Tiger's Baaack - Press Conference Edition

It's not exactly breaking news that Tiger will make his return to competitive golf tomorrow at The Quicken Loans National his tournament and, presumably with a gun to his head, sat with the press corp to discuss his return.

Farrell Evans of ESPN apparently stayed awake the whole time, so that bloggers such as yours truly can cherry pick the good bits...

Evans placed this surprising disclosure early in his piece, as would I:

"If this wasn't the foundation and our impact that we can have with kids, I probably would not

have played," Woods said. "Our goal was the British Open."

Hmmm....how should we interpret that?  Certainly he wants to support the tournament that benefits his foundation, but is he really pegging three weeks earlier than he would have otherwise?

As to the timing, Tiger gave us this:

"I healed extremely fast, thanks to my physios, and all my nutrition and all the different things that we did and the protocols and the MRIs, and all the different steps that we have done along the way have allowed me to get to this point," he said. 

Woods said the risk of re-injuring his back is minimal. 

"Obviously, I'm going to get stronger as time goes on," he said. "Just like it is with every round we play, we can hit behind a tree root and damage something, awkward lies, the little knickknack things that have happened to us that have played at this level. I'm no different in that regard."

Not to mention deep, vicious rough, with which the Northeast U.S. is plentiful this summer.   David Dusek also popped some greenies to maintain eyelid separation, and had this about Tiger's physical condition:

"Pre-procedure, before I went in, as I explained to you guys, I wasn't able to function," Woods said. "I couldn't get out of bed. I just couldn't do any normal activities. When I blew out my knee (in 2008) and had my Achilles (tendon) problems, I could still do things and I could still function. This was different. Anyone who has had any kind of nerve impingement knows that it's no joke. That part was relieved as soon as I got out of the surgery."

I can imagine the pain, and hopefully we shan't be seeing photos like the one above any more.  As a preview of the state of his game, there was this:

Woods said his explosiveness has yet to return, but he expects it to be back in time. He said his putting is sharp, but he did not have a chance while home in Florida to hit shots from the type of thick Bermuda rough that he will encounter at Congressional. He and swing coach Sean Foley have worked on refining his swing, but the changes are subtle, not major. He expects to be rusty from a competitive standpoint but is not afraid of re-injuring himself.

I don't think anybody is expecting too much, it's really about being ready for Hoylake. Steve DiMeglio caught this about his rehab:

"When you get treatment all the time, it's amazing what you can do. And also, nutritionally, making sure I eat perfect. Anti-inflammatory meals, all the different things I needed to do to get back. People take -- it's a normality in other sports. If you play football or hockey or any other sport, this is just common. But I think in the golfing world, looking at most of the physiques, it's not really that common. But having friends who are in other sports, it does help what they went through and what they have done and what their protocols are for their teams. You know, here we are."

So I guess it's all about the protocols... Glad to know that his surgery hasn't cost him the ability to speak at length and say nothing.

Apparently he also admitted to watching more World Cup than golf in recent weeks (can't find the link to that one), which doesn't surprise many of us.  But it's obviously good to have him back, if only to stop the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the state of the game.