Tiger Woods Is Back
Stop the presses, Tiger Woods is back. We are less than twenty four hours away from the start of the Waste Management Phoenix Open and most of the buzz in the desert swirls around Tiger. Between his return to the event, his overall health, the tooth, or his swing, it’s all Tiger all the time. His 2015 debut teamed up with one of the tour’s best events of the year has made the Phoenix Open a must watch event this weekend.
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Before round one tees off there is plenty of time to speculate about the game’s most recognizable player. After a disastrous 2014 season Tiger again has a new swing to unleash on the golf world. Gone is Sean Foley who was no doubt about it his least successful instructor. He won majors with both Butch Harmon and Hank Haney but failed to do so with Foley. So the best player of this generation is now on his fourth swing and instructor. Actually I take that back he’s working with a he calls “swing consultant” now. However you want to label him, Chris Como is now the mechanic in charge the ”Woods Ferrari” and for Tiger he says they’re off and running.
"“We’ve done some really good work. It’s just a continuation of the game plan where we need to get to, and we’re ahead of schedule at each stage of the game plan and that’s a good sign. Overall I’m very pleased to go out there and hit shots, you saw out there I’m cranking up the speed and it’s going to be a fun year.” Credit PGA Tour.com"
Only Tiger and Como know what that game plan is, but for this to truly be a fun year for Tiger you’d have to think winning a major is part of the equation. The long talked about major drought can push to seven years if he fails to capture one this year, but for this week the focus is on Phoenix and a tournament Woods hasn’t played in over a decade. We all know that Tiger is meticulous with his schedule, he pretty much plays the same events every year, so for him to stray from that routine and play in Phoenix this week is a big deal.
Even though he hasn’t played at TPC Scottsdale since 2001 Woods still has iconic moments for us to look back on including his earth shattering hole-in-one on the famed 16th in 1997. A few months before breaking the all-time scoring record at The Masters, he pulled off an ace for the ages. The par three is already Animal House on a golf course and then you add an ace to it and all hell breaks loose.
"“The hole-in-one in 97, I think I broke Fluff’s hand (with the high five) then went with the hold school, back in the day raise the roof and then on top of that just smelling and hearing the bear landing on the tee box behind me. To turn around and to see all this beer it was crazy. Then the eerie part was when we were playing 17 and 18 everybody just didn’t really care cause everyone had seen what they wanted to see and were leaving” Credit PGA Tour.com"
We can only hope for another iconic moment like he gave us back then but for now, let’s just hope Tiger can be a factor on the weekend. Last year the few times we got to see Woods play we didn’t see much of him on Saturday and Sunday. In just seven starts Tiger missed two cuts and missed the Sunday cut at Torrey Pines, a course he has made his own personal playground over his career. The back that caused him to miss most of the year and withdraw from two tournaments also prevented us from seeing him on the weekend in three out of four of the year’s majors. The weekend used to be where Woods dominated but last year he was a ghost.
To be fair last year Tiger wasn’t healthy. It was obvious to any person who has watched him play for nineteen years. Is it a little bit of a cop out to use an injury as an excuse? Maybe sometimes; but for Tiger it was definitely a factor. Injuries have stalled him throughout his career and going forward staying healthy will be the key to Woods ever winning a major again. If he stays healthy, he has the ability to be the best player any time he steps on a golf course. Until then and for this week let’s just be happy that he can just stand up. We’ll wait and see if the wins will come later.