‘He’s like the Tiger of 15 years ago’

Hopes are high as former world No 1 plays his first tournament since 2015, writes

Let the “is he or isn’t he?’, the “will he or the won’t he?”, the “can or he can’t he?” begin. Yet when Tiger Woods returns to professional life on Thursday we can realistically hope to have only one of those questions answered.

Woods has been out for 14 months as he has slowly recovered and cautiously rehabbed from multiple back operations which left him barely able to walk. He is approaching his 41st birthday and is now 767th in the world rankings.

In truth, all we should expect is an indication of Woods’s fitness as he takes his first steps on the competitive fairways since finishing 10th at the Wyndham Championship on Aug 23, 2015. After all, anybody else would be allowed a gentle reintroduction.

But Tiger being Tiger, when he tees off in the Safeway Open in the Californian wine district of Napa there will be no time to allow anything to breathe. Pronouncements will be made, obits and great tales of resurrection will be written and bank upon bank of observers will frantically assess whether he will ever win again and whether the 14-time major winner can resume the chase of Jack Nicklaus’s record haul of 18.

Indeed, the prophesying is already in full swing, and not even his friends can resist. Jesper Parnevik was almost breathless when previewing the return last week. “I see Tiger at the Medalist [Golf Club in South Florida],” the Swede said. “We’ve played nine holes together. He’s pounding it a mile and flushing everything … his trajectory and ball flight are like the Tiger we knew 15 years ago. Comebacks are never a sure thing, but something tells me his might be spectacular.”

So lump on the 50-1 for Woods to win for the first time in more than three years, then. Or maybe not. Because in the same publication as Parnevik’s comments appeared, Golf Digest, so, too, did a foreboding article, with one anonymous Medalist member describing Woods’s last few practice sessions there as being “all over the place”.

Woods has always loved to be the man of mystery, and even though we saw plenty of him as one of Davis Love’s assistant captains at last week’s Ryder Cup – a role to which he seemed strangely suited – it is fair to say he has rarely worn his cloak so tightly. Of course, all of this just adds to the intrigue, as do the reports which emerged yesterday saying that Woods would be paired with his rival Phil Mickelson in the opening two rounds. In many respects that would be a cruel and ungrateful act by the organisers as Woods’s patronage has already raised their usually low-key event several levels. There have been five times as many requests for media accreditation than there were at the corresponding event last year and ticket sales are also expected to quintuple.

In his favour, it will be a wealthy, respectful crowd and Johnny Miller, the two-time major champion turned TV analyst who is the tournament host, believes the Silverado course he helped redesign will be sympathetic. “This is the perfect course for Tiger because it is so straightforward,” Miller said, “if he can get a good first round and just get some confidence and springboard from there.”

So what will be a success? Simply to make the cut. From that solid foundation Woods could then carry on building at next month’s Turkish Airlines Open on the European Tour before closing out 2016 at his own Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in December. Everybody in the game wants him to stage some sort of second coming, including his former coach, Hank Haney, with whom Woods had one of his many personal fallouts. “He’s still Tiger Woods,” Haney said yesterday. “And if he has the ability to practise with his body, if it will let him, and if he has the desire, then there’s no reason in the world why he can’t get back and win some golf tournaments.”