UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – Tiger Woods played Chambers Bay for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, in preparation for the U.S. Open in two weeks.
Woods was accompanied by swing consultant Chris Como, ETW executive Rob McNamara, and caddie Joe LaCava on a chilly and sporadically wet day off Puget Sound. He played the front nine in over three hours, took a break to avoid an incoming squall, and then resumed on the back nine after Mother Nature settled.
While playing the ninth hole, Woods hit two shots from the front tee and one shot from the back tee. He also played from the alternate tee box, which the USGA will be employing during Open competition.
However, he spent most of his time on and around the green complexes. Woods practiced his short game – putts, chips, bunker shots – for 15 minutes on the 6,500-square-foot ninth green, studying how his ball maneuvered on the sloped terrain.
He did the same on No. 10, after his break.
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“This is the way the course is designed,” said course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. “The ball is going to move.”
When asked about Woods playing consecutive days at Chambers Bay, on the same week he is scheduled to compete at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, Jones responded: “I think it’s great. It shows he cares.”
While Woods did his preparation under gloomy Pacific Northwest skies, the weekend forecast calls for sun and 85-degree temperatures. Matt Allen, Chambers Bay general manager, said the course is right where USGA officials want it.
According to Allen, USGA chief Mike Davis wants the course to gradually lose its color and ease fast, hard conditions.
Woods, meanwhile, is slated to talk to the media at Muirfield Village on Wednesday, following his morning pro-am.
