Sorry to break the news but golf’s second-most anticipated comeback is nearly upon us.
Second most?
Yes, in this case, the world’s No. 767 — Tiger Woods — pales in comparison to the 1950 comeback of a fellow you may have heard of — Ben Hogan.
Tiger’s been biding his time, 14 months to be exact, since he last played on the PGA Tour. Hogan was nearly killed in a head-on car collision with a bus. Hogan suffered a double-fracture of his pelvis, fractured collarbone, fractured left ankle, broken ribs and near fatal blood clots. That’s all.
Woods had micro-fracture surgeries.
Hogan’s first tournament back was the 1950 U.S. Open, 11 months after the crash.
All he did was win it.
So forgive us if we have high expectations for Eldrick this week in Napa. Forgive us if we expect him to play really, really well. It’s not like he’s going against a U.S. Open-type of field. This is the Safeway, it’s where the Web.com graduates come to get a taste of the tour and maybe some wine tastings to go with it.
After all, Jesper Parnevik, the Swedish range spy, tells us Tiger is flushing everything, hitting his driver two miles out there and looking like the guy who won 14 majors. Note to everyone — Jesper didn’t say anything about putting.
So that’s where we are today.
Tiger Woods is back. He’s fallen to 767 and he’s not even 767 by himself. He’s tied for 767 with Frenchman Edouard Dubois, who has a couple of wins on the Challenge Tour, that’s the Euro’s version of the Web.com. But the 27-year-old hasn’t won since 2009. But it’s still nice to tell your buddies your ranked right there with Tiger Woods, the man who has spent 683 weeks of his life as the No. 1 player in the world.
But this little Safeway Championship adventure seems light years from the day when Woods was No. 1. When he dominated and made domination cool.
If Woods can play well enough this week, perhaps he can bolt past No. 766. That would be Federico Maccario of Italy, who plays on the Alps Tour, which sounds like some sort of skiing competition.
Speaking of this week, the Silverado Country Club, a place Johnny Miller sometimes calls home, is a par 70 and last year, Emiliano Grillo and Kevin Na shot 15-under par with Grillo getting his first-ever PGA Tour win in a playoff.
Which brings us back to “Hello World Part Deux” — the second coming of Eldrick Woods.
Tiger has made his living on the par fives of the world and this course has but two. Par 70s haven’t exactly been Tiger’s cup of tea compared to all those courses with four par fives, that used to guarantee Tiger a minimum of 16 birdies no matter what.
Par fives aside, the one thing that’s really important for Woods and for the Safeway folks is that Eldrick takes care of first things first and that’s make the 36-hole cut. Nothing says diminished crowds like Woods flying back to Jupiter in Air Tiger on Friday afternoon.
Woods’ performance will be examined, dissected and autopsied over and over on the Golf Channel. Brandel Chamblee can’t wait for Thursday.
In the meantime, we go back to Jesper, the Secret Swede, who actually played nine holes with Woods at The Medalist a few weeks ago. Apparently Jesper went ga-ga and gave us this assessment:
“Trajectory and ball flight are like the Tiger we knew 15 years ago. Comeback are never a sure thing but something tells me his might be spectacular.”
Spectacular?
You’ll forgive Parnevik on that one. He wasn’t around when Hogan won the 1950 U.S. Open.
Let’s hope Woods makes the cut first and then he can get on to spectacular.
Editor’s Note: In the newest Official World Golf Rankings, hot off the press, Woods has fallen to 786 from a tie for 767! Where’s the love??
