On Sunday afternoon Tiger Woods completed one of the greatest comebacks in sports history by winning the Tour Championship. Just over one year ago, on August 31, 2017, he tweeted a video with the caption: “Dr. gave me the OK to start pitching”.
Just four months before that video he was getting ready to go under the knife – on his back – for the fourth time. The rest of the PGA Tour was getting ready for The Masters. The hope was that with successful spinal fusion surgery he would be able to sit, walk, sleep, and play with his kids without constant pain. Play professional golf again? Maybe. Today, he completed an amazing comeback by beating the top 30 players on tour in the season-ending 2018 Tour Championship. Incredible.
Almost immediately, of course, the debating began. Does this win mean as much against a limited field? Is this comeback greater than Hogan’s?
To those questions, I’ll add a few of my own: Are you kidding me? What difference does it make? Can you just enjoy the moment?
What Woods has overcome is certainly documentable, but the amazing dedication and will it has taken to actually overcome it all is indescribable. Words simply can’t do it justice.
And along the way, the things that happened to Tiger (and the things that he inflicted upon himself) changed something in Tiger. He found humility.
We began to see a Tiger who was more at ease, more fan-friendly, and certainly more appreciative of the ability to play golf for a very good living.
The whole thing culminated Sunday in front of a raucous crowd not often seen in golf. It was a combination of long-time Tiger fans overjoyed by his return to the top, new-found fans eager to embrace this new version of Tiger, with a little pre-Ryder Cup energy thrown into the mix. It was fun and it was good for golf.
What Tiger accomplishes with the rest of his career is anyone’s guess. Clearly he looks like a player who will once again be in the mix week in and week out. Will he win another major? Can he win four more and match Jack? My best guesses, respectively, are probably and probably not. For now, let’s just enjoy what we witnessed this week. One of the best comebacks in the history of sports.
We’ve seen Tiger win since 1997 in super-human ways. What we saw on Sunday was much more impressive. It was human.
Joey Johnson is the publisher of Southern Fairways Magazine. He can be reached by email at joey@southernfairwaysgolf.com.