Associated Press
SAN DIEGO ó Four months after his epic U.S. Open victory, Tiger Woods returned to Torrey Pines on Monday without a limp.
He didn’t have golf clubs, either.
Hopping from a cart, Woods walked up to 59-year-old John Abel, doffed his cap and extended his right hand. “Hey, I hear you’re looking for a caddie. I’m Tiger Woods ó pleased to meet you.”
Out of action since beating Rocco Mediate in a 19-hole playoff for his 14th career major, Woods came back to Torrey Pines to deliver on his end of the “Tee Off with Tiger” online sweepstakes sponsored by Buick.
Showing no signs of his season-ending knee surgery a week after the U.S. Open, Woods wore a green caddie’s bib inscribed with Abel’s name as he guided him around the back nine of the South Course, where he has won six times in the Buick Invitational and once in a U.S. Open he called his best ever.
Playing with torn ligaments in his left knee and a double stress fracture in his leg, Woods made a 12-foot birdie on the final hole to force an 18-hole playoff, made a 4-foot birdie on the 18th in the playoff to stay alive and finally won with a par.
Woods checked into the Lodge at Torrey Pines on Sunday night and noticed the pin in the same spot it was during the Monday playoff.
“I opened the curtains and saw the 18th green,” Woods said. “I was like, ‘You know what? That is pretty cool.’ A different atmosphere. You can actually see. They don’t have the grandstands in the way. I saw where the pin was and was thinking, ‘You know what? I remember that putt.”‘
Woods was in character from the minute he drove up to the 10th tee, on cue from a video crew that recorded every one of Abel’s shots. Reporters and photographers from two media outlets ó The Associated Press and the San Diego Union-Tribune ó were allowed to watch on the 10th and 18th holes.
Woods drove the cart. He handed clubs to Abel, then wiped them off with a towel and put them back in the bag. He squatted to line up putts and tended the pin. He warned how fast the greens were, then chuckled as Abel five-putted the 10th for a quadruple-bogey 8.
“It was fun,” said Woods, who once caddied for former Stanford teammate Jerry Chang. “This was totally cool. I’ve caddied before many times. For me to be out here and to be able to do it again, it’s always fun. John’s a good guy. It was a fun day for me.”
Abel, from West Berlin, N.J., said his round went better than expected.
“I wasn’t as nervous after maybe the third or fourth hole,” he said. “Nerves come into it, I don’t care who you are, and these greens are unbelievable. Tiger was telling me that they’re actually 3 feet slower than what they played for the Open.
“It was just such a hoot to play with him,” said Abel, who regularly shoots in the 90s. “He showed me things I never even thought about.”