Tiger Woods: Why He's Back and Can Still Be Better Than Ever

A red shirt, a fist pump and a trophy. Despite his "transgressions" and everything that's come since to stain his legacy, that's how the Tiger Woods story will be told to our grandchildren.

Woods brought it back to life on Sunday—with a swashbuckling, come-from-behind triumph at the Memorial that tells us his history-making is not yet resigned to history. Not by a long way.

If you thought he was finished, what were you thinking?

Here stands arguably the most gifted ball-striker of all time. Inner demons, persistent injuries and an obsession with swing changes have made him appear human again, but there were signs on Sunday Woods is in sight of his former self.

It was his second win of the year, following his drought-breaking, 923-days-in-the-making victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March—and it moved Woods back up to fourth in the world rankings.

If his first win of 2012 paid homage to Arnie, the second was for Jack Nicklaus—who in handing Woods the Memorial trophy for a record fifth time saw the eternal pretender to his throne join him at joint second place on the all-time PGA Tour wins.

Talk about courting history.

For now, Woods and Nicklaus both have 73, but on the evidence of his display at Muirfield Village, Woods will leave that number before the summer is out. Sam Snead's total of 82 will surely be eclipsed within five years, too.

After a flat third round of 73, which left him four shots off the lead, Woods needed to summon the player he once was to win on Sunday.

There was a fast start, but then a familiar wobble. And with dropped shots at the eighth and 10th came a timely reminder that, where the post-scandal Woods is concerned, certainties are no longer certainties.

The question had been asked. But this time Woods drew an answer, not from the player who has consistently toiled to disappointment since winning the Australian Masters in December 2009, but from the man who won the 2008 U.S. Open on one leg.

He birdied the par-five 15th, then sunk a sublime chip for birdie at 16. With that, the most famous fist pump in sports was unleashed and it was just too obvious not to say it. 

Tiger. Is. Back.

Symbolism is one thing, but the numbers are on his side, too. Take Tiger's driving accuracy of 65.68 percent on the PGA Tour this season. That's up from an abysmal 48.9 percent in 2011.

His scoring average is down by over a shot too—from 70.46 to 69.42—and there have also been improvements to his greens in regulation number, strokes gained in putting and driving distance.

"Boy, I hit it good today," Woods told reporters yesterday after finishing with a five-under-par 67 to win the tournament by two shots. "I hit the ball just as good as I have in years."

"I never really missed a shot today... and I had the pace of the greens really nice today, where I struggled yesterday, and made a few putts."

In that sentiment lies the true identity of the Woods we have today. Scarred and stripped bare by the most public of unravellings, a once unstoppable force of nature is now as aware of his weaknesses as every player around him.

He tortures himself over his failings. And when you've been the best of all time, the weight of internal expectancy must be a truly suffocating thing to bear.

The only way back is to prove to himself, all over again, that he has the game to overcome his frustrations. At the Arnold Palmer Invitational he stemmed the tide; at the Memorial he stood on the shore and blasted an ocean of doubts back out to sea.

Injuries permitting, it could well prove the catalyst for Tiger's second coming.

There's a U.S. Open to win at the Olympic next week, and—as the Press Association pointed out—it offers Woods a potential double win. A 15th career major would likely return him to world No. 1, and see his confidence rise still further.

We've been here before of course, and let's not forget many had Woods to win at Augusta. But something felt different about the way he triumphed at the Memorial.

He didn't just get it done. He put himself in position and set fire to the tournament with three birdies in the last four holes. That's the clutch Tiger we haven't seen for three years and the best sign yet he can return to something close to his former glories. 

"I don't think under the circumstances I've ever seen a better shot," Nicklaus said of his chip-in at 16.

I have. It came in the 2005 Masters. And it came from the Woods of old.

That man is no longer with us, but it appears there are still plenty of defining moments left in the Woods we have today. The latest came at the Memorial; the next could well arrive in San Francisco, on Father's Day.

Cross our fingers and we might yet get the Tiger vs. Rory McIlroy showdown we've been waiting for.