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Woods' words mean little - but his actions will say a lot

On Tuesday Tiger Woods' mouth was saying one thing, but his face appeared to be saying quite another.

The mouth said that Woods is fully fit - that he has taken extra precautions to ensure he is returning to the game of golf healed and free of any concerns over his knee, the faulty body part that has kept him out of action for the vast majority of the last four months. The mouth said it convincingly, too.

"The great thing is I don't feel a thing," the mouth said on Tuesday. "[The knee] feels solid, it feels stable, no pain. That's one of the reasons why I took as long as I did to come back is that I want to get to this point where I can go ahead and start playing golf again like this.

"It's been a very long time, and it feels good to go out there today and hit balls like this, go practice and feel nothing and walk around and pretty much do anything I want on the golf course."

The face, however - well, the face told a different story. It told a story of sharp pain as the 35-year-old powered down and through the ball while playing nine practice holes in the morning. It told a story of discomfort that cannot be masked. Woods always used to purse his lips as he completed his swing - but now everything seems clenched, an unmistakable sign that all is still not quite well.

The finesse shots - the chips, the flops, the pitches and putts - are not a problem. But the full swings don't appear to be as free and easy as they were in the past. Maybe it is just rust, maybe he is still loosening up his body - that must have atrophied in certain respects during the months of relative inactivity - for the rigours of tournament golf. Or maybe he has taken the decision that the pain will always be there in his right knee - famously described by commentator David Feherty as being operated on so much it was "basically Joan Rivers at this point" - so all he can do now is grin and bear it.

Who knows. All we can know is that Woods wouldn't tell us if he was hurting. After all, he never told us how long he was going to be out for after the Players Championship debacle (to think, with hindsight, that he hoped to be back long before the US Open!) just as he waited until long after the event to tell us he nearly played at last week's Greenbrier Classic.

It doesn't suck to be Dyson

Simon Dyson won in Ireland © Getty Images

• With hindsight (that wonderful aide), Simon Dyson's latest European Tour victory at the Irish Open has a certain air of inevitability about it.
• After all, he has arguably the most respected coach in world golf right now, Pete Cowen, in his corner - along with perhaps its most powerful and successful agent, Chubby Chandler. And, while he may not enjoy the reputation of many of his contemporaries, he has carved out an increasingly successful career for himself.
• The 33-year-old's victory in Killarney was his fifth on the European Tour - a significant milestone even before it is noted that he has now surpassed the number of wins he grabbed on the Asian Tour where he first made his name. He appears ready to bridge the gap to the next level - regular Tour winner, Race to Dubai challenger and Ryder Cup contender.
• "I definitely have the game for it," Dyson said in Killarney. "I know that now. I just need a little bit of luck along the way and you never know, I could quite easily get into the top 20 and you never know after that."
• Having been the low Englishman on the way to a top ten finish at this year's Open Championship (an early warning sign of his form heading to Ireland), Dyson has certainly moved himself into the conversation as an outside bet to be that next Englishman to win a major championship. Could he be the man to complete the 'Chubby Slam'?

"I was pretty close to being ready to go, and it's like, hey, just give yourself some more days of hitting a lot of golf balls and get your body attuned to that and conditioned to that," he said. "So I listened, listened to the docs and took another week off, and thankful I did actually because I feel great now."

With Woods happy to obscure the truth at every juncture, identifying the state of his game right now (like the state of his body) is little more than a game of educated guesses. With no competitive experience in recent months it cannot be at its peak, yet his performances at the last two Masters indicate he doesn't exactly need a long build-up to perform well at a major championship.

He seems enthusiastic about the recent work with coach Sean Foley, another good omen for his chances of being competitive.

"I have been hitting more solid than I have in the past," he noted. "Some of the things I'm working with Sean are starting to make sense. I can see what he's trying to get me to do. I was hitting the ball great on the range at the Players before we had to reset everything, too."

But expecting Woods to win at Firestone, like he has seven times before in his career, is almost certainly asking too much. After all, it's not even the tournament he is returning for. The fact Woods chose to play a practice round at Atlanta Athletic Club on Monday, rather than head straight to Firestone, underlines where his priorities lie.

He's preparing for the USPGA, and the Bridgestone just happens to be the tournament that comes one week before it. The fact there is no cut in Akron helps - if he can last all four rounds with minimal discomfort, then he will head to the final major of 2011 with a basic level of confidence.

He'll need it, because the course is set to be an absolute monster, that will take its toll on any weary legs.

"Well, it's certainly way different than when we played in 2001. It's way longer," he said, before talking about the monster par-three 15th. "Yesterday we played a centre pin from the back tee, and it was 265. Not too many par-3s you play at 265. It's going to be a very trying test.

"If they play it all the way back from the markers, it's seven par-4s over 450, so it's going to be a pretty long test. But granted, it's going to be hot, so the ball is moving, it's flying ... but still, it's much, much longer than what we played in '01."

This week is about getting through it without aggravating his injury, and without discovering some embarrassing flaw in his swing. Winning would be nice, but not imperative.

Next week, however, the opposite is true. Whatever the mouth be saying, everything suggests Woods is putting his body back on the line in order to try and win that 15th major as soon as possible.

His mouth, and his face, have had their say. Both could be lying. The body doesn't, however. And that is what will be tested for Tiger Woods this week.

McIlroy tweets turn sour

Twitter, by and large, has been a remarkable tool for sportsmen - used correctly it can be a great exercise in public relations for characters you might not expect (Joey Barton and Wayne Rooney spring to mind), while helping those more universally liked to engage in more direct conversation with those that cheer them on.

Of course, we undoubtedly don't get to see the reams of mindless and unwarranted abuse such figures almost certainly get from wind-up merchants and fans of opposing teams. It must take great self-restraint to ignore them, but then that is part of the price for being in the public eye.

This week, however, Rory McIlroy let the mask slip - lashing out at "failed golfer turned commentator" Jay Townsend for criticising his course management, and his caddie JP Fitzgerald. While Townsend's views might have been unwelcome, McIlroy was wrong to hound him about it for all (who wanted) to see. It made him seem petty, and created a controversy that needn't have been - even if he may have been right in his basic defence of his play and caddie.

Twitter can be a great asset to professional sportsmen, but McIlroy needs to be more careful in future.

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