Tiger Woods: In with a bang, out with a whimper in 2019?

Tiger Woods got off to a rough start on Thursday at THE NORTHERN TRUST, and with just one more event left before the TOUR Championship, he’ll have to turn things around quickly to advance.

Tiger Woods found himself battling a stiff back, as well as some less than ideal weather conditions, in his opening round at THE NORTHERN TRUST on Thursday. Near the bottom of the leaderboard after 18 holes, he’ll have to rally in a big way just to play the weekend.

While that would have been hard for any of us to imagine just three or four short months ago, there’s an even bigger question looming just around the corner.

If his back is bothering him in a significant way, will he even really want to make the cut? And could this week actually mark the end of his 2019 PGA TOUR campaign?

I surprise myself when I say this, but it’s true: I wouldn’t be surprised if it did, and if that was the case, I wouldn’t actually be that disappointed. Here’s why.

Woods acknowledged that he wasn’t feeling 100 percent in his media rounds at Liberty National after the opening round, not that that was a revelation to anybody who watched him battle his way around the jarringly empty course. The weather on Wednesday night and into Thursday forced tournament organizers to close the club to spectators, which at least meant Woods got to deal with whatever was ailing him in relative solitude.

To his credit, Woods did card three birdies on the day, but they were far more than offset by five bogeys and a double, bringing him into the clubhouse at 4-over 75, currently one shot ahead of last place Patrick Rodgers. His ball striking was challenged, at best, as he hit just nine of 14 fairways in regulation, and ten greens. Woods also lost strokes to the field in every measured area except driving.

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By comparison, leader Troy Merritt finished bogey-free at 9-under, and Dustin Johnson is in second place at -8. Tiger would need a round not too far off of that pace tomorrow to give himself any kind of hope, even if he does make the cut. If he wants to be ready for next week’s BMW Championship at Medinah, maybe an extra weekend off wouldn’t be such a bad thing?

Look, I’m not that different from anybody who might be reading this right now. When TW won the Masters in April, I got caught up in the hope of seeing the Tiger of old, not just old Tiger. I was thinking with my heart and not my head, but I also have to be honest with myself as a fan.

Is there anybody out there who would have traded that Sunday at Augusta just to see Tiger playing better golf at a relatively meaningless FedEx Cup event? I don’t think so.

If we’re looking towards the future, we want to see Tiger at his peak, even if that’s only two or three times a year. Because when he does that, there’s nobody in sports today who can electrify the entire world quite like Tiger Woods. That’s just a fact.

So what if Tiger heads home from THE NORTHERN TRUST tomorrow? And really, other than wanting more – which we always will – who’s to say that 2019 didn’t become a success beyond expectation the moment that final putt rolled in at the Masters?

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Tiger Woods could play every single tournament from now until the end of his career, and no win, other than a major, would resonate the same way. So let him have a tough week here, and let’s wait and see if he’s healthy enough to play next week. In with a bang, and out with a whimper? Perhaps, but it’s that bang that we all live for. Tiger included.

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