Tiger Woods put on a good show last Sunday at The Open Championship even taking the solo lead for a brief time. But when the last putt fell it was Francisco Molinari lifting the Claret Jug as Woods looked on from down the leaderboard.
There are no moral victories in major championship golf but Woods had to be feeling a bit better about his performance at Carnoustie and his smiling post round press conference showed that he indeed saw progress in his play and certainly showed a change in his attitude.
The “Tiger Is Back” debate has raged for years as his innumerable comebacks from issues both physical and personal have been detailed in the media like no other athlete. John Feinstein has covered sports for a lifetime and Woods since he was a skinny amateur wearing over-sized red shirts.
Feinstein calls out the Tiger sycophants who have been calling his comeback complete and says that much like Michael Jordan in his post-baseball basketball career, Woods is back to being a good player, but will never regain his once incomparable dominance.
“If I had a dollar for every time I have seen someone write or heard someone say, “Tiger’s back,” in the last five years, I would be as wealthy as Eldrick T. Woods.
I might be as wealthy as Woods and his new pal Phil Mickelson combined if I had been paid every time I was asked the question, “Is Tiger back?”
My answer has always been no—and it’s still no after Sunday—and here’s why: WOODS won’t consider himself back until he wins a major championship. Winning a non-major would be nice, but you can bet he would be the first to point out that it would be a step in the right direction—as in winning another major.
I’ve said this many times, I’ll say It again: I don’t dislike Woods. Although I did once spend a long evening with him and feel I have SOME understanding of him, I’m not one of those media guys who says—as a former writing colleague of mine once said—“I think I know Tiger Woods pretty good.”
I don’t think any of us know Tiger Woods “pretty good,” not even the guys who trail him everywhere he goes on a golf course because their editors insist they do so.
I’ve always said I feel sorry for Woods because for all the success he’s had and all the money he’s made I don’t think he’s a terribly happy person. I blame his father for a number of reasons for that, including telling his son to not be friends with anyone in the locker room.
Mickelson pointed out to me two years ago that he thinks that began to change when Earl Woods died 12 years ago. I don’t believe that people change, but I do believe they can evolve.
I think we are now seeing a Tiger Woods who is happier and a better person—NOT a new person—but a better one. He’s never going to be close to the golfer he once was because—as with Jordan—that’s an impossibly high bar.
I will always be the guy who bridles at the media panting over ANY athlete, especially one whose fall from grace had as much to do with his own behavior as his injuries.
On Thursday, I turned the television set on and saw that Woods had just birdied the fourth hole to reach two under par for the first round. On the screen was a graphic: “Open champions over the age of 40.”
A bit premature, no? Sunday morning when he led with nine holes to play, sure, but Thursday after four holes? Seriously?
You want a comeback story? Try Serena Williams almost winning Wimbledon less than a year after giving birth to her first child almost killed her. Try Jon Lester coming back from cancer to help both the Red Sox and Cubs win World Series. Try Erik Compton finishing tied for second in the U.S. Open after TWO heart transplants.
Those are comeback stories worthy of our cheers and our tears. Woods’ comeback is certainly worthy of our attention, just not all the panting and cheering.
A lot of people understandably wrote Woods off in recent years. I never went that far. If it were just about anyone NOT named Tiger Woods, I would have said he was done. But you never count out the elite of the elite and Woods is certainly that.
He has come a very long way this year and deserves credit for doing so. But is he BACK?
Nope, not yet, no matter what the media cheerleaders tell you.”
Feinstein has Woods and the media gauged correctly: a major win completes Tiger’s comeback. The media uses Tiger for ratings and clicks and will kneel at the Woods Alter until the day of reckoning. Feinstein is a realist.
Woods needs a major win to call it a real comeback.
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