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Tiger Woods addressed the media as the host for his own tournament -- the AT&T National in Bethesda, Md., on Wednesday afternoon.
Woods is not playing because of a lingering elbow issue (I believe we're calling it a "left elbow strain"), which he addressed at length.
In fact, that's pretty much all the news conference was about. I'm mildly surprised Woods' elbow doesn't have its own Twitter account at this point.
Woods noted again that he injured his elbow at the Players Championship and said playing the Memorial between the Players and US Open probably wasn't the best idea.
He then noted that he struggled more at Merion than he probably let on.
"I pushed it pretty good at the Open to play through it. I'm Listening to my doctors and not touching a club," Woods said.
The problem with not touching a club, as we all know, is the British Open is just three weeks away. When asked about his game for Muirfield, Woods said his elbow would be "good enough."
Woods also seemed bummed about not getting to play in the AT&T National this week.
"It's disappointing not to play in my own event. It's a very important week," he said.
It's all about the majors for Tiger, though, and if that means only playing four times a year because of injuries then that's what he'll do.
Woods said he didn't want things to escalate after the US Open.
"There's a difference between being hurt and being injured. You can play hurt, but playing injured can sideline you for a while," he said.
Tiger has played nine times so far this year and won four of them. Yet Nick Faldo was recently critical of his play saying "he's not in a good mental place."
When asked about the comment Woods responded, "I've won four times."
There are zero golfers on the PGA Tour who wouldn't take a .444 winning percentage. Zero.
Woods gets bombarded with ridiculous questions about how good he is all the time, but the stuff about his elbow injury is what intrigues me.
Tiger has been known to, ahem, play things up a bit in the past. "A flair for the dramatic," we call it! But "the dramatic" sometimes goes beyond winning tournaments in epic fashion.
So when Woods' injury flared up in Merion I think a lot of people wondered how serious it really was -- he wouldn't talk about it if you'll remember. For him to miss his own tournament and lose prep time for Muirfield gives us that answer.
As Woods said on Wednesday, "In a perfect world, I'm dancing right now and doing 360 dunks."
No, in a perfect world, you're in the mix on the back nine at major championships.
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