Tiger's Comments After the Third Round

While Sergio and Rory were slugging it out down the stretch Saturday, Tiger struggled most of the way. However, he did rip his driver 340 yards down the middle at 18. That's something.

Sure, you can say it was luck... but we should accept the facts. First, Tiger hasn't played much competitive golf this year and it's going to take some time for him to get back in form. And second, since he clearly has to make some adjustments for his back, that's going to take some time as well.

It also appears that he's tinkering with his equipment, as he notes in these comments from after the round.

There are a couple of things in these comments that you can learn from Tiger.

• First, he went back to a driver with a lighter shaft. He's been shortening his swing -- he joked earlier in the week that if you wanted to shorten your swing, just get back surgery -- and is having trouble getting his arms moving as fast as his lower body. The less his driver weighs, the easier it should be to swing it.
• Second, Tiger talked about changing his swing's angle of attack on the ball. (That's what he means about changing the loft during his swing.) In other words, he's hitting his irons pretty well -- a downward strike -- but having trouble with the longer-shafted woods which require more of a sweeping motion.

One thing he didn't mention but which is clearly affecting him is his timing. With the shorter swing he doesn't put as much stress on his back during the downswing -- think more of a baseball batter's flatter swing than an upright golf swing. But Tiger needs to find the best top-of-backswing position to make this work, plus he's used to timing the more upright swing, so -- let me repeat it -- this is going to take some time.

Still, given that he was flat on his back just a few months ago I don't think he's doing all that badly.