Tiger struggles in final round, but he’s playing
Matsuyama’s 73 good for 2-shot win in Bahamas
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 surgeries to his troublesome back – 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 17-man field.
Woods was 14 shots behind Hideki Matsuyama, who won at 18 under and was two clear of Henrik Stenson. It was Matsuyama’s fourth victory in five starts and he was a staggering 90 under during that stretch.
Woods played 72 holes without issue and unleashed some max effort swings when he wanted to. The club twirls were back. His swing was “awesome,” as more than one player said, and they emphasized the speed, power and effortless action Woods presented. His haunting chipping woes are gone. He made 24 birdies – against six double bogeys and eight bogeys – and shot 73-6570-76 to finish at 4 under.
“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. It feels good to be back out here playing again, competing and trying to beat the best players in the world. I missed it.”
While he gave every indication that good stuff is at hand in the future, Woods knows there’s plenty of work to do. He likely won’t play again for at least seven weeks, perhaps making his 2017 debut in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines the last week of January.
“I felt like I did some really positive things, I really did,” 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. It was nice to have my speed back, hit some balls out there with some aggression again and not have to worry about anything.”
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, like right-to-left wind and hitting a little hold-up cut shot with mid-irons, and hitting the little low, semi-stinger with the longer irons. And when he were downwind, getting the ball up in the air and bombing it.
“There were plenty of good shots, plenty of good things to take away from here. 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 a translator, “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 Woods produced, great to see him 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. If I was off that amount of time, I would be very tentative 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-you-done-forme-lately world so I don’t think it will happen. But he’s been very patient with himself in his comeback.”
European/Sunshine Tour
MALELANE, South Africa Brandon Stone ran away from his challengers to win the Alfred Dunhill Championship by seven shotsfor his second European Tour title.
Stone finished with a 5-under 67 at Leopard Creek Country Club for 22 under overall, extending his advantage over the chasers after going into the final round three shots ahead.
Stone made seven birdies and two bogeys to secure a comfortable victory for the 23-year-old South African. Richard Sterne was second.
European/Australasia Tour
GOLD COAST, Australia - Harold Varner III held on to win the Australian PGA Championship by two shots on Sunday after a rollercoaster last round of 65 that included seven birdies and two bogeys in an entertaining nine-hole stretch at Royal Pines.
The 26-year-old American took a two-shot lead into the last hole and tapped in for par to finish 19 under.
Varner was two clear of Andrew Dodt and four clear of former No. 1ranked Adam Scott. Dodt held a two-shot lead before the final round but couldn’t match it with Varner over the last 18 holes and closed with a 69.