The Loop

Tiger Woods said he's lost sleep after breakup with Lindsey Vonn

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- In his first time addressing the media since his T-17 at the Masters almost a month ago, Tiger Woods sounded like he was in a good mood. He was reflective on the legacy of Calvin Peete, the end of his relationship with Lindsey Vonn and the state of his game.

Here are the five most interesting tidbits from Tiger's meeting with the media at the Players.

Tiger says he's lost sleep over the last few days after breaking up with Vonn.

The couple had been dating for almost three years until they announced their breakup in similar-sounding Facebook posts over the weekend. Couple that with the anniversary of his father's death (May 3) in 2006, and it's a rough time emotionally for Tiger:

"Obviously it does affect me. It is tough, there's no doubt. I'm not going to lie about that. It is tough. And on top of that, this time of year is really, really hard on me. This three-day window is really hard. I haven't slept. It's been -- these three days, May 3rd and through the 5th, today, is just brutal on me, and then obviously with what happened on Sunday, it just adds to it."

Tiger re-affirms that he popped a joint back in place in his wrist at the Masters.

It's been one of the biggest talking points after this year's Masters. Did Tiger really pop his joint back into his wrist? Is that even possible? He's sticking to his story.

"I don't know how. It was one of those things where I had it like that and I pushed down on it -- it's just like anything, you crack your back or your neck and it's relief. Before, it was like, man, it's stuck. That's what my wrist felt like, it was stuck, and the wrist wasn't moving, and I could feel it getting tighter and tighter and tighter, so it's like a self-adjustment on your spine. I just did it on my wrist."

Tiger also gave some details on how he treated his wrist injury after Augusta National. He claims it's fully recovered now.

"We had to get rid of the swelling, so it's a lot of ultrasound, a lot of icing, anti-inflams, get [the swelling] all out of there, and then we could start progressing and building it up.

"I took a full week, didn't lift at all. I did leg stuff but just didn't do anything with my hand. Completely got away from it, anything with lifting or grabbing and started working -- I was getting treatment every day through that period, and then after that started building up the strength in the hand and the forearm and then eventually the whole upper body.

Tiger believes another run of wins is coming.

At this point, Tiger sounds happy with his game. He said he's making small tweaks to his swing since the Masters, and he sounded confident in the strides he has made -- despite struggling a bit in his nine-hole practice round Tuesday at the Players. Is another stretch of wins upcoming? Tiger believes it is.

"I've made some huge, huge strides since what I was at Torrey and what I was at Augusta. I worked my ass off to get to that point. I really did. I worked hard. To change all that and then go into a major championship basically untested and to do what I did, I thought was pretty good for three days. And then obviously Sunday didn't pan out the way I wanted. ... I'm on the right road. I've made all the big changes, now it's just incremental changes, incremental implementation and keep building. Eventually it'll click in and I'll have a little run here, and some runs are -- what, two years ago it was five wins. I can get on runs like that."

Tiger reflected on the legacy of Calvin Peete, the African-American golf pioneer who passed away last week.

"I remember watching when he won here [at the Players in 1985] and what he did, and certainly he's one of the guys I looked up to certainly, a person of color, being able to do it, especially at the time when there weren't that many out here. ... For me as a person of color it meant something to me to watch him do well."

And Tiger recited a stat that stuck with him for Peete at Muirfield Village.

"There's a stat that not many people know about, and that is at Muirfield Village he didn't miss a fairway for two and a half years. I mean, over 10 rounds without missing a fairway. OK, you're going to hit one bad shot somewhere in two and a half years, but he never missed a fairway for two and a half years."