![\"\"](\"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.holaincompany.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/images_Jugadores_Tiger-Back-Again.jpg\")
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Fans are expectant, pundits are in full crossover mode and, with the PGA Tour on hiatus until January, most of golf\u2019s attention is now focused on one player. Not just any one, of course, but the greatest or second greatest (for those who stick with\u00a0Jack Nicklaus) in the history of\u00a0the sport. <\/p>\n
Tiger Woods will officially return to competition\u00a0this week at the Hero World Challenge, the 18-player invitational tournament hosted by the former world number one in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0one in 2017, at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, since winning five times on PGA Tour in 2013.\u00a0He signed for back-to-back rounds of\u00a076-72 at the Farmers Insurance\u00a0and missed the cut, and announced in April that he had undergone further surgery, his fourth back operation in three years.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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, \u201cI spoke to him and he said it\u2019s the best he\u2019s felt in three years. He doesn\u2019t wake up in pain anymore, which is great. I told him, \u2018Look, it\u2019s great to be one of the greatest players that ever lived, but health is something we all take for granted and if you can\u2019t live a happy, healthy life, then that\u2019s tough.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI totally understand where he\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Day also said the relaxed atmosphere of the Bahamas tournament would be the perfect platform to return. \u201cThere\u2019s no pressure\u2026there\u2019s no cut, he\u2019s playing in a tournament where last year I think he had more birdies.\u201d <\/p>\n
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\u00a0on the shoulder\u00a0of the road, at 2 a.m.,\u00a0almost unconscious and with the\u00a0wheel of his car damaged, under the influence of powerful opioids and other prescription drugs.<\/p>\n
He underwent treatment for drug addiction at an undisclosed location, and recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of\u00a0reckless driving in exchange for his participation in community service, random drug testing, a driving course and regular check-in with a probation officer.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fans are expectant, pundits are in full crossover mode and, with the PGA Tour on hiatus until January, most of golf\u2019s attention is now focused on one player. Not just any one, of course, but the greatest or second greatest (for those who stick with\u00a0Jack Nicklaus) in the history of\u00a0the sport. Tiger Woods will officially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}