Fans are expectant, pundits are in full crossover mode and, with the PGA Tour on hiatus until January, most of golf’s attention is now focused on one player. Not just any one, of course, but the greatest or second greatest (for those who stick with Jack Nicklaus) in the history of the sport.
Tiger Woods will officially return to competition this week at the Hero World Challenge, the 18-player invitational tournament hosted by the former world number one in the Bahamas.
The 14-time Major winner (Nicklaus holds the record of 18), who will turn 42 on Dec. 30, has played just 19 tournaments, including just one in 2017, at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, since winning five times on PGA Tour in 2013. He signed for back-to-back rounds of 76-72 at the Farmers Insurance and missed the cut, and announced in April that he had undergone further surgery, his fourth back operation in three years.
Understandably, the skeptics are legion and most believe that he will never return to the days of his golden past, and there are even many who doubt that his comeback will continue beyond the Hero World Challenge.
Then there is the other camp, that of friends, colleagues and excited fans. Jason Day, for example, was asked a few days ago what he thought about it. A close friend and confidant of Woods said, “I spoke to him and he said it’s the best he’s felt in three years. He doesn’t wake up in pain anymore, which is great. I told him, ‘Look, it’s great to be one of the greatest players that ever lived, but health is something we all take for granted and if you can’t live a happy, healthy life, then that’s tough.’
“I totally understand where he’s coming from, because sometimes I get up in the morning and it takes me 10 minutes to be able to get out of bed, and for him to be in pain for three years is very frustrating.”
Day also said the relaxed atmosphere of the Bahamas tournament would be the perfect platform to return. “There’s no pressure…there’s no cut, he’s playing in a tournament where last year I think he had more birdies.”
In addition to his surgery and convalescence, Tiger has also had to deal with another problem in recent months: his arrest on May 29 when police in Jupiter (Florida) found him on the shoulder of the road, at 2 a.m., almost unconscious and with the wheel of his car damaged, under the influence of powerful opioids and other prescription drugs.
He underwent treatment for drug addiction at an undisclosed location, and recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving in exchange for his participation in community service, random drug testing, a driving course and regular check-in with a probation officer.
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