If you aren’t giddy with excitement then are you really a golf fan?
Hello. Welcome to another edition of Dialled In, where I am not even going to beat about the bush and just get straight to Tiger Woods’ return.
The GOAT makes his umpteenth comeback this week at his Hero World Challenge and if you aren’t giddy with excitement then are you really a golf fan?
He teed up with Dustin Johnson and Donald Trump in Florida at the back end of last week and, according to eight-time PGA Tour winner turned broadcaster Brad Faxon, Tiger was driving his ball past DJ some of the time.
“Tiger looked great to me,” Faxon wrote in Golfweek. “I was impressed with how far he hit the ball. On the 10 holes that they were both hitting driver, Tiger hit it past Dustin half the time and Dustin hit it past Tiger half the time.”
I’m not sure I’d believe him if he said Tiger was hitting it past Trump, but I guess we’ll find out on Thursday.
Added Faxon: “He looked great. I think more than anything, he looked at ease. He was not concerned about swinging hard and going at it with driver. The ball flight, the sound off the club, all of it was right there.”
Speaking to the press on Sunday, Tiger said “[Johnson is] the No. 1 player in the world. He’s been playing, I haven’t been playing. It’s nice to compare my game to some of the other guys, like Dustin or Rickie or Rory.”
Oh to see Tiger get back in among that lot competing for titles again.
Woods then hopped across to the Bahamas for a practice round at Albany, the host course of the Hero World Challenge.
And get this: he says he is PAIN FREE. How good does that sound? Tiger Woods played a PAIN FREE round of golf and if you aren’t giddy with excitement then are you really a golf fan?
He also posted a short clip on Twitter of his swing so you can judge for yourself how well he’s hitting it…
Welcome to the 2017 #heroworldchallenge | @TigerWoods pic.twitter.com/p4MfWOyz32
— Hero World Challenge|TGR Live (@TGRLiveEvents) November 26, 2017
This reply from the NCG account pretty much sums it up…
— National Club Golfer (@NCGmagazine) November 26, 2017
Woods played his round alongside caddie Joe LaCava on a cart and zipped round the Bahamas track in a little more than two hours. And while he didn’t share his score – presumably because he wasn’t keeping it – he admitted he was “a little surprised”.
He added: “The fact that I don’t have any pain in my lower back compared to what I was living with for years, it’s just remarkable.”
Anyway, I know what you’re all thinking: Where will Tiger move to in the Official World Golf Rankings should he win?
Well, if you don’t follow ‘Nosferatu’ on Twitter then you need to get on that. Last week the self-appointed “OWGR guru” tweeted this:
The pressure to reveal @TigerWoods 's ranking projections for his return next week at #HeroWorldChallenge is becoming almost unbearable… ?? #ComingSoon
— Nosferatu (@VC606) November 22, 2017
It was a LONG three days, but eventually we got our answer…
If @TigerWoods finishes dead last in next week's #HeroWorldChallenge he will jump more than 250 places in the world rankings! A win would catapult him well over 1000 places in #OWGR, to somewhere around #135! ?
Welcome back, Tiger! ?
Here are some more scenarios… pic.twitter.com/pHpzMmGUX0
— Nosferatu (@VC606) November 25, 2017
So to summarise, Tiger, the current World No. 1,199, will:
- Fall outside the top 1,200 if he does not finish
- Climb inside the top 950 with a solo last-place finish
- Climb inside the top 700 with a solo 10th finish
- Climb close to the top 500 with a solo 5th finish
- Climb close to the top 250 with a solo runner-up spot
- Climb to around 135 with victory
I can’t sit here and confess to be any kind of expert in how golf’s rankings work, but doesn’t it seem a tad ridiculous that he can climb more than 1,000 places with one victory? Or is it more ridiculous that he can climb 250 places if he shoots four rounds in the 90s and finishes dead last?
Predictions? I’m fully expecting four rounds in the low to mid 70s and a finish somewhere around 13th or 14th.
But I don’t care, because Tiger is returning to competitive action and if you aren’t giddy with excitement then are you really a golf fan?
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Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
