30 Nov Tiger’s Back!
This week the golfing world watches with baited breath the return of Tiger Woods to tournament golf at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. Personally I always thought this was the perfect event for him to start his comeback, and wondered why he entered the two tournaments he ultimately withdrew from almost a couple of months ago, citing his game being ‘vulnerable’.
Think about it, your first event back you want to put as little pressure on yourself as possible. The upcoming four days at the Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas are about as close to social rounds of golf a tour pro can get, while still calling it a tournament. There are only 18 players in the field, there’s no cut, very few spectators and it’s on a familiar course. Sounds like the perfect way to ease back into competitive golf to me.
Compare that to four days against 155 other professionals, the usual two-day cut, tens of thousands of spectators, a not-so-familiar course, and the world’s media gazing upon you with every step you take. Hmmm… I’ll take the former please.
In any case I’m just glad to see him back. His presence at a golf tournament elevates the event to a whole other level. Ticket sales obviously reflect this, but the atmosphere at a tournament is different when the name Woods is in the starting field. When he gets called to the tee there’s a buzz in the air amongst the spectators, knowing they’re getting a chance to see one of the greatest players that ever lived hit a ball around a large piece of turf.
The craziest I’ve ever seen spectators, was when paired with him in the last group of the final round at the 2005 WGC HSBC Champions event at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, China. The galleries had no clue about course etiquette, and constantly had their phones and cameras at the ready to take his picture. It didn’t matter that he may have been in the middle of his downswing either. At one point his caddy, Steve Williams, even went around the tee box taking cameras off people to stop them from taking pictures. No one seemed to care though, because they just proceeded to bring another one from their pockets and use that! It was comical to say the least.
It gave me a first hand insight to what it must be like for him at golf tournaments. People just go nuts around him and pick apart his every move on the course. It’s a spotlight he used to thrive under, so it will be interesting to see how things go when he gets back into the full swing of tournament golf next season.
Time has hopefully healed all his body’s aches and pains. Whether time has been so kind to his mental state on the golf course remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he contends in a tournament fairly quickly, and even wins one, because his mind is what made him so great and was the separator each week during his peak years.
I hope people give him time to adjust to simply playing golf again, because it really is not as easy as what he made it look for so many years. I, like the rest of the golfing world, will be curious to see how this comeback begins.
Cheers,
Nick
Author of ‘Tour Mentality – Inside the Mind of a Tour Pro’
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