David Feherty: ‘Gutsy’ Tiger Woods will reclaim No. 1 world ranking by 2016

Tiger Woods flashed some back-to-the-future form last month when he made his first foray back to tournament golf since August but he still finished in a tie for last. Despite his DFL (the result largely of a horrendous short game), advanced age (Woods turned 39 on December 30), and a new/old swing untested in competition anywhere but his own no-cut limited-field tourney, Golf Channel analyst David Feherty expects to see Woods atop the world golf rankings come 2016.

“It would surprise me if, by the end of this season, he’s not No. 1 in the world again,” Feherty, a Tiger-watcher from way back, told SB Nation by phone Friday.

Of course, like any golfstradamus prognostication regarding the ex-king of the hill, Feherty’s forecast came with the usual caveat.

“I think, if he’s durable, if his body’s in good shape [italics added], that we’re going to see [Woods] in contention again,” said Feherty. “The only mistakes I’ve ever made with Tiger Woods are underestimating him. If you think he can’t do that, well, he kind of thinks he can.”

Woods, thanks to a wretched, injury-wracked 2013-2014 PGA Tour campaign, lost top billing to Adam Scott in May and has plummeted down to No. 34 in the world. Scott, whose reign was short-lived after Rory McIlroy overtook him in August, ended Woods’ most recent dominion after 60 straight weeks.

Feherty reminded us that pretenders have staged coups before and Woods has ascended again to the throne. Indeed, the 14-time major champion fell to 52nd in 2011 before he played his way back to the apex two years later on the strength of three wins in 2012 and two more in 2013 (he cemented his status with another three Ws that year).

Woods, who will launch his quest for his 80th tour win later this month at the Phoenix Open, hasn’t nailed the only type of win that matters going on seven years but has still had little trouble ascending to the pinnacle.

“He hasn’t played well since 2008,” said Feherty, referring to the last year Woods secured a major title, “and yet he’s returned to No. 1 in the world relatively easily.”

One could debate that the 14 victories Woods has compiled since that legendary U.S. Open victory would make anyone else’s career and weren’t all that shabby even for Eldrick, but Feherty was on a roll. Though fields are deeper and the competition younger and stronger than when Woods set an impossible bar as he was achieving the Tiger Slam and otherwise dominating golf, Feherty believes the second-winningest player in tour history does not have to match his feats of yore to reclaim his fiefdom.

“People have forgotten what happens when he does play well. It’s been so long since he did, I think, just by the law of averages, it’s [reassuming the No. 1 ranking ] going to happen again and he doesn’t have to play as well as he did around the turn of the century to be No. 1,” said Feherty, who, as a commentator since he quit competitive golf in 1997, has had a front-row seat to Woods’ entire career. “He doesn’t have to play that well at all.”

For sure, today’s competition -- led by McIlroy, big-hitting Bubba Watson, and the likes of 2014 FedEx Cup champ Billy Horschel, Jordan Spieth, and Patrick Reed -- is stouter and the kids can out-slug the old guy. But Feherty will not count out a healthy Woods.

“People forget just how deep and strong [Woods] was. He won a U.S. Open [in 2000 at Pebble Beach] by 15 strokes,” averred Feherty, who tested the memories of even the most devoted of golf observers. “No one won a major championship like that since Tom Morris in the 1860s [Old Tom won four Open Championships between 1861-1867] and he was playing with a badger testicle stuffed with seagull feathers.”

Which may be exactly what Woods should toss to the well-lubricated bleacher creatures when he reaches the renowned par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale during Super Bowl week. About Woods’ announcement that he planned to kick off his 2015 season at the loudest, zaniest venue on tour during the run-up to the NFL finale in nearby Glendale, Feherty termed his decision audacious.

“It’s a pretty gutsy move for Tiger to show up there,” Feherty said.

Feherty expects as many as 20,000 loudmouths each day to gamble on which caddie will make it to the green first (“Oh, yes, of course they did, that’s not going to happen,” Feherty snickered about the tour’s ban on such shenanigans) -- and imbibe their favorite adult beverages from the 16th’s sky boxes and grassy knoll.

“There’s a lot of distractions. We’ll see how well [Tiger’s] doing physically and if he can get through that week in a strong frame of mind,” Feherty said. “It’ll be general debauchery.”

The Golf Channel personality, by the way, humorously anticipated that this year’s premiere of his “Feherty” show, in two live events from the Super Bowl the same week as Woods’ 2015 debut and the NFL’s showcase affair, would “demolish” the competition.