In only his third tournament back from reconstructive knee surgery that has kept him out for ten months, it is fair to assume that the world’s number one player is back. Tiger definitely looked rusty in his first two outings and early in his third until he pulled it together for his first victory since his heroic win at the U.S. Open last year.
Tiger had to go six months without hitting the ball with power while he was rehabbing his knee, but it was evident that he had still kept that immaculate touch on the greens and had worked hard on his short game. He hit three amazing shots out of the sand on Sunday to keep himself in contention as he put together his furious comeback. He was down five strokes to begin Sunday’s final round but was luckily in second place. This put him in the final group where he could let his presence be felt. It was obvious that Sean O’Hair was intimidated by Tiger’s prowl.
Tiger quickly made us believe that he could tie his largest comeback deficit as he closed the gap to two strokes after playing only three holes. He started to look like his old self, shaping shots perfectly, draining important puts and stomping around the course with that swagger that only Tiger has.
O’Hair finally pulled it together and kept his lead until the fifteenth hole. That is when the crowd reacted to Tiger pulling even with O’Hair with an atomic roar. At that point, there was a look in Tiger’s eyes almost as if he was thriving on the pressure. He took a one stroke lead on the sixteenth hole as O’Hair found the drink and was forced to take a drop.
On the seventeenth hole, Tiger hit his tee shot into the bunker and his ball was almost completely buried. He was near the front lip of the trap and had to stand awkwardly with his reconstructed knee torqued sideways just to hit his shot. He had to take a bogey and fall back into a tie with O’Hair.
Tiger always seems to thrive in those pressure situations as he set himself up perfectly with a birdie putt from fifteen feet. Just a shot before, O’Hair missed a forty foot birdie putt but was in position for an easy tap-in for par. This was it, golf’s equivalent to a walk off home run, and who better to have up at the plate than Tiger? As he lined up, nobody jockeying for position to see the historic putt could of thought that there was a chance that it wouldn’t go in. From contact, the whole gallery as well as Tiger knew it was going to hit the bottom of the cup. He began to stride quickly towards his caddie and when it sunk, he gave us the patented fist pump that we have missed dearly.
With the Masters just around the corner and Tiger getting better every day, is this the year for his fifth green jacket at Augusta?
