Tiger Sits, Doesn’t Play Memorial

5pm ET on Friday May 23 came and went, and Tiger Woods decided not to play at the Memorial this week, Jack Nicklaus’s event. It was a smart decision.

At a press event to promote his AT&T National tournament (one of the best events on tour, even after 1 year), Tiger said the following:

“I wasn’t ready. My practice wasn’t I started my practice basically just recently. So going to Memorial that rusty, it wouldn’t have made any sense. I wasn’t sharp enough. I didn’t hit all my shots I needed to hit yet at home and make sure everything is organized. I wasn’t quite ready. So no sense in going there not ready. The whole idea is to be ready for the U.S. Open.”

Tiger went on to stress that what he is feeling is stiffness, not exactly pain, and that he is just slowly and methodically going through the rehab, as the doctors prescribe, that he needs to do to get ready for the Open.

He could have played the Memorial, shot 72-75, missed the cut, and gone home unhappy. But no, because he MUST feel like he can win every time, he’s not playing.

I think if a lot of other players took that approach, you would not see top flight players having a lot of MC’s and other bad finishes coming after injuries. Come back when you can — and feel like you can win.

We’ll see if that mentality works for Tiger in 2 weeks at the Open.