Tiger’s back; he missed golf, golf missed Tiger
For a great athlete, a sport is more than catching footballs or hitting baseballs. It’s a way of life, one from which he or she is embraced and has no wish to escape.
Tiger Woods reminded us when he spoke Tuesday about returning to golf after weeks away because of surgery on the right ankle that was damaged in that 2022 auto accident.
“I love competing,” said Woods. “I love playing, I miss being out here with the guys. I miss the camaraderie and the fraternity-like atmosphere out here and the overall banter.”
The fun at the office, as it were, the chance to talk and laugh, and no less, as anyone in virtually any line of work, to achieve a sense of self-satisfaction.
“But what drives me,” Woods emphasized,” is that I love to compete. There will come a point in time — I haven’t come around to it fully yet that I won’t be able to win again. When that day comes I’ll walk away.”
Right now he’s walking towards something, perhaps a renaissance. At the least towards the first tee.
Woods, whose last previous competition was in April when he was forced to withdraw from the Masters because of the ankle, is playing in the fall event he’s long been involved with, now named the Hero World Challenge.
It’s an unofficial tournament, previously played at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks outside Los Angeles, but now is held in the Bahamas.
Hero, in this case, refers not to Tiger, but to the sponsor of a motorcycle company in India.
If Woods understandably missed golf, then golf, understandably, missed Woods. There have been other fine players since Tiger burst onto the PGA Tour in 1996, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Rory McElroy, and lately Jon Rahm, but none had the magic combined with the game.
Tiger brought in a new audience and filled grandstands and TV screens. People who didn’t know a divot from a dandelion knew Tiger.
In an earlier time, when baseball dominated our sports scene, Babe Ruth was America’s unique attraction, identifiable by just a first name. If Tiger isn’t another Babe, he is damn close.
But Woods will be 48 in December, and even with his success, the 15 majors, the 82 total Tour wins, he knows the future can never match the past. The idea now is to be in the hunt and then with a key putt or two again be in the winner’s circle.
“I’ve been playing a lot,” he said of his practice rounds, “but not with a scorecard and a pencil. My game feels rusty.”
As it should be. You’ve heard this before, but there’s a difference between going out on the course with your pals at the club in Florida and true competition.
“I’m excited to compete and play,” said Tiger. “I’m as curious as all of you are to see what happens. Because I haven’t done this for a while.”
Whatever happens is less important than it happens at all. Welcome back, Mr. Woods.