The pre tournament buzz at the Hero World Challenge was Tiger Woods’ return to competitive golf. After twenty one year old Jordan Spieth showed all the old guys how things are done the buzz about Tiger is the same: we are still waiting for his return to competitive golf.
Woods finished tied for last place at his own tournament and a hefty 26 shots behind Spieth. But all was not lost for Woods, believe it or not that his T17 finish was his best finish on the PGA Tour in 2014.
The main culprit was his short game. He made very few putts of consequence and his chipping was absolutely pathetic. Round after round he was chunking it and had to hit two or three chips on several holes.
It was downright ugly.
But Woods did have two significant bright spots. He drove the ball very well, longer and straighter then he has in a long time and he finished four rounds of golf totally pain free.
“I hadn’t played in four months,” Woods said. “To come out here and not play in any kind of pain is great progress, and to be able to hit the ball as hard as I want really without flinching.”
“I made some progress,” Woods said. “I hadn’t played in four months and I’m in absolutely no pain, which is nice. To be able to go all out on some of these drives like I did this week really enforces what I’m doing is the right thing for my body.”
So Tiger has a few months to work out the new swing and his short game woes before we see him again next spring.
Maybe in that time he can get with his World Challenge sponsors and do something about that trophy. That sad looking tiger looks like it was made in a middle school ceramics class. The only thing uglier that the trophy was Tiger’s chipping.
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