Recently, Tiger Woods, the 79 time Professional Golfers Association(PGA) tour winner, has shown that he is ready to be competing with the best golfers in the world. Through six PGA tour events this year, he has placed top 10 in three, and already has a scoring average under 70. He came close to winning, tying for second at the Valspar Championship this year, and tied for fifth at his most recent tournament, the Arnold Palmer Invitational. As of today, Woods has not won a tournament in over 1,687 days, but many people believe this number will be one in a matter of weeks. To find out how he is really playing, let’s compare how he’s doing this season to his first six starts during what many people consider his prime, 2001.
Coming off three major wins during his 2000 season, Woods was playing some of his best golf ever and ended up winning the Masters tournament that April. Through Woods first six starts, he claimed four top ten finishes, and had one win at the Bay Hill invitational. He had a scoring average of just under 69 and went on to win two tournaments in a row. On paper it seems like how he is playing right now is right on par, putting himself in contention to win and showing off his true potential, but what will it take to win a tournament this year or even the upcoming masters?
Tiger hasn’t been all perfect. His newly constructed swing has caused him to hit about 50% of fairways this season, ranking him 153rd among his tour pros. The tour average is right around 60%, so if Woods will be focusing on anything as the Masters approaches, it will probably be this. One of the pros about this; however, is that Augusta National is known for having wider fairways, unlike the courses he’s been playing this year. This is definitely going to be helpful as he will be in much better shape to hit greens, and make birdies, thereby, allowing him shoot lower scores.
Although he may be able to get to the greens this masters, their is no guarantee he’ll be able to finish putts. The Augusta National golf course has bent grass greens. They have more grain (Making them extremely difficult to read) and are known for being much faster than normal bermuda grass. This could pose a difficult barrier for woods as he tries to adjust. Woods is known for liking faster greens, so hopefully he’s able to adjust quickly and find his stroke.
One last disadvantage Woods will need to deal with is that he has not played at Augusta National since 2015. In that time, 3 greens have been resurfaced, meaning they have changed the layout and breaks on the green. Other players on tour have already had plenty of practice on these new greens and it will be interesting to see whether or not Woods is able to find a way to put the ball in the cup.
Wood’s has been on and off the course since 2013 with various injuries and other problems. Many people have been awaiting his return but it seems as though every time he steps back on the course, something goes wrong. It is hard to be sidelined for so many years and expect to come back strong and start winning again.
It is important to note, however, that Woods is looking extremely promising. He is well past his prime, yet can hit the ball as far as his 25 year old peers. His new swing looks nearly flawless, and doesn’t cause the same kind of stress and problems that caused him to get injured in the first place. He has been playing well and looks like he’s in shape to make a strong return. He still has a lot of work to do before he can finally take home another tour win, however, placing a bet on Woods this masters is not the worst idea.
