Tiger’s back to save golf
And himself along the way
For the first time in several years, Tiger Woods was swinging freely yesterday. Because of that, his competitors are not breathing so freely today.
After 301 days between tee times, Woods strode to the first tee at the Albany
Golf Resort in the Bahamas just after noon and blasted his first drive off the side of a hill protecting a bunker and the ball hopped back onto the fairway. It was an omen of what was to come, which was a 3-under-par 69 that ended with him finishing the 18th hole under cover of a double rainbow across the sky in his first round of competitive golf since having to withdraw in Dubai in February.
What followed was his fourth back operation, an embarrassing DUI in which he was found passed out by the side of the road at the wheel of a car with the motor running. Woods’ motor was not, it having been flooded with enough opiates to send him to rehab. It seemed the last chapter of what had become a slow unraveling of one of the two greatest golfers of all-time.
Woods not only once dominated golf like no one since Jack Nicklaus, he ruled over it. He appeared on his way to passing Nicklaus’ 18 major championships and Sam Snead’s 82 tour victories until he hurtled himself headlong into a roiling sea of personal problems that cost him his wife, his life, his sponsors and his place in golf’s throne room.
He has tried a number of comebacks since this all began, but each has failed, primarily because his back has been killing him for years and lately was killing his game. Now he’s 41 and trying one more time, perhaps for the last time, to remind the golf world who he once was. Frankly, he may never be that person again, the face that changed the complexion of golf and made a whole lot of mid-level pros into millionaires on his purseinflating coattails.
For the latter alone everyone in golf owes Woods a debt of gratitude and they know it. That was clear yesterday. As good as his first round in nearly a year was, it was not vintage Tiger Woods and it was silly for anyone to think it would be. It has been nine years since he last won a major, the 2008 U.S. Open. Since then he’s missed the cut in 6-of-24 majors and been injured and unable to play in 14 others. He failed to make the cut in four of the last six he played and then was too hurt to play in any of the four the past two years. Worse, he hasn’t won any tournament in five years and hasn’t looked competitive in most of the ones he’s played during that stretch either.
So to come out of the shoot and put up a 69 naturally elated him and artificially inflated what he’d done in the empty eyes of the golf world. Frankly, Golf Channel commentators were over the top about his play because the truth is he’s T8 going into this morning’s tee time, and the real proof of where he stands will come not after one round or even four days of swinging a club in competition but when he’s done it for four months.
Golf is a grind for any 41-year-old touring pro, but for one with chronic back issues coming off his fourth corrective surgery it’s a long shot to play well for long. Because of Woods’ vast store of talent, the odds are better than for most, but by the end of the round he was fading a bit, which was to be expected because he couldn’t possibly have become tournament hardened, physically or more important mentally, playing on his home course at Medalist Golf Club near Jupiter, Fla. Pick-up golf is not tournament golf. Frankly, the 18-field Hero World Challenge really isn’t either to be honest.
But it was competitive golf and one 18-hole stretch Tiger Woods was competitive again with his playing partner, 2017 Golfer of the Year Justin Thomas, and the entire field. The reason why simply was for the first time in a long time he looked like swinging a golf club wasn’t a form of agony.
“The last time I played with him (a year ago) it looked like there was a little bit of hesitation going after different shots, like bunker shots, shots out of the rough,” Patrick Reed said after playing a practice round with Woods earlier this the week. “This time, he was fully committed and fully trusting his body that there would be no pain.
“He had pep in his step. He was in high spirits. I was shocked how fluid his swing was and how far the ball was going. He had some speed behind it . . . He was hitting the stinger here and there, hitting bunker shots, hitting balls out of the rough ... there just wasn’t any hesitation in his body to hit those shots. That’s key. If he stays healthy, we’ll see Tiger again.”
That is surely golf’s fondest dream but also its flawed thinking. In Woods’ absence the PGA and its television partners did far too little to create buzz around new stars. It tried, to a degree, with Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth, but McIlroy already has faded a bit, perhaps having eased too comfortably into life to push himself with the blind obsession to win Woods had in his prime.
At 24, Spieth seems to have that same drive and he is as capable of the spectacular shot to win as Woods once was. But Woods had the added factor of being a golf phenomenon. Half black, half Thai and all powerful, Woods took over a sport that had for decades prevented players who looked like him from walking on its fairways. To watch him stride down them like first a prince and quickly a king added something kind of different to his appeal in a sport filled with more stuffed shirts than a Harvard Alumni Association convention.
It seems unlikely he can ever become that Tiger again, but if he can come back from what he is now, which is the 1,199th-ranked player in the world, and win once or twice a year would be a shot in the arm for the sport and, frankly, for himself.
“It was fun to be out there and be part of a scorecard again,” Woods admitted. “I hadn’t played in a while.”
Eventually the rust showed. He badly chunked two chips, he was 1-over on the five par 5s he used to dominate, and was moved to slam his club and mutter an obscenity or two after several errant shots. He wasn’t quite Tiger of old but he wasn’t just old Tiger either. Most important, he was out there from the start of a round to the finish. If he’s back again today and throughout the weekend it’s a start.
Certainly golf needs it. And so does he.