There was different level of Tigermania this time around

PARAMUS, N.J. » Tiger Woods seems to be bigger now than when he was good.

Not that he’s all that bad.

Remember, it was just seven months ago that Woods began his year not knowing how his game would respond to four back surgeries that limited him to 19 starts on the PGA Tour and kept him out of the FedEx Cup playoffs since 2013.

Not only did he make it to the PGA Tour’s version of a postseason, he starts The Northern Trust at No. 20 out of the 125 players who qualified.

He is playing well enough to win. Even so, this is one time Woods will consider it a very good year even if he doesn’t.

“No doubt,” Woods said. “I didn’t know if I was ever going to play again.”

And that might explain the reaction to him.

It’s not just the headlines he makes for finishing 12th or the shot-byshot TV coverage at every tournament. It’s the response outside the ropes that keeps getting bigger and louder, week after week, from Palm Harbor to Potomac, from the British Open to Bellerive.

Stewart Cink described the third round at the PGA Championship as “a pretty intense environment” playing with Woods, this from a man who played with him (and often lost to him) during a time when Woods looked close to unbeatable.

“I think everyone at the golf course cheers for him,” Brooks Koepka said after winning the PGA Championship at Bellerive while hearing one earsplitting cheer after another for Woods on the back nine.