Aimee
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This year’s British Open champion, Rory McIlroy, was in the parking lot next to Valhalla Golf Club early Wednesday afternoon. So was the defending P.G.A. champion, Jason Dufner. Another P.G.A. champ, Keegan Bradley, was also in the lot, laughing at the scene as he took photos on his phone. Other top pros were there, too, like Hunter Mahan and Rickie Fowler.
None of that mattered. Few noticed who was there and considered how much quality championship golf they might have played in the last five years.
What mattered was who was not there, and that was made evident by the swarm of about 60 members of the news media encircling an empty parking space reserved for Tiger Woods.
After days of supposition that Woods would never set foot in Louisville during the 96th P.G.A. Championship because of his injured back, Woods, a four-time P.G.A. champion, was expected to arrive for a practice round.
The other players in the field took notice and played along. Fowler paraded in front of the assembled news media members, preening for the cameras. As he walked by, Mahan deadpanned, “Something going on over here?”
Photo
Woods on the driving range before a practice round. Credit Luke Sharrett for The New York Times
When Woods had last been seen in a golf course parking lot, on Sunday, after back spasms caused him to withdraw from the Bridgestone Invitational, he could barely walk and was certainly not driving himself. But around 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Woods arrived at the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz S.U.V. and emerged looking fit and supple.
Like someone getting ready for a round at the local municipal course, Woods pulled his golf shoes from the back of the car and leaned on the bumper to tie them. Then it was off to the practice range, still followed by a jostling, restless media mob.
The Golf Channel broadcast and remarked on nearly every move, including Woods’s pauses to sip from a water bottle.
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