Arnold Palmer Invitational Power Rankings: Top ten at Bay Hill

Eight pictures of Tiger Woods holding the trophy at Bay Hill would be enough to prove why he deserves a spot in this week’s top 10. But I’ll continue on.

Woods’ performance post-back fusion has continued to improve. Aside from a missed cut at Riviera, he’s gone from a T23 at Torrey Pines to a solo 12th at the Honda Classic and now a tie for second with his Nike mate, Patrick Reed, at last week’s Valspar Championship.

As expected, Woods’ driving accuracy has improved, even if it’s not fantastic. He was playing in or around the fairway last week at Innisbrook, which is all he needs to attack the green. Except his proximity is what held him back from winning Sunday.

"“I felt very comfortable, actually. I didn’t feel that sharp with my iron game,” Woods said Sunday. “I played very conservatively into the greens because I wasn’t as sharp as I was yesterday and just tried to hopefully get a couple good numbers and fire at a few flags.”"

Woods made a bevy stress-free pars as he earned plenty of lag putting practice. Within his recovery, it seems as he’s continuously checking off boxes that he needs to to get back to where he wants to be.

On a macro level, it was to first play 72 holes healthy, then make a cut, and then get into contention. Tactically, he’s slowly getting more precise tee to green. He’s also been more avert to big numbers thanks to a short game that has been the constant this season.

This will be his third event in four weeks. By the way he’s playing and only needing to head from Tampa to Orlando, it still makes way too much sense to play this week. More so considering he’s be ineligible for next week’s WGC-Match Play.

Along with Woods’ eight wins at the API, the last coming in 2013, he has never missed a cut in 16 starts. With exception to injuries, Woods has never skipped this tournament since he placed ninth in his 1997 debut.