![\"\"](\"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 opinionated flow and, with the U.S. PGA Tour taking a break until January, the great bulk of golfing attention is now focused on one player. Not just any player, of course, but the greatest or second greatest one (for those in Jack Nicklaus\u2019s corner) in the history of the game. <\/p>\n
Tiger Woods is due to officially return to competition next week, at the Hero World Challenge 18-player invitational event he hosts in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n
The 14-time major winner (Nicklaus has 18 \u2013 for the record), who will turn 42 on Dec. 30, has made just 19 starts, including one in 2017, at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, since winning five times on the U.S. PGA Tour in 2013. He shot 76-72 in the Farmers to miss the cut, and announced in April that he had undergone back fusion surgery \u2013 his fourth back operation in three years. <\/p>\n
Understandably, the sceptics are legion: from those who believe he will never return to the days of his golden past to others who doubt his comeback will even continue past the Hero World Challenge.<\/p>\n
Then there is the other camp, of friends, colleagues \u2013 and wishful thinkers. Jason Day, for example, was asked at the Australian Open this week what he thought. A close friend and confidante of Woods, he said, \u201cI did talk to him and he did say it\u2019s the best he\u2019s ever felt in three years. He doesn\u2019t wake up with pain anymore, which is great. I said to him, \u2018Look, it\u2019s great to be one of the best players ever to live, but health is one thing that we all take for granted and if you can\u2019t live a happy, healthy life, then that\u2019s difficult.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI totally understand where he\u2019s coming from, because sometimes I wake up in the morning and it takes me 10 minutes 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 Hero\u2019s relaxed atmosphere would be the perfect platform to return. \u201cThere\u2019s no pressure\u2026 there\u2019s no cut, he\u2019s playing at a tournament where last year I think he had the most birdies at.\u201d <\/p>\n
Apart from his surgery and convalescence, Tiger has also had to deal with another troubling issue in recent months: his arrest on May 29 when police in Jupiter (Florida) found him on the side of the road, at 2 a.m., passed out at the wheel of his damaged car, under the influence of potent opioids and other prescription drugs.<\/p>\n
He underwent treatment for drug addiction at an undisclosed location, and recently pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving in exchange for his participation in community service, random drug testing, DUI school and checking in regularly with a probation officer.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Career Record in Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n Earlier this month, Golf Digest published a stats-related report on Tiger, a \u201cwalk down memory lane\u201d and a countdown (at the time) of the 14 days remaining until his latest comeback. It provides some valuable insight (if that is needed) into just how impressive his career has been to date\u2026 <\/p>\n 14:\u00a0Tiger\u2019s number of career major titles. Duh. <\/p>\n 13:\u00a0The number of years \u2013 that\u2019s right, YEARS \u2013 Tiger has spent at No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking. To be exact, Tiger has spent 683 weeks in the top spot, which is more than double Greg Norman (331 weeks), who is second on the list. <\/p>\n 12:\u00a0The number of consecutive matches Woods won during his back-to-back victories at the WGC Match Play in 2003 and 2004.<\/p>\n 11:\u00a0Tiger\u2019s record number of PGA Tour Player of the Year Awards.<\/p>\n 10:\u00a0Tiger\u2019s record number of PGA Tour money titles.<\/p>\n 9:\u00a0Tiger\u2019s record number of Vardon Trophies for lowest scoring average.<\/p>\n 8:\u00a0Tiger\u2019s record-tying number of wins in one event, doing it at both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (Sam Snead won eight Greater Greensboro Opens). Woods has also won eight times at Torrey Pines, including his last major at the 2008 U.S. Open. <\/p>\n 7:\u00a0Tiger\u2019s longest PGA Tour winning streak (2006-2007), which only trails Byron Nelson\u2019s 11 consecutive victories in 1945.<\/p>\n 6:\u00a0Consecutive USGA titles won by Woods from 1991-1996. Woods claimed three straight U.S. Juniors and three straight U.S. Amateurs. <\/p>\n 5:\u00a0The number of majors Woods still needs to win to pass Jack Nicklaus\u2019 record of 18. Hey, we can dream, right? <\/p>\n 4:\u00a0The number of consecutive majors Woods won during his \u201cTiger Slam.\u201d Woods won the final three majors of 2000 and then won the 2001 Masters to become the only golfer to hold all four of the sport\u2019s modern major trophies at the same time. <\/p>\n 3:\u00a0The number of times Woods has completed the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n 2:\u00a0Tiger\u2019s number of FedEx Cup titles. Woods won the inaugural FedEx Cup in 2007 as well as the 2009 edition. He remains the Cup\u2019s only multiple-time winner. <\/p>\n 1:\u00a0The number of good legs on which Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open.\u00a0Incredible.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fans are expectant, pundits are in full opinionated flow and, with the U.S. PGA Tour taking a break until January, the great bulk of golfing attention is now focused on one player. Not just any player, of course, but the greatest or second greatest one (for those in Jack Nicklaus\u2019s corner) in the history of […]<\/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-21774","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\/21774","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=21774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21774\/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=21774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}