Six years ago Tiger Woods won his third US Open and his 14th overall major championship. He seemed to be on the fast track to win many more and was quickly approaching Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles.
However, Fate would seem to have a different plan for his career. A week after winning the US Open in 2008, Tiger had surgery to repair the ACL in his left knee, which would keep him from competing for the rest of the year. The following year, Tiger was hospitalized for a night due to driving his SVU into a tree after having a dispute with his now ex-wife. Since then Tiger has suffered a list of other knee and back injuries and still hasn’t won another major title.
Tiger Woods made his return to golf again this week at the Hero World Challenge where he had the chance to sharpen his skills for the coming season. During the Pro Am event that took place earlier this week, Tiger was looking like the old Tiger. His drives were straighter, his swing was more natural and more free than in recent years, and he seemed to have little to no pain in his swing.
There seems to be a lot of hype that Tiger is back, and people are naming him the favorite to win the next Major, but there isn’t much to support that quite yet. We haven’t seen enough of him to tell just how well he is feeling and how well and how long he can continue to play consistently.
If you look back on this past week, you can clearly see that there is some work to be done. For starters, his short game is still suffering. Remember when it seemed like it didn’t matter where Tiger was, he would always find a way to hit a quality shot? Well that Tiger needs to come back for him to be competitive, and he may once he gets comfortable and confident with his new swing. Tiger is also having some troubles staying consistent with his shots. But that’s not to say he hasn't improved.
We also need to see that Tiger is not only healthy but stays healthy. We have seen in the past where he will tease us with a good round of golf only to slide back into old habits and ends up in so much pain that he can’t finish a tournament. We need to see him swing the club with more ease (like he did this weekend) and generate more power with a more free swing. That swing will have to stay steady and consistent. Even though the shots aren’t as straight as he would like them to be he just needs to have a good swing that fits not only his game but his body as well so that he doesn’t end up injuring his back or knees again. If Tiger can stay healthy then he will stay in the conversation when it comes to majors and possibly one day beating Jack’s record of 18 Majors.
If Tiger truly is back, he will end up being his own biggest competition. He is going to have to be patient enough to allow the changes he made to his game to become more natural. Tiger has shown over the past few years that he can be rattled if things aren’t going the way that he had planned or hoped that they would and he is going to have to just stay calm and go out and stick to this new swing and stick with the “game plan.”
Ultimately how well he is doing will be seen in two things: his body being able to hold up week after week and his ability to keep his head in the game and stay focused through a tournament when things aren’t going as planned. If he can do these two things the consistency, accuracy, and power will slowly start to return to his game and he could maybe one day get his 15th, 16th, and possibly more majors, but make no mistake about it, it will be a long long road for Tiger to reclaim that top spot once again.
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