Tiger Woods Chasing 82, Chapter 9: The Great Comeback Part II

For all the times during the 2017-18 season when it was mentioned how Tiger Woods was working on his seventh winless season since 2009, a voice in the back of your head begged perspective. The winless campaigns of 2010-11 and 2014-17 had involved a grand total of just 40 tournaments, for goodness sakes, and there had been a litany of issues, most of them circled around injuries. But this comeback in 2017-18? It just felt so different, starting with the fact he teed it up in 18 PGA TOUR tournaments, the most since 2012, and continuing into his competitive pulse, which was alive and throbbing like it hadn’t been in years. In those other seasons when he hadn’t won, Woods had rarely gotten into the mix, with just five top-10s, but never a second or third. In the early months of 2018, however, he was competitive in two of his first three starts, then came a pair of Florida stops – the Valspar Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard– when he went deep into Sunday with a flicker of hope. Other top 10s followed, including The Open Championship when he seized the outright lead in the final round, then in August it nearly all came together at the PGA Championship, when he finished second, his best finish in five seasons. He was close. No one had to say it; everyone could feel it. Trouble is, the ladder of a 2017-18 season was on its last rung when Woods arrived at his first TOUR Championship since 2013. Win No. 80: Sept. 13, 2018 – TOUR Championship It was easily forgotten that Woods opened this tournament with a bogey when he concluded his first-round 65 with an eagle at the par-5 18th. And as ho-hum as his second-round 68 was to again share the lead, a third round that featured an electric six birdies in the first seven holes seemingly had everyone thinking we were in a Woods time tunnel. “I wasn’t sure he’d play again, much less have a chance to win,� marveled heralded swing coach Butch Harmon. Building a three-stroke lead after his second round of 65 in three days, Woods made David Duval sound prophetic. Earlier in the season, to all the young stars who opined how they wanted Woods to return to form so they could play against the best at his best, Duval shook his head and cautioned: “The hell you do.� True, Woods hit some turbulence down the stretch with bogeys at the 15th and 16th holes, but his final-round 71 for 11-under 269 did more than record a two-stroke win. It unleashed a scene like few had ever seen, one that was reminiscent of those days of The Open Championship when spectators were given the right to follow in behind the final golfers on the march toward the 18th green. “I’ve played here a handful of times and never seen crowds like this,� Keegan Bradley told reporters, in awe of the thousands of fans who filled the 18th fairway behind Woods and Rory McIlroy. “I’ve never seen half this many people. That’s a small example of what he does.� The Twitter world was filled with praise from fellow sports icons – from Jack Nicklaus to Emmitt Smith to Michael Phelps – and Woods’ peers stuck around to offer their respect. “It wasn’t whether he could win,� said Rickie Fowler. “It was whether he could stay healthy.� And from Justin Rose, who cemented his victory as season-long FedExCup Champion and understood why it took second billing: “I think that we’ve all been waiting for him to win, and we’ve been wanting him to win.� As a result, Tiger’s chase of Sam Snead’s record has resumed. By the Numbers: Tiger Woods has now won five different PGA TOUR events in three different decades (1990s, 2000s & 2010s). Back to Chasing 82

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