Tiger Woods' new swing looks nothing like his old dominant self
Tiger Woods is inching closer to a comeback, and on Monday the 14-time major champion played his first full golf holes of 2016 (and the first since another back surgery brought an end to his 2015 season in August). It's been an eventful few months for Woods, who in early March grimly admitted he has no idea when he'll be back to competitive golf. Recently, however, Woods has been making himself very visible on golf courses across the country, and news broke yesterday that Woods has registered to compete in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont.
Woods handed over control of his Twitter account Monday to a golf journalist who posted a few videos of Woods' new swing, which doesn't exactly look PGA Tour-ready. He admitted Monday that he still isn't physically able to practice as much as he'd like, and he's lacking in distance and speed.
So how does the current version of Tiger Woods stack up to the man who dominated Augusta National in 1997 or the Tiger that destroyed Pebble Beach in 2000? We set Tiger's current swing next to his older swings, using the same number frames before the takeaway to keep them in sync.
Irons: 1997 vs. 2016
On the left, you see Tiger Woods playing in the 1997 Masters, which he won by 12 shots. His tempo has sped up considerably since then, and his stance is noticeably more upright.
Irons: 2014 vs. 2016
Tiger's 2016 is a far closer mirror to his 2014 swing here at the Honda Classic. Woods played seven PGA Tour events that season and had one top-25 finish.
Driver: 2000 vs. 2016
Here's where you can clearly see that Tiger doesn't (yet) have the explosiveness he used to.
Driver: 2000 vs. 2010 vs. 2016
BONUS: 2015 Jordan Spieth vs. 2016 Tiger Woods
