By Ray McNulty
Originally published 05:48 p.m., October 4, 2011
Updated 10:29 p.m., October 4, 2011
The loudest golf headlines of the weekend were about Tiger Woods carding a course-record 62 Friday at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound.
But, really, how newsworthy was it?
Even amid his recent slump — three years without a major championship triumph, more than two years without a PGA Tour victory, having played his way outside the top 50 in the world rankings for the first time since 1996 — Woods breaking a course record during a no-pressure, giggle-golf round isn't all that surprising.
Or shouldn't be.
I mean, he's Tiger Woods, winner of 14 majors, easily the best golfer of his generation and, indisputably, one of the game's all-time greats.
He's SUPPOSED to own a few course records. And especially on his home course.
To me, that's the most compelling part of the story.
Not the what.
The where.
It was about three months ago that Woods, who has been moving in phases from his Orlando-area home at Isleworth into his $50 million, seaside estate on Jupiter Island, became the 13th Tour player to become a member at Medalist.
"We try to respect the privacy of all our members," Medalist head pro Buddy Antonopoulos said Tuesday, when asked about the other Tour golfers who've joined the exclusive club on the southern tier of the Treasure Coast. "But since it's all over the news, I can say that Tiger is a member and he did shoot a 62."
According to GolfWorld magazine senior writer Tim Rosaforte, who broke the story of Woods breaking the Medalist course record, the former world No. 1 made 10 birdies, seven of them en route to a back-nine 29 on the 7,157-yard layout designed by Greg Norman.
The round was an encouraging sign as Woods prepares to tee off Thursday in the Frys.com Open, a Fall Series event in California. He also plans to play in next month's Australian Open, one week before the Presidents Cup, which is scheduled for Nov. 17-20 at Royal Melbourne.
It was during a Presidents Cup news conference Sept. 27, when U.S. captain Fred Couples formally announced he had selected him for the American team, that Woods revealed his connection to the Hobe Sound club.
"We're practicing very hard up at the Medalist," said Woods, 35, who has been hampered by let knee and Achilles injuries and hasn't played competitively since Aug. 12, when he missed the cut by eight strokes at the PGA Championship. "And I'm playing as much as I possibly can — something that I hadn't done all summer because I hadn't been cleared to do it."
Woods chose to join Medalist because he liked the course, the clubhouse, the club's administration and members, and the proximity to his new home. Though he has a practice area on the grounds of his estate, it's primarily a short-game facility that can't handle much more than an 8-iron.
Medalist offers both a Tour-quality practice range and a challenging course on which Norman was among those who held the previous record of 64.
"Our little area of Florida is such a great place to live that a lot of the Tour guys have moved here," Antonopoulos said. "There are so many wonderful places for these guys to play golf and work on their games. The fact that quite a few of them, including a player of Tiger's stature, have chosen to become members here says a lot about our club and our membership."
It also says Woods, whose foundation is funding the creation of a Tiger Woods Learning Center campus at Martin County's Murray Middle School, is settling in — that he likes our community, that he wants to be a good neighbor, that he has found a home here.
And that says a heck of a lot more than Woods breaking another course record.
That's what he's supposed to do.
Especially on his home course.
