Could Tiger Woods Be World Number 1 Again

ATLANTA — At that place were children lining the fairways at East Lake Golf Club who hadn't been born the last fourth dimension it was like this, men whose beards had grown grey and young adults with only faint memories of what it felt like to watch the greatest sports phenomenon of their lifetime in his prime.

And as Tiger Woods crushed his tee shot down the 18th fairway Sunday, all of them had had enough. Enough of beingness told to be quiet, enough of being constrained by ropes and golf etiquette. This is the S, after all, where information technology's practically expected to rush onto the field following the biggest wins.

Even Forest was caught betwixt smiling equally he looked back and staying in the moment as a sea of humanity flooded the fairway behind him. But like the field behind Woods this calendar week, the security guards had no chance. As thousands of people drew closer, all of them chanting "Tiger! Tiger!" 1 of Atlanta's elite golf game clubs had suddenly turned into a scene directly out of a football game game at Auburn or Clemson.

But who cares almost decorum when Woods just won his beginning tournament in five years?

"This was different," Forest said, acknowledging that the scene on the final pigsty was dissimilar anything he experienced in his previous 79 career victories. "I estimate it's different now because the art of clapping is gone. You lot can't clap with a cell phone in your hand, then people yell."

It may be the best clarification yet for why Woods' comeback is unlike anything we've ever seen, and why the emotion post-obit him at every tournament this summer has been so intense.

In sports, nosotros are used to eras catastrophe, legends fading and passing the best parts of those memories down to the next generation while lamenting they never got to see that kind of greatness for themselves.

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Until Lord's day, that was going to exist how we told the Woods story. It had been a long, long time since he was the virtually invincible athlete on the planet, and for the generation merely now old enough to understand what it means to see that ruby-red shirt stalking the fairways on a Sun, the idea that victory was inevitable had only been the stuff of fuzzy YouTube clips. As Woods acknowledged, his own children, ages 11 and 9, didn't really understand "what their dad can exercise on a golf form" until he contended in the final round of the British Open two months ago.

But as Woods paraded upward and downwards the form in the last round of the Tour Championship, the agony of seeing him win one more than time at historic period 42 finally met the inevitability of a decade agone.

Wood' first PGA Tour victory since Aug. 4, 2013, his first triumph after being betrayed by his trunk and so desperately that it was uncertain he'd ever play once more, was less a test of nerves than a rekindling of his musculus memory. Conjuring his old-schoolhouse dominance confronting the all-time players on tour this twelvemonth felt far more like a new beginning than a last hurrah.

While Wood' pair of nigh-misses at the British and PGA Championship this summer certainly portended the possibility that he would win again — and soon — what happened here this weekend opens the door for something far greater.

Forest' final affiliate is never going to be as skillful as the one he authored from 1997-2008, but for the get-go time we can see a path between where he is at present and a futurity that includes surpassing Sam Snead'southward record 82 tournament wins, more majors, more weekends where what'due south happening in golf feels relevant in pop culture. At this point, with Woods projected to shoot up to No. 13 in the Official World Golf Rankings, information technology'south non a huge stretch to recollect he can compete again to exist No. 1.

"I feel like a chance to play some more than golf and maybe i'll keep chipping away at that number (82) and perchance surpass it," Woods said. "I just think that with what I've gone through and dealt with, I've gotten lucky. I've gotten very lucky. I'm not playing a full contact sport. At 42 years onetime with a fused lower spine that's not going to happen but in this sport it can.

"I've been lucky to have an opportunity to have the people around me to back up me and piece of work through this process with me and I've ground out a chance to win golf game tournaments again."

What has made the Woods phenomenon so fascinating during his 2018 comeback is that it only seemed to be partly about him. Woods e'er has attracted big galleries and drawn huge television ratings whatever time he played, but the desire to see him win again also has been near us.

If y'all are quondam enough to remember the early 2000s, the way Woods pounded field after field of aristocracy players into submission became and so familiar that nosotros took for granted how quickly it would end. Equally soon as Wood stuffed his approach to 10 feet on the first hole, burying the birdie to take a four-shot lead over playing partner Rory McIlroy, everyone on the class knew it was over.

That Forest could give both his fans and critics that feeling over again after and then long, and show a glimpse of what it was similar to those who weren't around to see information technology, has to rank as ane of the greatest achievements of his career.

"Simply to be able to compete and play over again this year, that's a hell of a comeback," he said. "Some of the people who are very shut to me, they've seen what I've gone through. I'1000 just enjoying existence able to do this again. I didn't know i was going to do this again."

Forest didn't do anything spectacular Sunday in shooting 1-over 71, largely because he didn't have to. Which was always the point, almost of the time. Back in the one-time days, y'all'd wait and wait for someone to take a run at Woods after he had grabbed control of a tournament, and usually his opponents felt so much pressure to hit perfect shots they just fell apart.

It was hard not to think about that Lord's day as McIlroy, who started three behind, carded 74 and sprayed shots all over DeKalb County. The only moment of force per unit area Woods faced came on 17 when his lead shrunk from five shots to 2 over Baton Horschel, only one good chip and a iv-human foot putt was good plenty.

As has been the instance with Woods over the terminal few years, the great unknown is whether his body will let this feeling to final. He'll exist 43 shortly, and someone who has endured surgery afterwards surgery only has so many comebacks in them. It wasn't and then long ago, he said, that he wondered if he was going to be able to do anything -- much less play golf game -- without experiencing brutal pain.

"I was thinking, this is how the residuum of my life'south going to be?" He said. "Then information technology's going to be a tough residue of my life. I was beyond playing. I couldn't sit. I couldn't walk. I couldn't lay down without feeling the hurting in my back and leg."

Given where Woods started when he came back to competitive golf last December, with moderate expectations and a spine that had been fused together, ending his season with a victory like this was amazing. Simply now that Tiger is officially back, it certainly seems more like the offset of his last chapter than the finish of his story.

Follow Wolken on Twitter @DanWolken

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2018/09/23/tiger-woods-tour-championship-comeback-no-1-world/1405575002/

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