Tiger Woods crossed the finish line in Sunday’s Genesis Invitational in his first PGA Tour start since late 2020. Woods finished his week with a 2-over-73 to finish his tournament 1-under and secure a top-50 finish in the leaderboard. His 73 was the seventh-worst finals finish in the field at the time of his graduation.
Not everything was bad for Woods, however. In fact, for someone who has only done this once in all of 2022, getting through just four rounds of golf must be considered a win in some ways.
“It’s progress in the right direction, yes,” Woods said. “It was certainly a bit harder than I probably wanted to admit. My team has been fantastic at recovering my body day by day and preparing me to play every day.
“That’s the hard part, which I can’t simulate at home. Even if I’ve played at home for four days, it’s not the same as adrenaline, it’s not the same as the system being ramped up like that – the intensity, just the focus that it takes to play at that level. No matter how much, I’m very good at simulating it at home, but it’s just not the same as being out here doing it.
Tiger certainly had his moments too. Three final birdies on Thursday ahead of Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy. A 67 in Round 3 on Saturday that was better than most of the top players in the world. Those were unexpected moments of joy, both for him and for the thousands who turned out to see him play at Riviera Country Club (not to mention everyone watching on TV). They were a throwback to a bygone era and a time when they wouldn’t have been quite as amazing.
Woods didn’t do anything exceptional all week, although his iron game and swing speed were both better than expected after such a long layoff (it had been seven months since he had served in a golf tournament). He finished in the top 30 of the field on the approach game and consistently hit 175-180 ball speeds off the tee with his driver (PGA Tour average is a low 170s).
More important was his sheer presence. Forests on the field gave the Genesis even more prestige than its status as one of the PGA Tour’s premier events already implied. It made Thursday feel like a Sunday, and the cutting line seemed even more important than it usually has since Woods was there.
Presence is the most important thing Woods has to offer at this point for a number of reasons. While it was surprisingly impressive that he was able to run and play all four rounds seemingly without massive problems, it’s still almost impossible for him to put in the practice work necessary to play at a consistent level that leads to real competition. Whether his health will improve and he will be able to put in the hours of playing and walking he wants or the extra tournaments he needs to stay fit remains to be seen, although Woods himself has said on several occasions that this is unlikely. This poses a problem when it comes to his ability to win.
“I’m very good at simulating that at home,” he said, “but it’s just not the same as being out here doing it.”
So what we’re left with now, and likely in the near future, is this: various glimpses into the historically great player that he has been over the last 25 years that make you think something irrational might be happening. We got that on Thursday, and then we got it again on Saturday. These are simultaneously combined with a look at a future version of Tiger that literally has no more swings in the tank. Back and forth. down and up
He will be a man constantly trying to balance the logistics of his body with the desires of his heart. Someone who intellectually knows what they had will never really come back because their body and mind are so tired of the hunt, but whose identity is so intertwined with their competitive nature that they don’t know what else to do would.
This might not be the best version of Tiger, but it’s probably the most interesting to me.
Tiger hasn’t been dissuaded from the idea that he might be able to serve it again ahead of the 2023 Masters, which he is believed to play, although he has reiterated something he insisted: he’s unlikely to score more than five or will play six times in a year.
“Here’s the deal: As I told you guys last year, I’m not going to play more than probably the majors and maybe a few more,” he said. “That’s it, that’s all my body allows me to do. My back as it is, all the surgeries I’ve had on my back, my leg as it is, I just can’t. This will just be my future .
“Last year my intention was to play in all four majors, I got three of the four. Hopefully I can get all four this year and maybe throw in a few here and there. But that was it for the rest of my career. I know that and I understand that. That’s just my reality.”
If this week’s successful debut in 2023 was any indication, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he played Bay Hill in two weeks or the Players Championship in three weeks. Whether that’s enough preparation to have a real shot at Augusta remains to be seen, but it’s a long way from where we thought he would be just three weeks ago.