trust the training and free it up." 

Woods talked about the need to get "his numbers"—meaning, to get dialed in on the distance he's hitting his irons into the greens. But surprisingly his long game in both rounds looked sharper than his chipping and putting, which Woods said he had been able to practice since shortly after the surgery. He left three or four lag putts embarrassingly short, outright stubbed a chip on Thursday and took two shots to get out of a bunker on Friday.

This is what has Shack, Rude and me scratching our collective heads...every word that comes out of the collective Team Tiger mouth argues for another start before Hoylake, but it ain't gonna happen.  

No one begrudges Tiger his vacation with the kids, but doesn't he hear that clock ticking?   Does he truly believe in his preparation, or is there an element of concession deep in the recesses of his psyche?