It’s on to main event for Tiger

Mark Cannizzaro

ORLANDO, Fla. — When Tiger Woods walked off the 18th green at Bay Hill shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday, it marked his final piece of tournamentgolf tune-up for the Masters.

Woods’ last putt didn’t result in victory, which it has on eight previous occasions at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But that’s not the point at the moment. His tie for fifth place to finish behind winner Rory McIlroy, considering this was only his fifth PGA Tournament since a fourth back surgery last April, further amps up the anticipation for the Masters.

It, too, left Woods’ mood buoyant entering the year’s first major championship and the first major he’ll play since 2015.

So now we wait two weeks before we see Woods again in competition. At iconic Augusta National. His favorite golf course.

Woods is not qualified to play in the WGC-Match Play this week in Austin, Texas, and he never plays a tournament the week before a major, so he won’t play the Houston Open the following week.

So he will go back to Jupiter, Fla., and get some practice reps in at his home course, Medalist, and he’ll work on his chipping and putting at the state-of-theart short-game facility in his backyard. He, too, said he’ll make a trip to Augusta to practice for a couple days.

But as far as tournament competition before the Masters, Woods’ work is done. The next ball he strikes with consequences attached will be in his opening round at Augusta on April 5.

By the time Woods tees it up for that opening round at Augusta, it will have been 1,090 days since his most recent Masters round in 2015. It will have been 4,747 days since the last time Woods won a green jacket, the fourth of his career, in 2005.

But none of those numbers mattered to Woods as he left Bay Hill late Sunday afternoon. All that mattered was this: His five-tournament preparation for the Masters could not have gone any better unless he’d won one of those events. Other than winning, there isn’t a box Woods failed to check in his Masters run-up.

“If you would have [told] me at the beginning of the year that I would have had a chance to win two golf tournaments, I would have taken that in a heartbeat,” Woods said. “Everything was an unknown. But I’ve gotten a little better, a little bit sharper, and I worked my way up there into the leaderboard back-to-back weeks and had a chance, which is nice. “If I can play with no pain and I can feel like I can make golf swings I’ll figure it out.”

In his first event of the comeback, Woods answered the physical question, proving his back can withstand the rigors of tournament golf when he was able to violently rip balls out of the difficult Torrey Pines rough at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he finished in a respectable tie for 23rd.

Then came a strong performance at the difficult PGA National course for the Honda Classic, where he finished 12th.

Then there was the eye-opening runner-up finish last week in the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook, a tournament he’d never played yet had a chance to win on the 72nd hole.

And finally, there was this week at Bay Hill, where Woods played himself into contention Sunday with a spirited run up the leaderboard.

When Woods, who shot a final-round 69 to finish 10-under, walked to the tee at the gettable par-5 16th hole, he was 12under and just one shot behind McIlroy and Henrik Stenson in the lead.

Then a poor drive out of bounds into the houses to the left of the fairway left him with a crushing bogey and took him out of contention.

“I wasn’t committed to what I was going to do … and I hit a poor one,” Woods said.

Woods’ 69 on Sunday was his 10th consecutive round of par or better, which is his longest such streak since the 2013 Masters.

So off to Augusta 2018 we go in two weeks with the sport bubbling with scintillating storylines.

Woods is seemingly back. McIlroy’s win Sunday could propel him to win the Masters for the first time and complete a rare career Grand Slam.

Add to that 47-year-old Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters winner who’s overflowing with confidence after winning in Mexico two weeks ago, his first victory since 2013. And Dustin Johnson, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, playing Augusta a year after having to withdraw from the tournament after injuring his back after a fall down some stairs.

Oh yes, and then there’s Justin Thomas, the reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year, who won the Honda Classic. And former world No. 1 Jordan Spieth, who already has a green jacket in his young career. And former world No. 1 Jason Day, who has won at Torrey Pines this year and nearly won at Pebble Beach.

You get the picture. Golf is on fire. Tiger Woods poured gasoline on the sport and lit the match.