Tiger Woods Steals The Show At Hero With Full Swings On Range

Tiger Woods sure knows how to steal the spotlight.

Forget about the first round Thursday at his 2021 Hero World Challenge — the golf world is still buzzing over what transpired Wednesday on the far end of the practice range at the lush, high-end Albany resort in the balmy Bahamas.

There was El Tigre making smooth, full swings, hitting three-wood shots off the deck, looking like nothing had happened to his body ninth months ago outside Los Angeles.

Once again, Tiger proved he’s the needle in the world of golf, even the world of sports as the video taken of Tiger’s full swing went viral.

Now the speculation as to when Woods will actually make his return to competition is running off the charts.  There’s already talk that he’ll tee it up at the PNC Championship with son Charlie in two weeks (December 16-18) in Orlando.  Tiger and Charlie were a huge hit last year and he could play if they let him ride in a golf cart and that’s a given.

Tiger’s revelations this past week in his press conference were eye-opening and he gave some further insight in interviews after that.

“The doctors told me ‘your only issue going forward — is your back gonna hold up?'” Woods said.  While most have concentrated on the healing right leg, people forget that Woods had his fifth back surgery in December of 2020 and he was still rehabbing from that when he crashed his SUV in February of this year.

The leg surgery, evidently, was beyond successful.  “They told me I’d be able to walk — maybe even run,” Woods revealed.  “I said ‘Really?'”

The only missing part on Wednesday was Joe LaCava standing next to Tiger with the Monster Energy golf bag.  Woods was there, making nice swings, full swings and he didn’t have a small basket of golf balls — he had one of those large baskets.

So now comes the question about a PNC appearance.

While Woods said at his presser “my leg and back hurt,” he didn’t appear to be wincing at all while he hit those fairway wood shots on the range Wednesday.

Which begs the question:

Can Tiger Woods play 36-holes of golf if he rides a golf cart?

Only Tiger can answer that question.

You know that young Charlie would love to play in Orlando and that might be the motivation to see if Tiger’s actually strong enough to hit shots for two days.

Truth of the matter is that he doesn’t need “Tour speed” with his driver.  They played a lot of Charlie’s drives last go-round and if Charlie hits first from the up tees and hits a good one, Tiger doesn’t even have to hit.

Woods said his rehabilitation has a long way to go yet already there are odds (50-1) for him to win the 2022 Masters.

Still, there’s a huge difference between making some swings on the range and walking 18 holes a day for four days, not counting practice rounds.

So will we see Tiger and Charlie at the PNC in two weeks?

Well, a bunch of guys played well on Thursday, including Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas but most of the talk is about Tiger making full swings.

So if there’s any doubt who actually won the Player Impact Program in 2021, well, that’s settled.

As most of the players on the PGA Tour said:  Send the money to Tiger.

As for his return to actually play?

Well see shortly.  By the way, the folks at PNC are holding a spot open for Woods and Woods.