Tiger’s back, but missing power

His drives aren’t reaching Phil Mickelson’s.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — So much about Tiger Woods after major knee surgery looks the same.

He won at Bay Hill with a birdie putt on the last hole that everyone knew he was going to make. Even when his swing was out of sorts last week at Quail Hollow, he somehow was in the thick of contention until the final two holes.

But this is not the same Tiger Woods.

He is missing his power, whether it’s off the tee with a driver or from the fairway with irons that are sometimes two more clubs than what he used before surgery last June to rebuild his left knee.

The power shortage was never more evident than the final round of the Masters, playing with Phil Mickelson, when Woods usually was the first to hit from the fairway. Even his rival couldn’t help but notice.

“I kept having to wait for him to hit,” Mickelson jokingly said.

That wasn’t the case the last time they played together at Augusta National, the final round in 2001, when on some holes Woods hit it farther with a 3-wood than Mickelson did with a driver.

More evidence came last week at Quail Hollow.

By measuring drives on the 56 holes that were not par 3s, Mickelson’s average tee shot was nearly 14 yards longer than Woods’. Statistics can be misleading, especially over the first two rounds because they played on opposite ends of the draw. But in the third round, when they were separated by one group, Mickelson was longer off the tee on 11 of the 14 driving holes. Lefty’s average drive was 317.6 yards, Woods was at 300.5 yards.

Woods has an answer for his sudden loss of length.

“I’ve been away from the game for a long time,” he said Tuesday, referring to his eight-month layoff after the U.S. Open. “And it’s going to take a little bit of time before my body gets back to where I can hit the ball the same distances. I don’t hit the ball the same distance with my irons or my driver.”

What he doesn’t have an answer for is when he will get it back.

“Hopefully, soon,” he said.

Distance is not an issue at The Players Championship, where the TPC Sawgrass is only 7,215 yards. Like most property in Florida, it’s all about location.

Woods is having to make do with less at the moment, which is OK with him. He has been experimenting with different shafts and lengths of his driver, although he keeps going back to what he had.

“Every time that there’s been this talk about, ‘He’s vulnerable,’ and ‘He’s not where he was,’ he goes and wins eight of the next 12 tournaments,” Geoff Ogilvy said. “So I don’t think anyone out here is concerned that Tiger is not going to be Tiger anymore.”