USA TODAY International Edition
Woods considers outing a success
NASSAU, BAHAMAS Rickie Fowler walked onto the range at Albany Golf Club and spoke for a majority of golf fans worldwide.
“Nice to see the red shirt on Sunday again.”
Tiger Woods just smiled in his famous Sunday wardrobe.
Get used to seeing it again. Woods is back — as long as his back holds up.
His return to competitive golf after an absence of almost 16 months — which included two back surgeries — was a success on nearly all counts as the positives far outweighed the negatives. This despite the final- round 76 and the final- hole double bogey as he finished 15th in the elite 17man field. Woods was 14 shots behind Hideki Matsuyama, who won at 18- under- par 270.
Woods played 72 holes without issue and unleashed max- effort swings. The club twirls were back. His swing was “awesome,” as more than one player said. His chipping woes are gone. He made 24 birdies — against six double bogeys and eight bogeys — and shot 73- 65- 70- 76 to finish at 4under- par 284.
“Getting back to this point is beyond anything that I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime,” Woods said. “The pain issues that I had, it was rough. ... Quite frankly there were some pretty dire times where I just couldn’t move.
“So big picture? It feels good to be back out here playing again, competing and trying to beat the best players in the world.”
He knows there’s still plenty of work to do. He probably won’t play for at least seven weeks, perhaps making his 2017 debut in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
“I felt like I did some really positive things,” Woods said. “I’m pleased about that, and I just need to clean it up. I made a lot of silly mistakes. ... I’m going to take two weeks off here, get my weight back up, get everything organized, then start the process of testing, training and getting a feel of what is best for me.”
Caddie Joey LaCava was excited to see his player get through the week. “He’s upright, No. 1. You laugh, but that’s good,” LaCava said. “I love the fact he was hitting a lot of shots that he was picturing in his mind. ... And when downwind, getting the ball up in the air and bombing it.
“I wasn’t going to compare him to the rest of the field. … They’ve been playing all year and they’ve been playing great. Honestly my goal was to get him through five rounds ( counting the pro- am) on his feet. That was big.” And going forward? “I’m excited,” LaCava said. “You never know what’s going to happen, but he looks good walking, looks good over the ball and looks good after he’s done playing, and those are all positives.” Woods’ colleagues agreed. “Only Tiger,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter, “could take a year and a half off and put up the numbers that he’s putting up this week.”
Jordan Spieth said it was good to hear the roars, great to see Woods swinging the club like he did this week.
“I just hope he’s given time,” Spieth said. “His swing looks awesome. It looks like he’s going aggressively into the ball.”
When asked how much time should be given to Woods, Spieth didn’t hesitate. “A year,” he said. “I think it would be good for him ( in 2017) to play two tournaments back- to- back weeks and see how he feels. ...
“How much time has he had off? Give him that much time on. The world we live in as fans, as spectators, it’s a what-have- youdone-for- me- lately world, so I don’t think it will happen. But he’s been very patient with himself in his comeback.”