Tiger Woods opened his final round at the Valspar Championship with a birdie but gave that stroke back three holes later. He then went 12 holes without a birdie or a bogey before showing us that Tiger magic on the par-3 17th hole.
Woods’ tee shot found the center of the green on the 17th, leaving him with a 44-foot putt to get within one stroke of clubhouse leader Paul Casey. What happened next was nothing short of beautiful as Woods drained the putt and sent the crowd, who was probably 40-50 deep all the way around the hole and hadn’t seen anything in a while, into a frenzy.
Unfortunately Woods was unable to follow that up with another birdie on the 18th to force a playoff, but what it did was confirm that he is most definitely back.
Hopefully all of the doubters watched this tournament and are no longer able to question the validity of this comeback. It’s real and it doesn’t look like it will be long before Woods is on the top of a leaderboard on Sunday.
That could be next week at Bay Hill where he has won before, or … even better … it could be in a few weeks at Augusta National where he will try to win a fifth green jacket and make this possibly the greatest comeback in sports history.
It wasn’t long ago that Woods appeared to be bed ridden and unable to play the game that he dominated so long. Now he has a fused spine and is swinging his driver 129 mph, the fastest recorded swing on Tour this season.
To say this is special is putting it lightly, this is freakishly impressive.