Tiger proud to be back at East Lake
Comeback year ends at Tour Championship
ATLANTA – It’s been so long since Tiger Woods has been to East Lake Golf Club for the Tour Championship that he lost his bearings.
Not on his way to the golf course. Nor did he forget how to get to his locker or the practice range. No, Woods got a little disoriented soon after he teed off for a practice round Tuesday.
“We played the back nine, and I thought it was the front nine,” Woods said to laughter Wednesday on the eve of the FedExCup Playoffs finale. Seeing as he hasn’t played the final event of the season since 2013, he wasn’t here when the decision was made in 2016 to reverse the nines for the Tour Championship.
“I’ve seen it on TV, but I still think that 18 is a par 3,” Woods said. “I haven’t reworked the holes. Like 15, I’m usually thinking that’s 6. It’s a weird concept, but one that I’ll figure out here over the next day or so.”
It will be just the latest thing he’ll have to figure out in his remarkable comeback following spinal fusion surgery last year. After starting the year not knowing how long he could play, how often he could play and how well he could play, the 14-time major champion has tweaked his swing, his equipment and his workouts to get back to playing his best at the highest level in golf.
Starting his comeback ranked 1,199th in the world, he is now No. 21. Exceeding his own tempered expectations, he has six top-6 finishes, including a tie for second in the Valspar Championship, a second in the PGA Championship, a tie for sixth in the British Open and a tie for sixth in the BMW Championship, the third of four events in the Playoffs.
He also earned a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup and will play in the biennial tussle with Europe for the first time since 2012. And he’s one of just 30 to make it to the Tour Championship.
About the only thing he hasn’t done is win.
“I haven’t been here in quite some time, and it’s great to have accomplished one of the goals I set out at the beginning of the year, to make it back to East Lake to be part of the Tour Championship and part of these top 30 guys,” said Woods, who is looking for win No. 80 and his first since 2013. “To have come back from where I’ve come back from and to get here has been a pretty tall order and something I’m proud of.
“Now I want to get the ‘W’ and then head into next week and the Ryder Cup.”
His journey back to East Lake and relevancy inside the ropes hasn’t been easy. Doubts about his back were always a companion earlier this year. But after missing the cut in the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club north of Los Angeles in February, his road back took a turn for the better.
Thinking he might have to take tournaments off his schedule because of his back, Woods instead felt healthy enough to add the Valspar Championship to his itinerary. And from that point on, Woods has gradually improved.
“If I stayed healthy enough and was progressing along the way I was progressing, I would figure out a way to play this game,” Woods said. “I would have to alter my swing a bit, alter my equipment a bit, but I would figure out a way to do it.
“I just needed rounds. In order to get rounds, I needed to be physically fit and healthy enough to do it, and I felt pretty comfortable to be able to add a tournament in there. I just needed to keep my body strong, keep it moving, and eventually I would find a game that could contend and that eventually would lead to wins.”
It hasn’t led to a victory, but his game is in form and fits this golf course, which rewards the best ball-strikers in the game. He won here in 2007 en route to the FedExCup title, finished second in
2009 when he won his second FedExCup title (he’s the only two-time winner), tied for eighth in 2012 and tied for
22nd in 2013.
But throughout this season, one thing or another has kept him out of the winner’s circle.
“It’s always been something,” he said. “It’s been I haven’t driven it well, I haven’t hit my irons well, I haven’t chipped well, I haven’t putted well. Just pick one of those things, and it happens to be that particular week.
“I seem to have gotten most of those things going well, but there’s always something missing. I just haven’t put it all together at the same time. That’s something that hopefully will come together this week.”
If he does put everything together, he’ll be right there on Sunday. But even with a victory, his chances to win a third FedExCup are not in his favor. He is 20th in the standings, and to win the FedExCup and the $10 million bonus, he has to win this weekend and get help.
Bryson DeChambeau, the leader, has to finish tied for 15th or worse. No. 2 Justin Rose has to finish in a three-way tie for fifth or worse, No. 3 Tony Finau has to finish in a tie for third or worse, No. 4 Dustin Johnson and No. 5 Justin Thomas have to finish in a three-way tie for second or worse, and No. 6 Brooks Koepka has to finish in a tie for second or worse.
Long odds indeed, but Woods has beaten long odds all year.
“I’ve exceeded most of them,” Woods said about his goals at the start of the year. “Because the beginning of the year was such an unknown.”
Back then, when he made his first PGA Tour start at Torrey Pines in San Diego in the Farmers Insurance Open, all he wanted was to see how it goes.
Well, it’s gone pretty well.