Tiger Woods Looked Good in His Return to the PGA Tour

Tiger Woods’s first PGA Tour event since undergoing a spinal fusion was pretty successful. Woods shot even par 72 the first round, one-under 71 the second round, two-under 70 the third round, and even par 72 the final round in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. This is the third tournament Woods has shot even par or better since his last win at the 2013 WGC Bridgestone. As it stands with players still on the course, Woods is tied for 25th at three-under while the leaders, Jason Day, Alex Noren, Ryan Palmer, and J.B. Holmes currently sit at 11-under. Woods is also, at the time this was written, two strokes ahead of Jon Rahm, who is the defending champion and entered this week with a chance to become the number one golfer in the world.

Woods’s final round on Sunday was up and down and included four birdies and four bogies. He struggled off the tee this week managing to hit just three fairways in the second, third and final rounds for an average of 30.4% fairways hit this week, a career-low on the PGA Tour. Where Woods didn’t struggle was on and around the greens. His short game and putting were dialed in this week as ranked 16th in strokes gained putting.

Most of the questions everyone had about if his back would hold up for a full event seemed to have been answered this week. While he showed frustration several times after missing with his driver, he never appeared to be suffering from any pain and finished ranked 23rd in driving distance.

While it seems that the odds are shifting to be more in Tiger’s favor for a major victory this year, it’s still way too early to jump on that bandwagon, but hey, you’re all welcome to hop back on the “Tiger isn’t done yet” wagon with me.