Unbeaten since the announced beginning of the Lindsey Vonn Experiment, once again golf’s No. 1 overall seed, Tiger Woods has but one more step to take before proclaiming his comeback complete.
Win one of those high gravity tournaments that only come around four times a year.
The first available major, of course, is that harbinger of allergy season known as the Masters. Barely two weeks away, it beckons as Woods’ next best chance to get back to the business of legend-building.
Last time he has felt this good with Augusta in sight?
“It’s been a few years,” he said.
Monday, for the eighth time in his life, Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational. One more, does he get to take the King himself home for a year?
The broader significance of the apocalyptic-storm-delayed victory was that it elevated Woods back to No. 1 in the world golf rankings. That was the spot he abdicated in late 2010 when injuries and the aftershocks of his serial adultery finally ate away at the huge reserve he had built up in ranking points.
Woods, at his nadir, would fall to as low as 58th — for many a comfortable place to be; for him, the abyss.
In retaking No. 1 from Rory McIlroy, Woods served further loud notice that he is almost all the way back. Bay Hill was his third PGA Tour victory of 2013. That’s his most at this point of a season since 2008, the last year he won a major. “The process,” as he has constantly referred to the gradual rebuilding of life and swing, has been a long one, a reminder of the effort it takes to regain one’s balance after tripping over a tabloid.
“I had to look at it that if I get healthy, I know I can play this game at a high level,” Woods said. “I know I can be where I’m contending in every event, contending in major championships and being consistent day-in and day-out, if I get healthy. That was the first step in the process. Once I got there, then my game turned.”
Earlier in the tournament, he was asked if it was fair to say that he was not truly back until he won a major. (Woods has been stalled at 14, four shy of Jack Nicklaus’ record for nearly five years.)
“That’s based on opinion. I feel like I’m headed in the right direction,” he responded. “I’m very pleased where I’ve come from. Like I said, 50-plus (ranking) to where I’m at is no small task. And I’d like to get to 19-plus (majors).”
The host of this most Woods-friendly tournament seems all in on the whole renaissance thing.
“He looks probably as strong and as good from a golf perspective as I’ve ever seen him,” Palmer said. “I think his swing and his posture and his attitude are far better than they’ve been in some time. It takes me back to when I first played with him at Augusta when he was a rookie.”
Monday was Woods’ final competitive round before the Masters, the scene of his first breakthrough major victory and a place more than willing to serve as a platform for his redemption story. The day was mostly an exhibition, a spring training kind of outing. He shot a 2-under 70, bogeyed 18 to go 13-under for the week. And that was still plenty good enough to hold his pursuers at arm’s length. He opened with a three-shot lead and no one got closer than two all day.
Winner of the non-Tiger flight was Justin Rose (11-under). He saw in Woods the kind of single-mindedness that should serve him over the Masters grind.
“He plays every shot like he plays them on Sunday. His intensity is the same on Thursday often as it is on Sunday,” Rose said.
Woods was not completely locked in Monday. Wayward off the tee, he hit a middling eight of 14 fairways. But the putter, the instrument that has been out of calibration in Masters past — he last won there in 2005 — was spot on. He finished the week leading the field in strokes saved putting, the Tour’s leading measure on the green.
This, Woods conceded, will be as confident as he has felt about his putting entering the Masters in a long time.
As well as this being the week Woods took back No. 1, it also was the week after he and Vonn, the gold medal skier, chose to make public their relationship. In the same city where on Thanksgiving 2009 his now ex-wife harried him into a minor car crash, he gave another indication he has moved on.
Indeed, quite literally. Woods is living south on Jupiter Island now while defending Masters champion Bubba Watson has moved into Woods’ old Orlando home, rebuilding it from roof to rumpus room.
Ben Hogan won seven majors after getting into a head-on with a Greyhound bus.
It stands to reason that Woods, especially the one on display here this week, might eventually win one or two more after hitting a fire hydrant.
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