Tiger Woods caps amazing comeback with a win
Tour Championship win Woods’ first in five years
ATLANTA — Tiger Woods, in his Sunday red shirt, both arms raised in victory on the 18th green.
For so many years, the scene was familiar.
This time, it was surreal.
“I can’t believe I pulled this off,” Woods said Sunday during the trophy presentation at the Tour Championship, where he gave thousands of delirious fans at East Lake Golf Club, and millions more around the world, what they wanted to see — and what they thought they might never see again.
And at that moment, Woods was overcome with emotion and paused.
After two back surgeries six weeks apart, he couldn’t lie down, sit or walk without pain. Golf was the least of his concerns, so much that he once said anything else he achieved would be “gravy.” One year ago, while recovering from a fourth back surgery, he still had no idea if he could come back to the highest level of golf.
“Just to be able to compete and play again this year, that’s a hell of a comeback,” he said.
Woods delivered the perfect ending to his amazing return from back surgeries with a performance out of the past. He left the competition feeling hopeless as he built a five-shot lead early in the final round, then hung on for a 1-over-par 71 and a two-shot victory over Billy Horschel.
It was the 80th victory of his PGA Tour career, two short of the record held by Sam Snead that is now very much in play. It also was the 42-yearold Woods’ first win in more than five years, dating to the 2013 Bridgestone Invitational, and it brought with it a new version of Tigermania.
After he hit his second shot to the par-5 18th safely in a bunker in front of the green, the crowd came through the ropes and followed behind in a chaotic celebration. It was like that when he walked from the left side of
the 18th fairway at the 1997 Masters he won by 12 strokes. It was reminiscent of that walk up the 18th fairway later that summer at the Western Open in Chicago.
This was pure pandemonium. Fans chased after any inch of grass they could find to watch the ending.
“I didn’t want to get run over,” Woods said with a laugh.
This felt just as big as a major, and maybe better considering where Woods had been.
Several players, from Horschel — who closed with a 66 — to Rickie Fowler to Zach Johnson, waited to greet him. It was Johnson who unveiled red shirts at the Ryder Cup two years ago in the team room that said, “Make Tiger Great Again.”
“They knew what I was struggling with,” Woods said. “It was special to see them.”
Woods played only one PGA Tour event over two seasons because of his ailing back. Off the golf course, he had to overcome the embarrassment of a DUI arrest in the early morning of Memorial Day in 2017 when he was found asleep at the wheel and later found to have a concoction of pain medication in his system.
He brought his career back to life this year, especially the past four days at East Lake. The players who have had turns at No. 1 in the World Golf Ranking during his absence caught the full brunt of Woods in control. Rory McIlroy faded early. Justin Rose faded late.
All that was left was Woods in that red shirt, blazing brighter than ever, and a smile he couldn’t shake walking up the 18th to collect another trophy.
“The 80 mark is a big number,” he said. “It’s a pretty damned good feeling.”
He finished at 11-under 269 and won $1.62 million, along with a $3 million bonus for finishing second in the FedEx Cup.
The only disappointment — a minor one under the circumstances — was realizing as he came down the 18th fairway that Rose had made birdie to finish in a three-way tie for fourth, which gave him the FedEx Cup and the $10 million bonus.
Without that birdie, Woods would have won his third FedEx Cup title after starting at No. 20 in the standings going into the Tour Championship.
“Congrats, Rosie,” Woods told him. “World No. 1, hell of a season.”
Make that former world No. 1 for Rose, who was making his playing debut in the prime spot. His four bogeys over the final 10 holes cost him, and when the new World Golf Ranking is released, Dustin Johnson will be back on top. Johnson closed with a 67 and finished third, four strokes behind Woods.
But this wasn’t about the FedEx Cup or even the ranking. This was Tiger’s big day, and nothing was going to change it.
Woods had never lost when leading by three shots or more going into the final round. That was when he was regularly winning multiple times every season, compiling trophies at a rate never before seen in golf. Was anything different with him having gone more than five years without winning?
Rose had said it was a bit more unknown, and that there would be “a lot on it for him” as well as everyone else going into the final round.
But this was still Woods’ arena. The walk from the putting green snakes some 80 yards across a road and through a gallery, and everyone could hear him coming from the procession of cheering. Within the opening hour, the Tour Championship had that inevitable feeling.
No one brings excitement like Woods, even when he plays so well and so smartly he eliminates any potential for drama.
The buzz was endless. A couple of teenagers climbed into a tree to see him make a 10-foot birdie on the first hole. When the putt dropped and cheers died, there was a wild sprint some 200 yards up the hill as fans tried to get into position for the next shot. He tapped in for par, and another stampede ensued to line the third fairway.
On and on it went. No one wanted to miss a shot.
A year ago, there was no guarantee anyone would see much of Woods, much less Woods winning.
He’s back again. This victory, his first since August 2013 — 1,876 days, to be exact — brought him to No. 13 in the world. Not bad for a PGA Tour veteran with four back surgeries who returned to competition last December at No. 1,199 in the world.
The next stop for Woods is to board a plane with the rest of his United States teammates for France and the Ryder Cup, which starts Friday.
After that? There’s no telling.