Will We Ever See Tiger Woods Return?
Another day, another tournament missed for Tiger Woods. Seems to be the trend these days for the former #1 world ranked golfer. This year was supposed to be different, this was to be his comeback type season where he gets back on track and pursues Jack Nicklaus’ record of majors won (18). Yet here we are with the first major of the season, and yet again still no Tiger Woods. Weeks, and even days, leading up to the Masters, Tiger left the golf world at an imbalance, not knowing whether he would be ready to play, both physically and mentally. Even with the highly decorated field for this years Masters, Tiger Woods not participating will dismiss many from watching the tournament all together.
This season got off to a good start, he actually played in a full tournament, and led the field in birdies. However, at the Hero World Challenge he posted the worst score of the tournament for a round and finished last in the field for the event. Of course Tiger was happy after the tournament. Nobody expected him to contend even though at one point he was within two shots of the lead. So for the many fans of Tiger Woods globally, what did it really mean? Did it mean Tiger was slowly coming back to form? Were we going to see him contend every Sunday with the best in the world again? The questions at hand seemed to be quickly answered in the preceding months when Tiger failed to make the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open, and later withdrew from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
While the rest of the 2017 PGA tour season for Tiger remains up in the air, everyone will continue to wonder if he will ever “make Sundays great again.” The fact of the matter is Tiger Woods is not getting any younger, and with the younger generation of Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and countless others, the question will continue to be asked; will Nicklaus' record ever be broken? The big hits to the golf world started this week with the Masters, and it remains to be seen whether or not he will be able to compete at a high level for any tournaments this year, let alone any Majors.