This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
Just as well that the playoff between Jason Day and Alex Noren extended till Monday (Day won on the sixth extra hole), because all anyone was talking about on Sunday was Tiger Woods. Same for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And Monday and Tuesday, too, for that matter.
Woods by all accounts was a smashing success in his first PGA Tour event in a year, tying for 23rd in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. He shot four rounds at par or better. and the key part of that sentence is, "four rounds"; Woods hadn't played four rounds in a PGA Tour event since, amazingly, the 2015 Wyndham.
Of course, the biggest takeaway is that Woods appears to have emerged from the weeklong grind pain-free following a fourth back surgery last year. But he also appears to be a pretty dang good golfer.
Woods himself said he was, "very pleased."
His driving accuracy was abysmal, tied for 76th, yet he was still 38th in strokes gained off the tee and 34th in SG tee to green, He was 30th in SG approach, T21 in scrambling and, get this, 16th in SG putting.
It's possible that some elite pros could do what Woods did after playing only 11 competitive rounds in the previous 28 months, during which he had multiple back surgeries, but not many. Eight of those rounds were in the cupcake Hero World Challenge, two in an MC at Torrey Pines last year and one a week after that
Just as well that the playoff between Jason Day and Alex Noren extended till Monday (Day won on the sixth extra hole), because all anyone was talking about on Sunday was Tiger Woods. Same for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And Monday and Tuesday, too, for that matter.
Woods by all accounts was a smashing success in his first PGA Tour event in a year, tying for 23rd in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. He shot four rounds at par or better. and the key part of that sentence is, "four rounds"; Woods hadn't played four rounds in a PGA Tour event since, amazingly, the 2015 Wyndham.
Of course, the biggest takeaway is that Woods appears to have emerged from the weeklong grind pain-free following a fourth back surgery last year. But he also appears to be a pretty dang good golfer.
Woods himself said he was, "very pleased."
His driving accuracy was abysmal, tied for 76th, yet he was still 38th in strokes gained off the tee and 34th in SG tee to green, He was 30th in SG approach, T21 in scrambling and, get this, 16th in SG putting.
It's possible that some elite pros could do what Woods did after playing only 11 competitive rounds in the previous 28 months, during which he had multiple back surgeries, but not many. Eight of those rounds were in the cupcake Hero World Challenge, two in an MC at Torrey Pines last year and one a week after that in Dubai before a WD.)
Sure, the accuracy off the tee is a real issue. Woods was able to survive, even thrive, largely because Torrey Pines is his personal playground, with eight career titles there. Up next for Woods in three weeks is the exact opposite: Riviera, a course at which inaccuracy will be less forgiving because Woods has one of his worst records there. In fact, CBS said there was only one other time that Woods hit only 17 of 56 fairways before last week – at Riviera in 2005. (Of course, Woods finished T13 that week, but that was Tiger from a lifetime ago.)
This is all a lot of micro-dissecting of Woods' game. We dissect Woods' game because everyone dissects Woods' game. Even Woods. But maybe not in the way he used to. He tempered expectations before the tournament, acknowledging that winning the tournament wasn't the goal. So it's safe to say that Woods met or even exceeded his goal for the week.
We'll see Woods at Riviera in a few weeks and then we're not sure.
But we do know it is now less than three months till the Masters.
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Jason Day
By most accounts, it appeared that Day's best days were behind him – "best" being No. 1 in the world. Day fell from No. 1 at the start of 2017 to 13th at year's end. He hadn't won since early in 2016. But Day endured a lot in a short period of time -- his mother had cancer, and he and his wife suffered a miscarriage. Plus there are his ongoing back issues. A lot of times, sports fans don't take those things into account. We just want athletes to win no matter what. All we see is a golfer no longer playing well. And we can get pretty cruel in our criticism. All that said, Day was fantastic at Torrey, with very few giving him a chance at victory. His back problems are still there, and likely will be for the rest of his career, but he showed that he can still be among the best. Maybe not
Alex Noren
U.S. golf fans, maybe all U.S. sports fans, are a bit snooty toward some foreign athletes. They aren't good until they've played well in the States. Noren has gotten some of that treatment. The Swede is a top-20 golfer, formerly top-10, with nine wins on the European Tour. But he hasn't won here, even though has barely played here outside of the majors and WGCs. Noren will now play in the U.S. more, and the Farmers was just the beginning. It was unfortunate that the playoff ended when Noren found the water on the sixth playoff hole. The runner-up cash was his best finish in the U.S,, but many fans conveniently forget he was 10th at The Players last year, and fifth at the WGC-Match Play. Plus he was T6 at the Open Championship. Noren is a great player. Maybe not top-five great. But don't dismiss him.
Ryan Palmer
Palmer is coming off a largely lost 2016-17, a season in which an injured shoulder eventually required surgery and his wife was treated for breast cancer. They are both now better, and that's reflected in Palmer's game. He met the requirements of his major medial extension with a T20 at the CareerBuilder, then got into a playoff at Torrey Pines. Palmer was out after one hole, but was thrilled with his runner-up showing. All of a sudden, he's back inside the top-100 in the OWGR (92nd). Up next is Phoenix, where Palmer has three top-fives through the years.
Tom Hoge
A week after Hoge surrendered the lead at the end of the Sony two weeks ago, he finished T57 at the CareerBuilder. So it was easy to think that Hoge had his one shot at victory, blew it and was now returning to PGA Tour mediocrity and anonymity. But he strung together four solid rounds at Torrey Pines to tie for 12th. That was his fourth top-25 of the season and, while he may not get close to a maiden victory again anytime soon, this bounce-back week bodes well for Hoge.
Brandon Harkins
Harkins tied for 12th at Torrey Pines, continuing a stellar start to his first PGA Tour season. It was hard to dismiss five top-25s in his first seven events, but you could've attributed that to weak fields. The Farmers was a big-time field.
Harris English
English played five events in the wraparound portion of the season and trunk-slammed in all five. And that was coming off a season in which he missed the cut almost half the time and failed to reach $1 million in earnings. But something changed after New Year's. He at least made the cut at the Sony, and now has strung together consecutive high finishes – T11 at the CareerBuilder and T8 at the Farmers. And now English heads to Phoenix, where he's enjoyed success with a pair of top-10s and is six for six all-time in made cuts.
Xander Schauffele
Schauffele missed the cut for the first time this season, but it was his fifth straight PGA Tour event without a good finish (T22 in the limited Tournament of Champions field is not a good finish). Schauffele moved into an upper echelon of golf by winning the Tour Championship to close last season. He then proceeded to play four times in Asia in the fall, including once on the Japan Tour. And that sent up a bit of warning that Schauffele wasn't giving himself enough of an offseason after his new-found fame. This little recent downward trend may be nothing, but it could be a sign of fatigue.
Jamie Lovemark
Lovemark missed his fourth straight cut at Torrey – two at the end of 2017, now two after New Year's. He missed only six cuts all of last season and eight in 2015-16. Yes, it's a small sample size, but this slow start has not been the norm for Lovemark. In each of the last two seasons, he had multiple top-10s by now. This season, he has one (in South Korea in October).
Li Haotong
Li stared down Rory McIlroy by birdieing four of the final six holes to win the Omega Dubai Desert Classic for his second career title. The stirring win lifted him to No. 32 in the OWGR, the first time a Chinese man has ever reached the top-50. Li is only 22 and, though there's no immediate plan for him to play more in the States, this victory will lift him into all the majors and the WGCs. Asian players are on the rise, and Li is just the latest example.
Rory McIlroy
It may have been surprising to see McIlroy outdueled, but the man has finished T5 and solo second in his first two events back from a rib injury. McIlroy rejoins the top-10 at No. 8 in the world and is just a week away from beginning an increased schedule of PGA Tour events. He'll be a part of a loaded field at Pebble Beach.
