Mark Roe believes Tiger Woods should be encouraged by return to action

Sky Sports golf pundit Mark Roe finds plenty of positives from Tiger Woods on his return to action last week, but the 14-time major winner needs to address some worrying flaws in his short game.

After four months away, it was a pleasure to see Tiger Woods back on Sky Sports as he hosted the Hero World Challenge in Florida. New coach, new swing, and it was nice to hear him say how fit, strong and healthy he felt – even if he was under the weather during the tournament.

There were naturally positives and negatives, but overall I think he should be encouraged by his performance. His long-game was generally sound, although there are certainly some concerns over his short-game.

Let’s address the good points first. There were some positive elements in his golf swing, there’s no doubt about that. He hit plenty of good shots, put together a few clusters of good scoring and his putting stroke also looked better as the week progressed.

The swing looked good – he swung more freely through the hips and he seemed more comfortable shaping the ball either way through the air.

The transition was softer, and his swing was a little less aggressive, a little wider in the takeaway, there were some really good positive aspects to it.

It also looked a much quieter swing that will put a lot less pressure on his left side, where he’s had all the injuries. That was one of his main reasons for hiring biomechanics expert Chris Como as his new swing consultant.

Worrying

But there were also some very worrying aspects to his performance. Never, ever have I seen Tiger Woods look anywhere near as unassured around the greens.

In his own words, he described his short-game as “awful”. In the past, he’s focused his attention on his long-game when undergoing a swing change. He would not pay enough attention to his short-game and it would be rusty.

But this time, he openly admitted that he had devoted plenty of time to practising his short-game. However, he also admitted that he was implementing the same methods into his short-game as his long-game under Como.

That, for me, is a mistake. I agree with David Leadbetter, who insists there is simply not enough correlation between the long and short games.

I have a saying also when I’m coaching the short-game: You don’t bring your long game into your short game because it’s a very different feel.

It just seems to me he needed more practice, and more time. There’s never been an issue with his short-game, it’s always been one of the strongest parts of his armoury and he has been one of the greatest scramblers in the game over the last 14 years or so.

Woods has always been so strong around the greens, and that has carried him through whenever he wasn’t hitting the ball well from tee to green.

So he might have to have a re-think there, because you rarely see Tiger “flub” a chip shot, let alone 10 over four rounds - we saw it happen four times in the space of 12 holes on the first day.

Rattled

The grass is very difficult at Isleworth – it’s a very grainy surface with a sandy sub-soil and it is easy to fall foul of that. But what amazed me was you could see it clearly rattled Tiger. It got into his head and it knocked his confidence.

So while his performance from tee to green was encouraging, there was this sub-plot of watching his previously-stunning short-game disintegrate in front of our eyes.

The amazing thing was that he didn’t seem to look for a different approach to it. He was sticking with something that clearly wasn’t working when he could have adopted a couple of different techniques.

Towards the end of the final round, you could tell he had had enough. He hit one chip shot almost on the run, and it looked like he was perplexed because he had no idea how to fix it. You just don’t see that from Tiger Woods. I have never seen him give a shot away like that before.

There’s one thing for sure; at the very highest level, you cannot compete if you do not have a short-game. And for Tiger, it was nothing to do with a lack of practice - it was purely technical.

Acid test

But while the chipping was bad, the swing looked good and he seemed to be swinging within himself for much of the time. Can he carry on with this? Will he concede defeat is his bid to remain one of the longest hitters in the game?

The acid test will come when he goes head-to-head with the likes of Rory McIlroy. Let’s see how Tiger reacts when Rory hits it 25 yards past him on the fly. Don’t forget, Rory is still getting longer and stronger.

Woods might decide to take the “bombs away” approach and suddenly get out of his rhythm. But it was noticeable this weekend that he did swing within himself a few times, and stayed with what he has been working on with Chris Como. When he went flat out, he lost it right a couple of times.

We’re only going to find these things out as he develops. I wouldn’t be surprised if he adds a couple of events to his early-season schedule to get in as much tournament time as possible before the Masters in April.He just can’t be ring rusty any more. No matter what work he does on the range, Tiger has got to get some competitive rounds under his belt. He’s got to get out on the course and get some good scores on his card.

Magnificent

But while Woods was at the wrong end of the leaderboard, the rising star at the top continues to impress. Jordan Spieth’s performance was truly magnificent. He’s had a great season, but he had not managed a win until he got to the Australian Open last week.

He had a brilliant Masters back in April, finishing second behind Bubba Watson, and he enjoyed a brilliant Ryder Cup debut. But his final-round 63 that swept him to victory in seems to have propelled him to a new level.

Spieth flew from Sydney to Florida, where there were 12 of the top 20 players in the world competing, and he was in a class of his own as he romped home by 10 shots.. That was the sort of thing Tiger Woods did in his prime.

There are only a select few golfers in the world that can accelerate away like he did, even fewer against such a high-quality field. Spieth is the real deal, and he is only 21 years old. He has the world at his feet, and I have no doubt he will go on to have the most stellar of careers.