Tiger Woods: Why Fans and the Media Are Overblowing Importance of His Victory

Is Tiger Woods' title at the Chevron World Challenge the ultimate proof that he's finally back? Some say no, a lot believe it is, but the real question here is, why is everybody making such a buzz?

For starters, Woods draws a lot of attention, ergo, sponsors, ratings, fans and merchandise sales increase. To have Tiger not just in a tournament, but winning it, means money.

According to data delivered by Nielsen:

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Sunday’s final round on NBC, which featured Woods’ and Zach Johnson’s late-round battle for the top spot on the leaderboard, tied last year’s playoff-fueled finish (Woods and U.S. Open Champion Graeme McDowell) as the highest-rated final round of this event in eight years with a 2.4 household rating. 

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The New York Times analyzed the ratings of the Chevron World Challenge when Tiger played, in 2007, and when he didn't, in 2008, the numbers dropped from 1.9 million viewers to 1.2 million.

Moreover, let's not forget he went from winning at least once in a 14-year span, to nothing from November 2009 to November 2011. For the first time in his career he didn't hoist a trophy of any kind for two years.

So, when he finally managed to show a glimpse of what he used to be, everybody jumped to conclusions.

The truth is, as many have already stated, that Woods won a non-official tournament with a limited field.

This doesn't mean that everybody needs to downplay the achievement, but the challenge here is to try and see it objectively.

Of course this is huge for him. He will regain confidence and maybe hold back media scrutiny for a while, but there's a lot more work to do.

It's true that after this year's injuries (left knee and Achilles tendon), he started to show some progress, first at the Frys.com Open, then at the Emirates Australian Open and finally, at the Presidents Cup with a superb singles match.

The icing on the cake was the Chevron World Championship title, that's a no-brainer, but the real deal will come next season, when he faces the new big guns like Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy.

Tiger's game is slowly getting back to top level, and with a good offseason, my prediction is he will win two or three tournaments in 2012.

If he achieves an important victory next year, all the buzz will surely be justified and deserved.