Tiger Woods made some eagles in a pro-am and we’re ready to declare he’s back

Before we work ourselves up into a sweat and start panting, this is who Tiger Woods played golf with Wednesday in his first real public round in about 465 days.

These are all probably perfectly nice gentlemen, but this was a pro-am and Tiger did not play with pros but rather a supreme and professional looking group of dads, from the untucked button down shirt- and Ohio State hat-wearing dad to the shorts-wearing dad. They do not look like Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, or even 46-year-old dad Phil Mickelson.

It was a pro-am on a resort course that yielded a winning score of 24-under last year. Tiger did not even take the flag out of the hole on several occasions, so this was not some grind with intense stakes. An assortment of dads, and the greatest singular force in the history of golf, went out looking like they were going to play a friendly Saturday game at the local muni and hit a couple balls around the Bahamas.

And yet...

We had to breathlessly follow along on Twitter and wherever else we could catch a glimpse of that swing. It’s Tiger Woods and he has not played a round of golf in full view of fans or the media in 15 months.

It’s a new swing, but similar to a prior early-career iteration and designed to put less stress on his back.

The results in this pro-am, by all accounts, were good. There were no major shanks or pulls and he didn’t go to grab his back in pain. That’s a relief.

Tiger is the only force in golf that could get us this into Wednesday pro-am game. When we really started to get worked up was about midway through the round as the play-by-play announced that he’d drained his second eagle on the front nine.

It was at this point that all of golf Twitter awarded him the 2017 Masters, among other majors and upcoming Player of the Year honors.

Tiger reportedly moved the ball well through the wind with his driver and irons. The primary area of ... concern? tenseness? ... remains with his short game. It was those chipping struggles and the back injuries that led to such a precipitous fall over the last two years and made things dark, real quick. Those yips first crept up at this Hero World Challenge two years ago, when the host Tiger was incapable of hitting basic chips onto the green.

The chipping sounded fine. It did not sound great but this was not the yips show of recent years and the grainy, tightly mown areas around these greens will present the kind of challenge to test that part of his game. Tiger chipped the ball on the green and that counts for something right now — relief, encouragement, whatever. They weren’t tucked in close but he was putting them in the vicinity of the hole.

There was only one poorly chunked bunker shot from an awkward lie, but in total, this was a great day. We’re allowed to overreact and get worked up — that’s what makes this fun. We haven’t seem him for 15 months!

The final, very unofficial tally included those two eagles and two bogeys for a 70. There were no birdies but a 2-under 70 is a good start. That’s without taking the flag out on some holes, taking gimmes, and playing a low-key round with his fellow dads.

Woods will tee off on Thursday at noon ET, this time with pro Patrick Reed. It’s not a pro-am but this is an silly-season 18-man event with minimal stakes. The expectations are low for Tiger, but that doesn’t mean we won’t watch and inspect every shot, move, and reaction. We did it for a damn pro-am and lost it over two early eagles. Whether he’s good or bad or plainly mediocre, it’s just great to have him back.