Tiger Woods again demonstrates why this comeback is different

It was time for Tiger Woods to get a good bounce. During his decade of dominance, Tiger, by his own genius and talent made sure to set himself up to be on the right side of those bounces. It was a trick that made competitors feel they were up against not only an all-time great but also the golf gods. But for the past few years, whatever could go wrong or break bad, went that way.

The margins in pro golf are so razor thin and so often the difference between disappointment and triumph is a single bounce. It’s possible to delineate the best in the world from the rest over weeks, months, and a couple years. But each week, any player in these fields can win and usually the difference between a win and finishing 10th is just a few fickle or uncontrollable bounces that happened somewhere along the 72-hole march well out of view of the TV coverage.

What I’ll remember most about Tiger’s return at the Farmers Insurance Open is a shot he pulled off on Friday afternoon, and the subsequent bounce he caught as a possible inflection point for this comeback being different than all the previous failed comebacks.

This is a very subjective thing, but Tiger’s march through the second round never had a good feeling about it. It felt like another slog. It wasn’t ominous on the health front but it had a taste of more of the same from the previous depressing few years. It felt slow, the driver was wild as hell again, which we saw punished at this very tournament last year in a missed cut. He started the day on the wrong side of the cut line, posted an early double bogey thanks to another wild drive, and it looked like we’d probably have a back nine playing out the string for an early exit. It would have been a disappointing day but a completely acceptable result.

Then he rallied during a manic up-and-down close and we got to Tiger’s 18th hole of the day (the 9th at Torrey Pines’ North Course). Woods had just run a wedge shot through the previous green to make a bogey, and that swatted him back onto the wrong side of the cut line. His last hole was a par-5, so a reasonable birdie chance but again his drive had gone off into some of Torrey’s rough. Fortunately, it went so far off line that the place it ended was matted down by the crowd and gave Tiger a chance to go at the green.

The hole is not a Monster™ three-shot par-5, but it was still going to take a significant lash and a little bit of luck to get safely on in two. Tiger’s ball juuuust cleared a greenside bunker, bouncing around it and taking a look below like a kid walking the perimeter of the lion’s enclosure at the zoo. The ball then stayed hot and scurried to the back of the green. That shot is the one I’ll take with me most from this week. Charley Hoffman, his playing partner, didn’t clear and dumped it in that same bunker. In so many of these previous bleak comeback attempts, Tiger’s ball would have hit at the top of the bunker and come back down.

This is not to say it was a definitive miss or make the cut moment. He could have got up-and-down for birdie from the sand, or three-putted from where his ball actually ended up on the green. It would be stupid to say it was some sort of turning point in the success or failure of this entire comeback, but it was definitely a welcome change from so much we’ve seen in previous comebacks. Tiger’s ball goes in the bunker and he hangs his head and the crowd groans. Instead, he clears it ever so slightly and the crowd erupts.

We all know what happened after that — Tiger hit a perfect lag putt, just as good as the approach, to make it a relatively easy birdie putt to get to the weekend. For Tiger, I really think it was a moment of relief but also triumph. Some of those feelings were percolating watching at home too. He was grinning ear-to-ear and there was reason for it — almost 900 days had passed since he made a cut on the PGA Tour.

Whatever you think of Tiger, hate or love him, this was a moment that provoked a reaction you just never get on a random Friday afternoon of a January PGA Tour event. If he missed the cut, that would have been fine, but we’d also be doing a bit more rationalizing and wondering. We’d have groans instead of that triumphal moment. We’ve been peppered with “this comeback is different” so much in recent months. That ball getting over the bunker made me feel like maybe that could be true, and it gave us two more days.

While I thought Friday’s cut line drama was the signature moment or accomplishment of Tiger’s week, here are a few more things that were good to see and not-so-good to see from the big cat.

The Good

1) Health!

Tiger Woods looked healthy. His back withstood plenty of deep cuts through that penal rough. There were no winces or uncomfortable grimaces as he hobbled off a tee box. Also, and this won’t be discussed nearly as much as the back fusion surgery, but by his own admission, he’s been through rehab to deal with some sort of abuse problem.

Tiger is a year older and looks 5 years younger than last year.
— Doug Ferguson (@dougferguson405) January 28, 2018

2) Speed!

Sure, the drives went all over the property all week long. That was a glaring weakness that will need to be addressed. But the power that we saw in the Bahamas and had heard about all winter from his friendly games in South Florida was there again this week. His ball speed was pushing 180 mph again and he was regularly poking the ball out there 320, 330, and even dabbled with the 350 mark thanks to some wind.

Tiger obviously needs to figure out his accuracy off the tee and improve it. But on the modern PGA Tour, hitting it far, and not necessarily straight, is most important to competing and winning. It’s good to see Tiger taking full, powerful cuts without any restrictions.

3) Short game

Tiger’s short game has been a massive liability in recent years. It’s been embarrassing at times and subtly awful at others. This week, it was an asset. It had to be, given how he was driving it off line and constantly had to scramble. His chipping, of all things, helped him avoid some big numbers on Friday and his putting held it together early on Saturday. He repeatedly cited that short game as reason for turning poor ballstriking rounds into respectable under-par scores. It’s an incredible turnaround from the depths of the past few years. Let’s see if it’s sustained.

4) The post-round interview

It was incredible to hear Tiger talk on Sunday about targeting a 65 to make a playoff. The dude hasn’t been a competitive golfer, really since 2015, and he should have just been happy to be healthy and make a cut. Yet there he was talking about a number in mind needed to win or force extra holes on Sunday. It was so good and I could not stop giggling.

This came a day after he used the world “feels” three times in about a 20-second span with Dottie Pepper. Tiger has lost none of his fastball or command of the post-round interview and it will be an added element of entertainment all season.

5) The volume

I spent much of the final round watching on an airplane with headphones. Every time Tiger made contact or a ball landed on the green in the general vicinity of the flag, I had to lunge to turn the volume down. Watching golf with headphones felt like work — you need to strain to hear the hushed tones of the announcers and then have the din of several hundred gallery members shouting at once. It’s just a late January event, but no one is stirring up that kind of noise like Tiger and it was back and in full effect all weekend.

The not so good

You want to be charitable and not say anything was “bad” after a guy who’s been injured and uncompetitive for four years comes back, makes the cut, and then finishes inside the damn top 25. So here are some things that were just less good and could use improvement as Tiger starts to get back into the full swing of the Tour.

1) Keep it on the planet.

Tiger hit just 17 fairways ... all week. It’s the lowest of his career, edging the previous low of 20.

Tiger Woods: 30.4% fairways hit this week, a career-low on the PGA Tour for any 72-hole tournament. Previous low: 36% at East Lake in 2004.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) January 28, 2018

This is a tight course with easy-to-miss fairways and I already noted above how the importance of actually hitting fairways has diminished relative to the importance of just hitting it far in the modern pro game.

That Tiger never shot over-par all four rounds is a minor miracle and a testament to how much his putting and chipping, at times, picked him up. He also never broke 70 and the driving has got to get better than this if he wants to actually win.

2) Ballstriking

Tiger’s ballstriking got much, much better on Sunday and that brought his numbers up to a respectable level. But it was sloppy throughout the first two days. He threw away some shots from relatively easy distances and made it much harder on himself than it needed to be. The driving needs to find a fix, whereas the poor iron play was probably more of a rust issue and that could be the reason for Sunday’s improvement.

3) Attire

Tiger came in hot with the blade collar. I don’t think he ever wore anything else and even, at one point Sunday, went with the rather avant garde collarless vest over the blade.

That was expected, although maybe not with that frequency. What wasn’t expected was the odd material compared to the blades Rory McIlroy or Jason Day and other Nike guys wear. Maybe it looked perfectly fine in person, but it was quite different and bad on TV as the Cali sun reflected off whatever material made up the shirt.

We don’t go to Tiger for trendsetting fashion, as a golfer or otherwise. I full expect that to continue throughout the season.

Tiger’s first event back was an unqualified success. There were rough patches but he finished inside the top 25 and made the cut when he was pushed to the limit on the final hole Friday afternoon. It’s a start, and his health needs to hold up, but we have another week that points towards an encouraging, real comeback this time. We’ll see him again in three weeks at Riviera for the Genesis Open.

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