Four Rounds, No Pain = Success for Tiger

Tiger Woods may have finished fifteenth out of eighteen golfers this week and stumbled with his final round 76 but as strange as it may sound his week at the Hero World Challenge was a success.

True, Tiger always plays with the expectation of winning and would normally never consider looking up at fourteen golfers a successful week but it certainly was.

Stats wise he was hitting the ball a long ways, finding plenty of fairways, stiffing his irons and had his old reliable Scotty Cameron working.

He even led the field in birdies for the week (24) but he did have more than his share of flubs, duffs and hooks. But that’s OK.

Tiger made it through fours rounds of (almost real) tournament play with a few practice rounds early in the week and he has no physical problems. That’s the big takeaway here.

Let’s remember he hasn’t played in sixteen months, had back operations and other assorted physical problems that had many doubting he would ever be able to play professional golf again.

Joe LaCava, his caddie was thrilled he made it through the week, “Honestly, my goal personally was to get him through five rounds on his feet. That doesn’t sound like much, but he hasn’t been doing much of this type of thing. The fact that he feels good after each day, I think that’s great.”

It was great, even with Tiger’s less than great moments. He played and he played well at times and he wasn’t worried about his back or leg or knee or anything other than making a golf shot.

He hasn’t been able to do that in years. We’ve been saying that Woods hasn’t played in sixteen months but he hasn’t played well for an extended period in over three years.

Remember in 2013 he won five times and was Player of the Year but the next three years have been filled with injuries and comebacks and more injuries and more comebacks.

At least this week we saw a healthy Tiger and it’s been a long time since we can say that.

He recognized that there were plenty of positives this week, “I thought I made some good, positive things happen this week. Made a lot of birdies, also made a lot of mistakes. Those, most of those mistakes I can clean up. I know they’re silly mistakes.”

Is this the definitive sign that he’s back to his old dominating, tournament hoarding, major winning self? Hardly…but it is a huge step in his return to form.

I am sure The Golf Channel and everyone that makes their living covering golf is hoping that Tiger can build on this and they will be promoting Tiger and his return at every chance.

But that’s expected, he’s the greatest player of his era and an interesting story for sure. And the game is better with all the greats playing.

“It feels good to be back out here playing again, competing and trying to beat … the best players in the world,” Woods said. “I missed it. I love it.”

We missed it too.