The PGA Tour finally finishes out the 2015 calendar year this week as Tiger Woods comes off his couch to host the Hero World Challenge.
The exclusive eighteen man event takes place at the even more exclusive Albany private community in the Bahamas as some big names vie for a nice holiday paycheck and a few world ranking points. How there are world ranking points at stake at such a limited field event is ludicrous but that’s another argument.
This week, at least the early part is all about the host, Tiger. There was a time when this was a chance for some of Tiger’s buddies to try and beat Woods at one of his hangouts.
Woods has an extraordinary record at The Hero, no matter where it was held. He has five wins and four seconds with the last victory coming in 2011.
But this year Woods is on the sidelines rehabbing from another recent back surgery and he says there is no timetable for his return.
Woods spoke earlier this week and his press conference took on a decidedly different tone. Previously we would listen to Tiger speak of the process and the treatments and rehab regime he was utilizing to get back to his world class level.
But there was a different Tiger talking to the press this time. It was a Tiger who said there is no schedule for his projected return.
It was a Tiger who seemed to more focused on what he had accomplished in past years than what he would accomplish in the future.
It was a Tiger that said he was content with his twenty year career and that he “had a good run.”
A good run is an understatement for sure, after all 79 tour wins, 14 majors…and all the rest is a good run indeed. But Woods rarely speaks of contentment and being satisfied with past deeds.
Tiger will be forty this month and he may be coming to terms with the realization that his career is fading and not on his terms.
Diaz goes on: “I’ve passed Jack on the all-time win list [79 PGA Tour titles to 73], just shy of Sam [Snead, the leader with 82],” Woods said. “I passed Sam basically a decade ago in major championships, but I’m still shy of Jack’s [18]. So I’ve had a pretty good career for my 20s and 30s. For my 20 years out here, I think I’ve achieved a lot, and if that’s all it entails, then I’ve had a pretty good run.”
Such words from Woods can be taken as the final concession that the dream of 19 majors to pass Nicklaus, collectively held onto by so many golf fans, is dead.
Perhaps he has no choice. Woods had prefaced his historical assessment with this sentence: “I think pretty much everything beyond this will be gravy.” That last word immediately incited the piercing thought that, deep down, Woods’ view of what’s beyond in golf terms as pretty bleak.
In a small, sunbaked interview tent that induced both perspiration and tension, Woods was amiable. He answered every question without ever bristling. He was expansive about contemporaries Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning and Tim Duncan, all done or close to it with their professional careers after two decades. He seemed to take pleasure in putting himself among them, an athlete who nobly gave his all until his body wore out. It’s a better narrative than the supremely gifted golfer on track to be the greatest ever who self-destructed.
The weight of that latter persona over the last six years has surely been immense. And on some level, Tuesday’s press conference was an unburdening that left Woods looking relieved. Or at least OK with taking a break.
Honestly, a break—a long one and a real one, not one filled with training and updates and range sessions—is the wisest, best thing at this point. In the opinion of several close Woods observers with experience in the mental side of competitive golf, it’s what he has most needed since Thanksgiving of 2009. Get totally away, look deeply inward, heal physically, come back with a clean slate. If his back could hold up, the ability would still be there. Who would say that a truly renewed Woods in his mid-40s couldn’t do what Nicklaus did at the 1986 Masters, or even more?
Diaz’s question is valid. What could a healthy and renewed Woods accomplish in his forties? It would be an intriguing proposition.
But it first has to come from Tiger’s lips and right now he’s definitely not there. Let’s see next spring or next summer or whenever.
Remember, there’s no timetable on Tiger’s return. Just a ticking clock.
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