Tiger Woods' Return Far From Average

Although he played a practice round in the early-morning hours on Tuesday, Tiger Woods’ return to the PGA Tour became official when he stepped onto the first tee box at a few minutes past noon local time on Wednesday. 

Walking from the practice green to the first tee through a narrow pathway lined with hundreds of photographers and screaming fans, Woods looked more like a prize fighter making his way to the ring to regain his title belt than a professional golfer.

After the standing ovation subsided, Woods went through his usual pre-shot routine and approached the ball before stepping away for another moment to ensure that his concentration was where it needed to be.

Woods then stripped a three-wood down the right side of the fairway leaving him with an absolutely perfect angle to the flag.  

As Woods left the first tee, the bleachers surrounding the tee box cleared out as if someone had announced that title sponsor Accenture were giving away thousand dollar bills halfway down the first fairway.

Woods hit an eight-iron to five feet on his second shot and then calmly sunk his birdie putt to go one-up on Australian Brendan Jones as if it were just business as usual.

Woods and his massive gallery, which we have not seen the likes of at a PGA Tour event in, oh, about eight months, made there way to the par-five second hole where Woods crushed his drive right down the middle of the fairway with not the slightest hint of a painful grimace on his face.

After hitting a three-iron to five feet on his second shot, Woods displayed his first fist pump and it had taken all of four swings for us to realize what we had been so desperately missing over the past eight months.

Woods picked up his ball marker after Jones conceded his eagle putt and he walked off to the third tee at three under par through the first PGA Tour holes he had played in more than 260 days.

As would be expected, not even Tiger Woods could keep up on that same pace all afternoon.

Woods bogeyed the par-three third and played just average golf by his standards for most of the rest of his round with a few bright moments such as sinking an eagle putt from the fringe on the par-five 13th.

Luckily for Woods, although Brandon Jones obviously knew that there would be a small circus following their match on Wednesday, it appeared that he was not at all prepared for the sheer magnitude of what transpired, and it showed through his extremely slow start to the round.

Jones seemed to finally settle down on the back nine and matched Woods for several holes before Woods finally ended the match on the 16th with a 3&2 victory. 

After sprinting out of the gate Woods settled down and played more even keeled, some might even say average round of golf.

However, after an eight-month layoff, there is nothing at all average about winning his first match 3&2 while shooting four under-par through 16 holes.

Will Woods have to play better to continue advancing?

Sure he will. 

But unless you have been living in a cave for the past twelve years you will know that if there’s a challenge, Tiger Woods is surely going to step up and meet it, particularly now that he finally appears to have a completely healthy knee on his side.