Tour Confidential: So this means Tiger Woods is here to stay…right?
GOLF.com conducts a weekly roundtable with writers from Sports Illustrated and GOLF Magazine. Check in every Sunday night for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors and join the conversation by tweeting us @golf_com.
1. Tiger Woods was winless since 2013, less than a year removed from a fourth back surgery and playing in just his fifth event in four months, yet he still surprised the golf world when he finished T2 at the Valspar, one behind winner Paul Casey. Woods contended on Sunday but a mediocre iron game and cold putter hampered his run at PGA Tour win No. 80, but his play was still encouraging. Is this the new and improved Tiger we should now come to expect? Or was this more of a one-off that might appear from time to time?
Dylan Dethier, associate editor, GOLF.com (@dylan_dethier): It’s possible I was just getting caught up in the Tampa Tigermania, but I think I’m done being cautious. Everything I saw this week suggests that he’s here to stay. Surreal, isn’t it?
Michael Bamberger, senior writer, GOLF: Ah, youth! Dylan, Tiger is 42 and his back is 60. He’s swinging so hard it makes your back ache. But he can, it is obvious to say, contend, in majors and in minors. If he contends enough he’ll win some percentage of them, just like all the other good players. It’s remarkable, how far he’s come so fast.
Josh Sens, contributing writer, GOLF (@JoshSens): Michael’s apt comment above puts me in mind of something the great baseball color commentator Jerry Remy said when he was told that one of the Sox was “day to day.” His reply: “We’re all day to day.” Nothing’s guaranteed. To answer the question more directly: both possibilities seem true at the same time. He IS the new and improved Tiger Woods. But he may also only appear from time to time.
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Jessica Marksbury, senior editor, GOLF.com (@Jess_Marksbury): Great point, Josh. I guess we never know what the future holds, but this comeback sure looks and feels different from the others. Tiger seems happier on the course. He’s intense, focused, and grinding hard. I sure hope this new (old) normal is here for the long haul.
John Wood, caddie for Matt Kuchar (@johnwould): Look, he’s barely played golf for two, three years, and in his last two events he has finished 12th (going bogey, double late in the fourth round and dropping from T4) and T2, missing out on a playoff or outright win to Paul Casey, who had 21 putts in the final round. All this at PGA National and Copperhead at Innisbrook. These are NOT traditional Tiger courses. They’re tight and penal and I will be very interested to see how he plays next week at a course he has dominated in the past. I think this all comes down to his health, because his game and his desire is back.
Jeff Ritter, digital development editor, GOLF.com (@Jeff_Ritter): Totally agree — health is the key. I’m going to wince every time I see him take a hard swing for a long time and possibly for forever, but if his back holds up along with his knees, neck, Achilles’ and everything else, this comeback has a chance to attain heights most never thought possible.
2. What did you learn about Tiger this week that you didn’t know before?
Dethier: That he’s as locked in as ever. The putter slams, the biting curse words, the stalking around the green — he’s so emotionally invested in every shot that it tires me out just imagining it.
Bamberger: That he’s all-in on this second act thing. One day he was in the Innisbrook gym at 3:30. In the morning.
Sens: I was struck by the intensity and how comfortable he looked being back in the hunt. At the same time, though, he also has mellower air about him. Fewer expletives and histrionics at poor shots, more acceptance of results.
Marksbury: I’ll second the sense of all-in-ness. There were times watching him over the last few years where we openly questioned why he continued to push himself so hard after each procedure and we wondered how long it would be until he just announced his retirement from competitive play. Now we know why. To see him truly healthy now, it feels silly to have ever wondered if he could possibly mount a successful comeback.
Ritter: This week was proof he could play his way into contention and stay there. He didn’t give himself many great birdie looks on Sunday, but he also never backed up. Title No. 80 will have to wait, but it was another huge step forward.
Wood: That this comeback is very different, but not for his much-improved health. What I saw on Saturday and Sunday was the return of Tiger the artist, and in previous comebacks we have seen Tiger the scientist. Gone were the multiple rehearsals of mechanical feels and talk about getting reps in. Back was the Tiger who was imagining golf shots with his eyes and just letting his body follow. I know he’s put in a TON of work to get his golf swing, his short game, his putting, where he wants them to be, but I would guess that many times in the last year he’s sat down by himself quite a bit and remembered how he used to PLAY this game, and made a point to forget how others have told him to play this game. I don’t think I’m crazy when I say I think meditation and visualization, getting his mind right and getting his creativity back has at least as much to do with his return to form as a sound golf swing and a good short game.
3. Did Tiger just prove he’s a legitimate top 10 favorite for the Masters? Dare we say top five?
Dethier: In Vegas, he’ll be top five, and he’ll get more bets than the rest of the field combined.
Bamberger: Ten is a lot of favorites. I’d be surprised if, come Sunday afternoon, he’s not within two or three shots of the lead.
Sens: Speaking of Vegas, last I checked he was listed at 12 to 1. That’s not a good value proposition, as the gamblers say. But I do think he’ll be close enough to be in the camera’s eye throughout much of Sunday, which, given the way the camera gravitates toward him, basically requires him to make the cut and then stay upright the rest of the way. I’ll give him a finish somewhere in the top 20.
Marksbury: In my mind, Tiger is always a top 10 favorite at the Masters. Even during the worst years of his major slump, he usually found a way to play well at Augusta. He’s definitely in my pool this year.
Wood: Top 10 for sure. And if you were at Innisbrook this week, and you felt and saw the buzz he created — we can only hope that red shirt comes out late on Sunday, because golf is so much better for it.
Ritter: Let’s count them. I’d say that even with a shaky start to the season Spieth is sti
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