HE’S back and, no, we’re not talking about Will Zalatoris.
Because, yes, while it is true that this week will see the very welcome return from injury of 27-year-old Zalatoris – a golfer who has finished top 10 in six of his eight major championship starts since turning pro, a high quality run that includes three runner-up finishes – it is the comeback of the great Tiger Woods which has not only golf fans but all sports fans really licking their chops.
If this were a normal human being, of course, we would view this week as little more than a nice little reminder of the past. But Tiger Woods is not normal.
We thought he’d struggle to play, let alone win, the US Open at Torrey Pines on a broken leg in 2008. The golfers who played alongside him reported that the damn thing made hideous noises, for goodness sake, and still he defied common wisdom.
We thought he was finished when his life imploded following the farcical scenes which caused his marriage to breakdown in late 2009. But it turned out that he treated social embarrassment with as much scorn as snapped limbs and crushed tendons.
We really believed his career was done and dusted six years ago. He had, after all, had significant back surgery in 2015, went under the knife again just over a year later and in 2017 admitted to friends: “I’m done.”
But a year later he was cocking a snook at us all over again.
In the 2018 Open at Carnoustie he briefly flirted with the lead, weeks later he was second in the PGA Championship and a month after that, amid delirious scenes at East Lake, with the galleries breaking the ropes to surround the final green, he triumphed in the Tour Championship.
And still he was not done, going on to claim a 15th major championship in the 2019 Masters and ending that year with victory in the Zozo Championship (plus fourth place in this event).
Tiger Woods wasn’t born excellent and ready to dominate the PGAT.
What made him excellent was his fantastic work ethic:
1) His dedication to stick to his plan
2) He continued to improve no matter what.Be like Tiger! pic.twitter.com/qYbv6I09M3
— Terence Daniels (@terencedaniels) November 27, 2023
Since then, however, he’s had to deal with more surgery, some of it the consequence of relentless toll, much of it forced on him after a car crash in early 2021. He’s hobbled around the course briefly in the mean time but it was mostly an exercise in worldwide wincing.
So what can we expect this week? Perhaps only that Woods typifies the words of the poet Dylan Thomas. No golfer, surely, has ever raged more furiously against the dying of the light. Can he contend? Almost certainly not, but this pair might at the blustery Albany GC in the Bahamas.
Outright each-way – Wyndham Clark
I’ve always had a suspicion that these end-of-season get-togethers prompt good vibes for the fellows who enjoyed a career-high earlier in the year. It was a notion that first nudged away at me when Wentworth used to host the old World Match Play Championship.
Because these events have a small and elite field, it tends to be the case that every player will find himself wandering past a large image of himself with a reminder of why he is teeing it up in exceptional company. It ought to make him feel a little taller and Ernie Els won his first World Match Play at the end of the year he made a major championship breakthrough. So, too, did Mark O’Meara and Michael Campbell. Moreover, Steve Elkington, Angel Cabrera and Shaun Micheel made the final in the year they won majors.
Graeme McDowell won this event at the end of the year he won the US Open while Geoff Ogilvy, Zach Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Scottie Scheffler finished second after their first major wins.
Could Wyndham Clark join their ranks? Well, he ought to like the test because he’s always played well in the islands south-east of Florida. His first top 10 on the second tier Korn Ferry Tour was fourth place in Great Abaco Classic in the Bahamas, his first top 10 on the PGA Tour was T10th in the Puerto Rico Open, and the first time he threatened to win at the top level was when defeated in a play-off at the 2020 Bermuda Championship.
This year’s US Open champion was also sixth in the Dominican Republic in the run-up to that stellar effort at LA Country Club and he can get involved again this week.
First round leader each-way – Brian Harman
This notion of a boost to the confidence could also work for the Open winner Brian Harman. Like Clark he’s not afraid of a breezy seaside test with top 10s at Sea Island, Harbour Town, Plantation, Waialae, El Camaleon and on the linksland of the UK.
It’s also the case that, since the tournament moved to the Bahamas, major winners that year have enjoyed the first round. 2015 Open champion Zach Johnson, 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed and 2019 US Open champion Gary Woodland all grabbed a share of the Thursday night lead.
Harman isn’t afraid of a fast start among elite company either. In fact, he’s been inside the top five after 18 holes in four of his last 12 major starts – and in two of the last four PLAYERS Championships.
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