A Honda Classic report card for Tiger Woods, who is a real, competitive golfer again

After this week’s Honda Classic, it’s hard to come away with anything but an optimistic view Tiger Woods’ 2018 comeback attempt. It was just his third start of the year, after spending another full year on the shelf rehabbing his fourth back surgery, and he finished inside the top 15. At times, he got damn close to the lead and spent the entire weekend on the first page of the leaderboard. He wore his blood red shirt and had a late Sunday tee time again in a real, actual PGA Tour event.

Tiger is a competitive PGA Tour golfer right now and here’s a report card on his game this week. It’s still a #process and there are things to improve, but you’re allowed to entertain the possibility of Tiger being a factor at the Masters (where he’s now 16/1 to win while the defending champ is 50/1 lolol).

Tiger is never going to be the most accurate driver of the golf ball. There was a time in his career, around the turn of the century, when he was. But since then, he’s always been a little wild and still succeeded. This week, he hit 33 of 56 fairways, which is a significant improvement over that mess to open the season at Torrey Pines and then the lingering wildness at Riviera. He hit more fairways than both Luke List and Justin Thomas, who were in a playoff for the winner’s check late Sunday night.

Andy Johnson at The Fried Egg made the interesting point at the start of the week that all the danger at PGA National might actually force Tiger into driving it straighter and hitting his marks. The natural inclination was to expect disaster, with Tiger hitting wild drive after wild drive into the many hazards. But I think we saw Andy’s notion bear out — which he explains better than I ever could:

So we got improved accuracy numbers off the tee, both with the driver and with shorter clubs in hand.

And when he did pull the big stick, the speed was eye-popping. Brandel Chamblee, who doubted Tiger’s ability to comeback in full, was incredulous at Woods recording a swing speed of 128-plus mph and said it was maybe the best he’s seen him swing it since 2001.

We’re taking small sample sizes and losing our mind over it. The averages will come down a little bit, but the fact that it’s possible with his fused back and at his age, playing for the second time in as many weeks, is remarkable.

Fairways hit is a flawed stat, but the improvement is still notable. Also, Woods was third in the field in driving distance with a 319.1 average and finished with a +.84 strokes gained off-the-tee mark. We are so far removed from the depressing lack of pop of the past few years.

Now, after the round, he said his primary focus during the upcoming week off was to get back in the gym and get stronger, which ... is a little unnerving.

This was an absolute show. Maybe even a “stripe show,” a concept Tiger famously added to the golf canon.

After missing the cut at Riviera, Tiger didn’t cite more of his wild driving but rather his frustration with not being dialed-in with his approach shots.

One of my hallmarks of my whole career is I’ve always hit the ball pin high with my iron shots, and I have not done that. My wedge game is fine, but my normal iron shots that I’ve always had dialed in for much of my entire career, it’s just not there.

It was there this week and the most exceptional part of his game. It carried him to the top 15 result and had me salivating over what could be coming down the line. Tiger finished the week at +1.11 on strokes gained approach and +1.20 on strokes gained tee-to-green.

He led the field in proximity to the hole when he finished up on Sunday night, averaging 29 feet and 3 inches. Tiger executed he recovery shots he needed to when his drives went wild, and when he did find the fairway off the tee, he often stuck it close. If he’s getting dialed-in like that, on top of the improved distance and swing speed numbers, we’re going to have a real competitive, contending Cat back on the PGA Tour.

Woods was juuuuust slightly in the positive on strokes gained around-the-green this week at +.04. Chipping from Bermuda can be extremely tricky, but I didn’t think he was really tested too much this week compared to the last few events. At Riviera and Torrey, this part of his game was unquestionably an A.

This week, he hit it close to the hole and on the green more often and didn’t have too many nervy chips. He almost pulled off an impossible flop shot at the Bear Trap on Saturday. Simply judging by how close he came to executing it was affirmation that the wedge game is in a good place, even though he technically failed to get it on the green. Watching him with the wedges was delight up close last week at Riviera. It’s a remarkable turnaround that this now appears to be a strength of his game after those hideous yippy moments of the past few years.

This grade could almost be an n/a given the condition of the PGA National greens. From all accounts, they were in some of the worst shape that these pros will see out on the PGA Tour. It’s often hard to glean that watching on TV, where you can usually only see discoloration, but even from the couch you could see the patchy and uneven surfaces.

Tiger finished with a positive strokes-gained putting average at +.84 for the week. That’s a passing grade, no doubt. But it felt like it could have been more given how many birdie chances he had.

Tiger finished at Riviera saying it was the first time all year he didn’t feel great with the putter in his hand, a feeling he said came on from the very start of the day on the putting green. We saw nothing like that this week so it was a big improvement. I just wish, as Tiger does too I’m sure, that the greens would have been in good enough shape to provide a real examination.

Before we get into it, if you’re somehow uninformed, read the No Laying up primer on TourSauce. Tiger basically invented it, or at least revolutionized it. NLU came along and gave it a name.

I’m grading Tiger tough here because he’s the all-time Sauce connoisseur. It might not be totally fair to grade him with that history in mind, but we’re talking about a legend here. He just dabbled a bit this week and didn’t really go all out, which is perfectly within his right. There was a fist pump, a few twirls, and he walked after some approach shots, but it never really peaked like we know it can. The highlight was probably this slide-step walk-in maneuver on Saturday.

So I will just give him a simple B. It was satisfactory but we know he’s capable of so much more and given the way he’s playing, I think it’s coming.

There were no wild contortions like we got on some of the recovery shots at Riviera. But Tiger did have to test out his back, and everything else he’s had surgery on in his 42-year-old body, for the first time on a back-to-back. He did have to hit some recovery shots from the Bermuda, and make a few massive cuts from fairway bunkers, and the back held up fine. Tiger actually got stronger as the week progressed and passed his two-tourneys-in-two-weeks test easily.