In just nine months -from the Hero World Challenge at the beginning of December to The Tour Championship- he has gone from the world ranking of 1,199 to 13th, a feat that honors one of the nicknames by which the Californian is known: the Extraterrestrial. And on top of that, he crowned the PGA Tour season with his extraordinary victory in the tournament that is the icing on the cake of the Tour and in which the thirty best players of the year competed.
It was the former world number one’s first win in five years and the 80th of his PGA Tour career, just a couple of victories behind Sam Snead’s record. Tiger’s last success dated back to August 2013, when he was consecrated at the Bridgestone Invitational. Back then nobody thought it would take him 1,876 days to lift a trophy again.
Tiger’s season has certainly been extraordinary, especially considering where he started from: being ranked 1,199th in the world. He has finished eight times in the top ten in the 19 tournaments he has played, including his victory in The Tour Championship, his second place in the US PGA Championship, another second in the Valspar Championship and a sixth place in the British Open.
It was normal that, after four surgeries on his back that barely allowed him to walk a few months ago, the Californian was very excited after his long-awaited victory. In an East Lake Golf Club full to overflowing and with a crowd ecstatic for the ‘resurrection’ of their idol, the former world number one faced the last hole with a broad smile on his face, knowing he had the title in his hands. “I had a hard time holding back tears on the last hole. I kept telling myself, ‘Hey, you can still shoot it out.’ ‘ But once I got the ball on the green, I high-fived Joey (LaCava, his caddie) because I knew I had made it,” he said.
“It was a big challenge at the beginning of the year to think I could win again but over the course of the competitions I saw that it was possible,” he said.
The most famous in the world
The man who became -and still is- the most famous golfer in the world has had this year within his reach the opportunity to win a major again, something that has not happened since he won his fourteenth major a decade ago (US Open in 2008). Although his first Grand Slam event of the season, the Masters, ended with a 32nd place, and in the second, the US Open, he did not make the cut, things changed radically in the last two majors of the year. Thus, in the British Open, in which Francesco Molinari became the first Italian to win a major, Tiger finished sixth but could have finished second tied with four other players if he had not missed a short putt on the last hole.
The Californian, who in addition to his 80 PGA Tour victories has another twenty international victories, had been the center of attention all week with his return to the British Open after a three-year absence following a serious back injury, and came close to winning his fifteenth major at the age of 42 after his head-to-head with the Italian.
In the last major, the PGA Championship, Tiger, who had not played for five years, turned the Bellerive Country Club upside down and, despite achieving with his 64 strokes the best round of the day, could do nothing against the formidable Brook Koepka, who won his second major of the year, after the one achieved at the U.S. Open. He got to within one stroke of Koepka on the 13th hole, but the enormous solidity of his young rival (28 years old) made Tiger’s effort impossible, who finished second, two strokes behind the champion.
With his physical ailments overcome (four back surgeries in recent years), with his strength restored and his enormous talent intact, it was only a matter of time – and not long, given what we have seen – before the Extraterrestrial returned to the top of the podium and saw the laurels that took him to victory for the last time five years ago, at the Bridgestone International in the summer of 2013.
And that moment has finally arrived and it has undoubtedly been a great day for world golf, especially for American fans and also for the television networks that have the broadcasting rights for the major tournaments, which have seen their audiences (and their income) soar, as has already been demonstrated when Tiger has displayed his magic on the turf.
Now, the question is how long it will take for him to become world number one again and whether he will be able to equal, if not surpass, Jack Nicklaus’ record of majors. With 14 behind him, Tiger has four more to go to catch up with the Golden Bear. Mission impossible?
5 THINGS ABOUT TIGER
1) In a single tournament, the Hero Wold Challenge, Tiger managed in one fell swoop to climb no less than 451 places in the world ranking, going from 1,119 to 668. A leap worthy of the Extraterrestrial.
2) The Californian’s excellent form is evidenced by the cards he is signing since his comeback: 16 of his last 29 rounds have been under 70 strokes.
3) Thanks to his magnificent results in the last tournaments of the season, Tiger gets a place for the next US Open and will no longer have to ask for an invitation.
4) If his second places in PGA Tour tournaments were converted into victories, Tiger would have already surpassed the hundred mark, as he has been runner-up 31 times (and champion 79 times).
5) Although it is estimated that he has earned more than a billion dollars throughout his career, he sure doesn’t mind the nearly four million dollars he has pocketed in prize money this season.
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