Tiger Woods will wake up Sunday with a real chance at winning his first PGA Tour event in almost five years. One day after whipping the world into a frenzy by taking a momentary solo lead at the Valspar Championship, Woods went out on Saturday and did more of the same. In fact, he did it better and the frenzy was even more manic.
Tiger Woods will spend Sunday with a real shot to win the Valspar Championship
After four back surgeries and five mostly miserable years, we’re somehow getting a vintage Tiger and this comeback looks better than ever.
Tiger posted four birdies in an eight-hole stretch on Saturday that made this often sleepy Valspar Championship feel like moving day at a major. The birdies came in all forms, carded on the back of Tiger pulling off all the shots. Perhaps that’s the most remarkable thing about this comeback, still just in its fourth tournament and 13 rounds old.
There are really no restrictions on what Tiger can do, even at 42-years-old and playing with a fused spine. And there’s really no rust on Tiger then actually executing all those shots. Sure, his driver is still a bit wild. But it’s been wild for years and he’s always figured out how to overcome it. What’s more important is that he’s now hitting the ball right there with and even past the longest hitters on Tour.
The peak of the round came right at the turn, where Tiger holed-out from a scruffy lie behind the 9th hole and then poured in a birdie putt at the 10th just moments later.
Those back-to-back birdies put him in a share of the lead with Corey Conners, and he burned the edge on a third straight birdie chance that should have put him in solo first and brought the house down.
Tiger would play the final eight holes in even-par, making one bogey and one birdie in what was another tidy round. There were drives smoked well in excess of 300 yards. There were those delicate chips and flops around the green. There were smooth lag putts. There were low irons stuffed on top of the flagstick. There were long irons shaped right to left, and long irons shaped left to right. He hit moon balls, and he hit the hall-of-fame stinger. The Tiger stinger was once the most erotic shot in golf, and it can be once again.
We’ll refrain from making grand predictions about what’s to come on Sunday. He may not win — Conners has hung around remarkably well and Justin Rose, one of the best in the world, will be in the final pairing.
But given what we’ve seen over the past month in Florida, it’s hard to see him receding or going away both this Sunday and next week at Bay Hill, which will be a juicy pre-Masters opportunity for a W. A win would send the place and all of golf into orbit. But it’s still just the Valspar, and the point is he is hitting all the shots and in contention again at a competitive PGA Tour event with the Masters just a month out. Here’s hoping we get another hole-out to ignite the crowd and a serious run at the win but no matter what, Sunday is already a gift.
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