Tigermania II quickly picks up steam
We wrote him off, ridiculed him, pitied him, said he’d never win again, said he’d never play again.
And here he is, with a fused back and a new swing, reminding us for the umpteenth time that when it comes to Tiger Woods, impossible is nothing.
Just a few months ago his golf career looked deader than a 30-handicapper at Augusta National, and now it looks like he could win there. Not someday. In two weeks.
If you watched Woods finish second and fifth in his last two starts, you had to remind yourself that he’s had four back surgeries, that he went through another round of public humiliation when he was arrested on suspicion of DUI in May, that he subsequently went to rehab for pain pill addiction.
You remember the unfortunate mug shot and you saw him charging up the leader board at Bay Hill and you said,
“That guy is this guy?”
Woods looked a lot more like the golfer who won 14 major championships and 79 PGA Tour events than the gimpy shell of himself who shot 85 at Memorial, topped shots at Chambers Bay and yipped chips in Phoenix.
We’re witnessing the biggest comeback since Ben Hogan overcame a nearfatal car accident to win the 1950 U.S. Open. In some ways it’s even bigger, because Hogan never had to contend with a fire hydrant, public shaming, Twitter trolls and Brandel Chamblee. Even Lazarus didn’t have it this tough.
At 41, Woods looked washed up. At
42, he looks like a young man, until he takes off his cap to reveal thinning hair. He hit a swing speed of 129 mph with his driver two weeks ago at the Valspar Championship, the fastest recorded swing speed on the PGA Tour this season. Lumbar fusion? This is closer to nuclear fusion.
After sitting out all of 2016 and barely playing in ‘17, Woods ranks fifth on tour in scoring average (69.474) and 14th in strokes-gained putting and is averaging 304.2 yards off the tee. He has rocketed up more than 500 spots in the Official Golf World Ranking, to No. 105.
Of course, the rebuilt Woods has yet to win, and the Masters will present formidable challenges. He hasn’t won on the Tiger-proofed version of Augusta National since 2005 and hasn’t putted competitively on lightning-fast bentgrass greens in more than two years.
And then there’s the issue with his driver. He’s never been particularly accurate off the tee, but his two-way misses this year have been off the charts. He ranks 192nd of 209 golfers in driving accuracy (though it should be pointed out that Phil Mickelson, who has won this year, is No. 206).
After pulling to within a stroke of the lead Sunday at Bay Hill, Woods badly hooked a drive out of bounds on the short par-5 16th, which led to a bogey and essentially ended his chance to win. He then blocked his drives into the right trees on Nos. 17 and 18, the compensatory mistake for a golfer who is trying to avoid the dreaded hook.
You can’t win from the pine straw at Augusta National, so it’s obvious what Woods will be working on at his Florida compound before he tees it up in the first round April 5.
Whatever you think of him personally, Woods infused golf with energy and excitement during his decade-plus era of domination and he is doing it again.
The final-round coverage of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on NBC delivered a 3.6 overnight rating, up 136% over 2017 and the highest-rated final round for the API in six years. Combined with the final round of the Valspar Championship (5.1 overnight rating), those two ranked as the highest-rated final rounds of PGA Tour telecasts (non-majors) in 21⁄2 years.
So much for those who complain about Woods overkill. For every viewer who turns the channel, there are 10 tuning in.
Bovada has given Woods the third-best odds of winning the Masters, behind only Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson and ahead of Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Jason Day.
There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about how the post-Woods generation of golfers – Justin and Jordan and Rickie, et. al – are fearless and wouldn’t blink if they had to go up against Tiger in his prime.
That theory soon could be put to the test. If any of those young’uns is paired with Woods in the final round of the Masters and they’re battling for the lead, they’re going to find out what it was like to be Ernie Els or Mickelson or any other golfer, circa 2000.
Suddenly, Woods won’t be their “bud.” He’ll be giving them the 1,000yard stare. Amen Corner will be crackling with electricity. The patrons will be going crazy, or at least as crazy as is permissible at Augusta National.
I don’t know if it’s going to happen this year, or ever. But it sure would be fun.