Mission accomplished for Tiger Woods at Tour Championship
Tiger Woods completes his miraculous comeback with a dominant victory Sunday at the season-ending Tour Championship, his first win since 2013.
The anticipated Sunday showdown with Rory McIlroy turned out to be a dud, but that makes no difference to Tiger Woods. Tapping in for par on the 18th, surrounded by hordes of adoring fans chanting his name, Woods capped off a remarkable comeback by winning the Tour Championship.
Woods came in to Sunday’s final round at East Lake with a three-shot lead over McIlroy and Justin Rose as he chased his first PGA Tour title in five years. He let it be known early that the Tiger Woods of the past few years, best known for hobbling around with a bad back, was long gone. In its place was the Tiger Woods of old that was the most dominant player golf has ever known.
He drove his opening tee shot down the fairway, then stuck his approach to 10 feet. Woods then calmly rolled in the birdie putt, stretching his lead to four. In his prime Woods was known not only for being the most powerful golfer but also the smartest. He knows what it takes to hold a Sunday lead on the PGA Tour. After all, he’s won all but two times he held the 54-hole lead in his career.
As McIlroy and Rose succumbed to the pressure that often plagued Woods’ past rivals, Woods played steady with eight consecutive pars on the front-nine. He finally dropped a shot at the 10th, but made up for it by holding a 13-footer for birdie at the 13th. Woods led the field this week in strokes gained: putting, an area of his game that had held him back earlier this year.
McIlroy, meanwhile, failed to bring his best game to the duel, far from it. He was four-over on his opening nine and suddenly was eight shots behind Woods. He made only two birdies in a round of 74 and dropped to seventh. Rose, as well, was four-over on his round before a closing birdie at the par-five 18th. His approach shot narrowly missed a greenside bunker, and he was able to two-putt to capture the FedEx Cup trophy.
Woods, however, had his eye on a more meaningful prize. Despite two late bogeys that cut his lead over Billy Horschel to just two, he finished with two pars to seal his first win since the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2013.
It’s been quite a journey since then. His career in the five years since has been marked by back surgeries rather than trophies. Consider what he’s gone through since the 2013 season:
– April 2014: has his first back surgery that forced him to miss the Masters for the first time in his professional career
– September 2015: underwent surgery to remove a disc fragment in his back
– October 2015: has a follow-up to his latest back surgery and misses the entire 2016 season
– December 2016: Makes his return at his own event, the Hero World Challenge, and finishes 15th out of 17 players. A month later he plays the Farmers Insurance Open, his first PGA event in 17 months, but misses the cut
– April 2017: Has his fourth back surgery “to alleviate ongoing pain in his back and leg” and misses the rest of the season
At the time of his last back surgery Woods was privately telling people he thought he was done, that he would never play on the PGA Tour again. He dropped all the way to 1,199th in the Official World Golf Rankings by the end of the year.
Not only did Woods come back in 2018, his return has been a stunning success. He was runner-up at the Valspar Championship, showing flashes of his old self. He then was in contention in the final round of the final two majors, the Open Championship and PGA Championship. From being outside the top 1,000 a year ago, Woods is projected to rise to 13th in the rankings after his win.
The significance of the moment wasn’t lost on Woods. “I just can’t believe I pulled this off,” he said at the trophy presentation on Sunday.
“It’s been tough. I’ve had a not so easy last couple of years, and I’ve worked my way back.”
The Tour Championship is his 80th career PGA Tour title, just two off Sam Snead’s record. At the start of the year it appeared even that was out of reach. Now not only is it a matter of time before he surpasses Snead, Jack Nicklaus’ mark of 18 majors seems possible. This year has already been one of overcoming impossibilities, so don’t count Woods out just yet.