'The short game has been neglected' - Tiger Woods' fitness fight has impacted on his touch, says Joe LaCava

Tiger Woods’ bid to strengthen his leg and build his fitness impacted on his short game at the Open Championship, according to his caddie Joe LaCava. A serious car accident almost cost Woods a leg, and it was a long road back to even walking unassisted. Ad/> He still looks in pain when walking on anything other than flat terrain, but he appeared in three majors this year.

The Open'Keep Cam and carry on' – Why Tiger should be inspired by Smith’s maverick Open triumph19/07/2022 AT 22:52 His results got progressively worse, despite Woods saying his fitness got better as the year went on, and he missed the cut in the Open at St Andrews earlier in July. Woods played reasonably well off the tee, but his normally brilliant short game was well off colour. He could not get his range with his wedges and he looked extremely uncomfortable with putter in hand.

Arguably the finest clutch putter the game has ever seen looked like a weekend amateur. Henderson overcomes shocking four-putt to secure Evian Championship glory Piercy suffers final-round meltdown as Finau comes from five behind to win 3M Open LaCava admitted the short game was the reason for the missed cut, and put that down to Woods working on strengthening his body. “The putting and the short game was not quite there,” LaCava told the Dan Patrick Show.

“He is working so hard on getting stronger and healthier, he is working on his long game, working on his endurance. “The short game has been neglected a little bit.” LaCava expects Woods to continue to work on strengthening his body and getting more comfortable on his feet, ahead of what he hopes will be a decent schedule in 2023. The OpenA to Z of the 150th Open Championship: Smith's mullet, Rory's near miss, Tiger's