Gary Woodland’s post first round treatment on his injured back paid dividends with the American indicating his back was around 25% fitter than on day one of the Franklin Templeton Shootout.
It meant Woodland had around 75% movement in his back and that showed on day two of the $US 3.1m event as the Callaway staff player sent some booming drives down the fairways of the Greg Norman designed Tiburon course in suburban Naples, Florida.
And the combination of McDowell, who holed the 2010 European Ryder Cup winning putt, and Woodland, who had teamed with Matt Kuchar to deliver the US victory in the 2012 World Cup of Golf, continued to gel well despite Woodland’s back concern.
“I went under treatment for an hour and a half before I played yesterday and my trainer was with me on the course,” he said.
“And then from when we got done until he left my room about 10:00 last night. I was icing, stretching, doing everything I could, needling. It was nice.
Gary Woodland admits his ailing back has improved from 50% to 75% ahead of again teaming with Graeme McDowell heading to the final round of the Franklin Templeton Shootout.
“So without him I wouldn’t have been able to play so it was nice. Obviously I had a partner who played really well yesterday which allowed me to get better today.
“G‑Mac could have easily said I’m going to go find somebody else yesterday and hung with me. I got better today and hopefully I can continue that, and if I do that, I should do pretty good tomorrow.”
And now that Woodland and McDowell are now just three shots from the lead and a round to play, Woodland admitted it would ease his back pain greatly if he and his Lake Nona neighbour were to claim victory.
“It would ease my pain a lot if we were to win tomorrow,” he said.
“I’m off for five weeks after this so I knew that going it. Yesterday was a good format for me. If I was going to be in pain not being best ball or not being alternate shot, I didn’t have to be in every hole.
“There’s a couple shots I didn’t hit where trying to save my back. Today would have been a tougher format if I was in that much discomfort. It definitely went down from if I was 30 percent yesterday, I was probably 75 percent today. So hopefully I can continue and I’ll be good to go tomorrow.”
