Tiger Woods returns to competitive golf on Thursday in the Hero World Challenge at Albany Resort in the Bahamas and Brad Faxon, for one, seems to think he is ready.
Faxon played in a foursome with President Donald Trump, top-ranked Dustin Johnson and Woods on Friday at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., and echoed what Rickie Fowler said a week earlier after playing golf with Tiger.
“I’d seen that Tiger had played with Rickie Fowler and Rickie made some comments about Tiger hitting the ball well and looking good,” Faxon, who has won six times on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour, said on Golfweek.com. “I would echo the same thing.
“Tiger looked great to me. I was impressed with how far he hit the ball. Probably on the 10 holes that they were both hitting driver, Tiger hit it past Dustin half the time and Dustin hit it past Tiger half the time. He looked great. I think more than anything, he looked at ease. He was not concerned about swinging hard and going at it with driver. The ball flight, the sound off the club, all of it was right there.
“So, I witnessed first-hand what Fowler saw—a pain-free Tiger that looked like he was able to hit the golf ball and will be able to be in the mix again. I don’t want to make it sound like I’m saying he’s going to win next week. It’s obviously different playing a fun, casual round like this as opposed to a tournament. But he’s in a great place mentally and physically.”
Johnson was second on the PGA Tour last season in driving distance with an average of 315.0 yards.
The 41-year-old Woods hasn’t played since withdrawing from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic last February and later underwent his fourth back surgery in recent years.
Woods, who has been ranked No. 1 in the world for a record 683 weeks but not since 2013, is a career-low No. 1193, but if he simply finishes the tournament that has a field of 18 players, he will climb more than 250 places.
If he somehow wins the tournament that benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation for a record sixth time, he would skyrocket back into the top 150 in the world.
Woods, who has won 79 times in his PGA Tour career including 14 major titles, has said since the surgery that if he can remain injury-free he believes he still can equal or break Sam Snead’s record of 82 titles and Jack Nicklaus’ mark of 18 majors.
Love him or hate him, the world will be watching, as always.
