I can't explain it. I didn't play at all last year. I really didn't know if I was going to be able to come back and play at all out here. To start like this is pretty exciting. I don't know if my game got better or everybody else got worse. |
I feel like I'm lucky that I had cancer ? and that they found it. If they had found it the next year, or the year after. ... Most of the time you hear about a situation like that, they have a couple of years left to live. |
I had totally anticipated being ready to play last January because my doctor had said three months, blah-blah-blah. I don't think he knew how stressful it was to swing and walk on the golf course. My foot never healed. Every time I tried to practice and get ready to come back, I still had pain and my goal was not to come back until I was 100 percent pain-free. By the time this year started, I still wasn't 100 percent. In Hawaii, I could still feel it. I still feel it now but I can swing without pain. I think walking the last month has been the final healing process. Right now, it finally feels good. |
I thought I might have to be a car-pool guy or a TV announcer or something last year, |
I'm very fortunate that we caught this early and very thankful for the tremendous care I've gotten. |
It's all so scary, because you think about your kids. You don't think about all the things you didn't do yet. I'm very lucky. They caught it very early. |
It's cancer. It's the real deal. A malignant tumor. My favorite question that three of my friends asked me is, 'How do you get that?' That's my favorite question. |
It's just got long holes, short holes, views, trees, dogleg rights, dogleg lefts, it's got a real versatile mix of holes. It's just a beautiful place. |
Most of the time, you hear about friends who go through a situation like that and they have a couple years left to live. This is a happy story. |
Then I remembered I was back on tour, and it was time to screw up. The old habits just don't seem to go away after the surgery. I was hoping all the old negativity might go away, but it's still there. |
This is one of the top-five golf courses on the PGA Tour already after just one practice round, |
You have to really drive your ball straight here. Nobody who hits it off the fairway is going to play well this week. You have to hit it straight, you have to hit it below the hole. The greens are fast and it's just a classic golf course. It's a very fair course, but it's just tough. |