SLOW AND STEADY
Woods keeps expectations low in his latest comeback
NASSAU, Bahamas – Slow your roll. • Yes, he’s Tiger Woods, the best player of his generation by miles, a winner of 79 PGA Tour titles and 14 majors, including four in a row. The former world No. 1 for a record 683 weeks who left scars on some of the game’s best players at the height of his powers. The man who won the Masters by 12 shots, the U.S. Open by 15 and the British Open by eight. The man who didn’t miss a cut for 142 consecutive starts, who won five or more tournaments in a season a record 10 times. • Now for the flip side of the golf bag. He turns 42 on Dec. 30.
He’s less than eight months removed from spinal fusion surgery in his lower back, his fourth surgical procedure on his spine since 2014. He hasn’t won since 2013, signed his scorecard after just eight rounds the last two years and hasn’t played a golf tournament in 10 months. And he’s ranked No. 1,199 in the world.
So when Woods makes his latest comeback Thursday in the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Course, the same place he made his last comeback last year, temper your expectations. Woods certainly has.
“I’m just looking forward to getting through these four rounds and having a better understanding of where I’m at,” Woods said.
Where he’s at is a lot better than where he was. He didn’t have much of a life the last two years as he dealt with pain that left him bedridden at times, left him unable to drive a car at times or play with his two kids. Pain that made him fear his next step, which could trig- ger an agonizing reaction.
For nine months, he needed help getting out of bed and often grabbed a club not to hit a golf shot, but to use as a crutch.
But after building his body back to health following spinal fusion surgery April 19, Woods says he’s pain free, which he wasn’t at this time last year, when he played just two more tournaments after teeing it up in the Hero World Challenge. After slowly returning to the game this time around one shot, putt, chip and stinger at a time, he is swinging freely, aggressively and without pain, surprising his friends, including Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson. There is no hesitation with a club in his hand.
But there will be rust. How can there not be? And while he has his power and speed back, he has to gain a better control of his distance control. He hasn’t walked 72 holes in four consecutive days of competition, though he has walked a considerable amount back home in Florida — on the beach and on the golf course. He won’t be able to drop a ball on the fairway to hit another shot, like he did during practice rounds the last couple of months.
And he’ll have a scorecard in his pocket for the first time since February, playing against the best players in the world, among them Johnson, the world No. 1; Thomas, the reigning PGA Tour player of the year; defending champion Hideki Matsuyama and three-time major champion Jordan Spieth.
That’s a huge difference, moving from Wednesday to Thursday’s opening round, where nerves start bubbling up and the competitive fire starts heating up. Playing a practice round is one thing; writing down a score in competition is quite another.
And Tiger knows that. He’ll be searching for a rhythm to deal with the round, the competition and the elements. And he’ll be taking notes on how his body reacts in certain situations.
While his competitors and the golf world want to see him come back healthy and stay that way, hoping to see the old Tiger roar again, it most likely won’t be this week. That would be OK with Woods. This time he’s taking things slowly, working his way back one shot, one hole, one round, one tournament at a time.
“I’m winging this because I don’t know what my body can and can’t do yet,” Woods said. “I just got the goahead a little over a month ago. I don’t have any pain anymore in my back. I have some stiffness. So I’m learning that, what my body can’t do yet and what it can do. Just going to take a little bit of time.”
Hopefully, his back willing, he’ll have that time.