Lindsey Vonn tops Tiger Woods in their respective comeback bids

Tiger Woods was such a huge motivator to girlfriend Lindsey Vonn as sports’ power couple rehabbed a bad back and torn-up knee, respectively, that the championship skier went out and won her first World Cup race in nearly two years over the weekend.

Woods, on the other hand, considered his tie for last place at last week’s Hero World Challenge a victory of sorts since, although he hurled, retched, and chunked his way around Isleworth to the tune of even-par, he played without physical pain and had few miscues with his much-scrutinized swing.

“I made some progress. I hadn’t played in four months and I’m in absolutely no pain, which is nice,” Woods said Sunday after finishing tied with Hunter Mahan for 17th in the 18-player field, 26 shots behind Jordan Spieth’s winning score at the event that benefits Woods’ foundation. “To be able to go out on some of these drives like [I] did this week really enforces that what I’m doing is the right thing for my body.”

The goal each time Woods tees it up in competition, according to the former world No. 1 himself, is to walk away with the hardware. Despite starting his first event since he missed the cut at the PGA Championship in August, he confirmed his expectation of winning remained the same.

“Obviously, or I wouldn’t enter,” Woods responded after walking pain-free for 18 holes in Wednesday’s pro-am.

Perhaps more obvious was the reality that, while Woods’ short game, highlighted (lowlighted?) by nine (count ‘em! Nine!) ghastly stubbed chip shots, was a total mess, winning an unofficial event -- even his own -- four months before his next shot at capturing that elusive fifth major was not really the aim.

“I’ve been in this position before,” Woods said. “You know, I’ve been hurt. I’ve been out of it for a long time. I’ve had to make my run to get back there,” he said. “It takes winning. I was out for a while with my Achilles, and in two years I won eight times. It’s a process to get back to that level. You got to build up to it. I’ve got some time.”

For sure, notching a W, or at least being in contention, would have been a far more satisfying way to kick off his on-course training for the Masters in April, but Woods claimed he was satisfied with his efforts so far under new swing consultant Chris Como.

“I’ve got my speed back now; look how far I’m hitting it again now. That’s nice. I just obviously need to clean up my short game. That still needs a lot of work. Again, it’s progress,” he said. “To come out here and not play in any kind of pain is great progress, and to be able to hit the ball as hard as I want really without flinching.”

Woods also expressed nothing but admiration for the work Vonn has put in to get back into the championship form she flashed while he was struggling to get up and down while trying to keep his food from coming up during his own comeback stint.

“That’s a pretty incredible performance,” Woods said about Vonn winning Saturday’s downhill race at Lake Louise and finishing runner-up in Sunday’s super-G. “She’s getting better and better and better. She’s back where she believed she could get to.”

After Woods and Vonn announced they were dating last March, a month after the latter’s devastating crash at the Alpine World Championships, she watched him compete in several tournaments before a bad back forced him to the sidelines following a missed cut at the PGA Championship. He was slated to cheer her on at the Sochi Winter Olympics before she hurt her knee again and had to skip the games.

Woods stopped short of crediting Vonn with galvanizing his return, as she recently told CNN he did for her

“Tiger and I both went through rehab with our injuries at a similar time, so we were both in the gym together and pushing each other and motivating each other, both frustrated,” Vonn said. “I think we both helped each other a lot through that time, and I drew a lot of inspiration from him and I think he does the same with me.”

He explained how his athletic endeavor differed from hers.

“I’m not going to die in my sport,” Woods said. “What they do and the surfaces they are on, injected snow, it’s just scary how fast it is and how dangerous and how much focus you have to bring to the table.”

Woods compared golf to “a physical chess match that takes time and lots of patience,” while downhill skiing was “just pure aggression.”

Woods knows from experience the rigors of recovering from major injuries and applauded her “hard work.”

“You have to understand, she hadn’t skied that competitively in two years,” he said. “So to be able to get into a position where she felt comfortable to push the physical limits, absolute limits -- because that’s what you have to do in order to win in her sport -- and to be able to take those chances and risks without having her knee blow out on her is pretty cool.”

Cool, perhaps, but as competitive as Woods is renowned to be, Bode Miller may be on to something.