Tiger Woods Genesis Invitational storylines: New caddie, back health | Golf Today | Golf Channel

Kira K. Dixon joins Golf Today to report on key storylines surrounding Tiger Woods ahead of his season debut at The Genesis Invitational, including his recovery from back surgery and caddie switch. #GolfChannel #GolfToday #TigerWoods
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Tiger Woods Genesis Invitational storylines: New caddie, back health | Golf Today | Golf Channel
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Look at his last few starts that’s official and unofficial last year he finished tied 45th made the cut at the Genesis invitation also made the cut at the Masters but withdrew about halfway through his third round of course with a foot injury and he is out on the golf course

Right now right now we want to welcome in our very own Kira k Dixon who is at Riviera and has been watching Tiger Woods this morning Kira what have you seen well Rex it’s a bit of a new look for Tiger Woods in 2024 as you mentioned

He’s out here rocking his Sunday red and he’s also got a new caddy on the bag in 2024 Lance Bennett picking up the bag for Tiger Woods we know him from the likes of Davis Riley Matt coocher Sun JM I spoke with a member of Tiger’s team

Who told me that Lance actually uh got the call about a few weeks ago and was approached to uh caddy for Tiger I ran into him on the green over here at Riviera and I said how’s it going and he kind of chuckled and said well I’m in it

So uh he he got to experience the full treatment down on the Range as anybody and everybody on the grounds crowded to watch Tiger Woods warm up so how did the team decide on Lance in the first place well they leaned heavily on Tiger’s former caddy Joe laava uh Joe and Lance

Are of course good buddies Joe now on the bag for Patrick Klay so they reached out to Joe and he’s a big part of the recommendation process for Lance Bennett um Lance is also currently on the bag of rookie Adrian dant deart who is not in the field this week so they’re looking

At potentially doing a couple of events together with tiger depending on what he ends up playing this year but he’s going to be balancing that with continuing at least as of now to be on the bag of deart and in terms of the schedule today

For Tiger he came out around 800 a.m did some putting went down did that uh range session in front of quite the audience and then I walked with him from the range to 10 asked him about his schedule he said that he’s going going to play

The back nine and then he’s got three luncheons to host this afternoon which is the life of the player/ tournament host H so he’s going to be quite full when he ends his stage today um Kira we we heard from Ryan lavner and Amon Lynch they gave us their opinion on the new

Logo the new look those guys probably have members only jackets and stonewash jeans they don’t really know fashion you do you were Miss America what do you think about the new look oh I love it I think it looks great it’s got all the really interesting uh

Fabric and weaving and you know any anytime that we can introduce a little bit more fashion into golf I’m very much in that camp and uh his team’s got it all on they’ve got these nice cashmir sweaters with the tiger so uh you know if anyone wants to send some my way I

I’m very happy to accept any Sunday red okay well we we have no pull there I think you probably have more pull in the ground than we do here in studio in the snowstorm but we appreciate you checking in with us as always Kira Dixon live at Riviera

Thanks guys all right let’s Tiger Woods let’s talk a little Tiger Woods got a veteran candy as Kira was talking about with Lance Bennett on the bag friend of Joe laaba who has been on the bag for Tiger for a long time and they are still quite close um they are going to

Continue to work on the back nine right now and Tiger’s going to play her schedule to play a full 18 hole pram tomorrow and then you tease it up for real on Thursday making his PGA Tour debut and we sit here and ask the question as we do often when tiger makes

A start after a pretty ly layoff what is a good week and you think top 10 top 10 that is a really good week he did not like that he doesn’t believe it did not believe that uh and look I understand where that’s coming from again this goes

To what have you done for me lately What in his body work leads you to believe that I’m also going to pee in on something that aan said as well the swing is going to be rusty simply because he doesn’t have the Reps that’s Tiger’s language that’s that’s what he

Uses right there because his body hasn’t allowed him to do the Reps I’m less concerned about that rust because I feel like given the the opportunity given the fact that his body would allow him to play four rounds and then maybe four rounds in a few weeks at Bay Hill or

Wherever it is his next start is going to be that rust goes away after a while the trick here is what his body’s going to allow because I do believe the swing and we saw this certainly at the hero and maybe to a certain degree at the PNC

The swing looks really really good it’s different it’s a little bit more upper body a little bit more arms we talked about this yesterday but it’s what his body’s going to allow him to do if he can get from point A to point B and you probably pointed out correctly that as

Long as you can get down the hill on number one and then back up the hill on 18 it’s a relatively flat golf course yeah I and people you and I have followed him since he’s had all of his surgeries but his most recent the ankle fusion surgery and I was walking with

Him and during a practice round at the Hero World Challenge he he says my ankle can’t move um it just can’t but the pain is gone I I think what people forget about is his back his back still is a bit of an issue that is something that

Is a pain management um thing that he’s going to probably have to to take care of for the rest of his career his back is still giving him some him some issues not as much as before his spinal fusion surgery another fusion surgery that he had on his body but it still is

Something that he has to concern about everybody’s concerned about his leg and it still is an issue but it’s not as painful as it was prior to this fusion surgery the back still lingers that pain still lingers with him and I love the stats if you go back to the limited

Stats that do have on him driving’s actually been pretty good if you go back to what he did at the hero it wasn’t great but it was good enough for him to compete it was his iron play in a short game that sort of let him down so I

Would imagine it’s going to be more of the same this week that as long as he has kind of gone to this staple of hitting just this little soft fade out there that finds the Fairway I mean this isn’t part of his game from before I mean that’s probably why he didn’t play

Riviera very well it’s the other parts of his game that you need to see how comfortable is he going to be in and around those greens because as we saw certainly at Pebble Beach the POA can Drive guys absolutely men