Tiger Woods' comeback is the real deal but he needs to make it stick

Woods looked great during four apparently pain-free rounds at the Hero World Challenge but time isn't on his side

Lawrence Ostlere
Monday 04 December 2017 14:10 GMT
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Tiger looked like his old self on his latest comeback
Tiger looked like his old self on his latest comeback

There had been an unfortunate element of boy who cries wolf about Tiger Woods’ various attempts at a comeback in recent years. Time and again he would yell out and the local townsfolk would come running only to find no wolf, just a man bent double clutching his back. Not this time. This yell was louder, and the townsfolk came rushing to find a ravenous Tiger chomping on freshly maimed sheep.

For weeks we were teased by snippets of fast swings and reports of monstrous drives from Rickie Fowler and other practice partners, and clearly they were not just respectful compliments to a former champion. On the evidence of four apparently pain-free rounds at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, this comeback is – so far – the real deal.

It wasn’t only that Woods posted three sub-70 rounds and finished in the middle of a talented 18-man field. He did Woods-ish things, booming long drives and holing arcing putts from distance, a combination he demonstrated beautifully to claim an eagle at the par-four 7th on Sunday.

Tiger impressed on his return to the game 

Even his anomalous third round of 75 on a wind-affected Saturday went wrong for the right reasons. At the 3rd he hit his 278-yard approach so sweetly it flew over the green; in footballing parlance Andy Townsend surely would have assessed that he hit it a bit too well if anything, Clive. As Woods put it: “I ended up in some bad spots after good shots.”

Hysteria gripped. Pundits apologised for writing him off amid reports of his tumbling odds to win next year’s Masters. The fact Fowler had won the tournament with a sensational course-record 61 barely registered.

Woods was asked: what next? “We’re going to figure out what’s the best way for me to build my schedule for the major championships – where I’m going to start, how much I’m going to play, rest periods, training cycles, the whole nine yards.” Barely three months ago he had admitted he might never play golf again. Now he has Augusta National in his sights.

If it all sounds too good to be true, then maybe it is. Firstly, the Albany Resort course is little reflection on someone’s ability to play Augusta or any other major championship venue, with friendly lunar landscape surroundings which don’t so much punish wayward drives as gently tut and send them on their way.

And while Woods impressed, there were signs of the nagging issues which have hampered his game in recent years, particularly in his short game which produced several dud chips. Was it rustiness, or something more?

Woods has climbed from a lowly 1199 in the world rankings to 668. In some senses there is no rush, and after several bouts of back surgery it seems miraculous he can even compete. Yet golf is a sport where time does not run out on its players so much as ebb away; Woods’s free entry into the US Open expires in 2018, 10 years after his most recent major win. Each new comeback will get harder, and it is why this one needs to stick.

Woods has already set his sights on the Masters 

What the tournament illustrated as well as ever was how, even now, golf still revels in Woods and seems to shine brightest when he is smiling or clenching his fist or whipping his driver through a ball. He is still compelling to watch, and although it is only a first step there is now renewed hope of a truly great sporting comeback. The townsfolk came rushing, as they always do, but this time they found a Tiger.

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