The Tiger Woods comeback is as strong as ever after Valspar Championship

Tiger Woods said Friday afternoon, moments after whipping the sports world into a frenzy that felt like 2005, that he liked the kind of golf where par was a reward and he thought he was getting that kind of test this week at the Valspar Championship.

Tiger got plenty of it on Sunday, a round where he went out and started with birdie on the first hole and then reeled off 14 pars and a bogey over his next 15 holes. Then we got to the 17th green, with Tiger all but out of it, and we got some of that 2005 vintage Cat.

A sleepy Sunday suddenly jolted to life. A birdie at the 18th was unlikely, but so was that putt and so was Tiger just being here in this position at all.

The putt on 17 will be part of a season retrospective, but it also kept Tiger’s hope of forcing a playoff with Paul Casey alive. Casey needed just 21 putts in a stunning final round charge that got him to the clubhouse at 10-under more than an hour ahead of Tiger’s tee time. Tiger, on the other hand, spent much of the day slowly bleeding out on the greens. Before he canned that 45-footer, he was -2.16 strokes gained putting. That’s not good, but not necessarily indicative of some troubling recession in his game. Putting rounds like that happen to anyone at any time and it’s not a marker of one’s form going to shit.

This Innisbrook course can be one of the more challenging setups on the PGA Tour, especially when the wind blows. It’s not going to be a birdiefest, but Tiger gave himself plenty of chances over four days in Tampa. He played so well that, remarkably, his 9-under finish could have been much better if a few more putts had dropped. His ballstriking was there all week and set up opportunities to really go low.

I wrote on Saturday night that no matter what happened in the final round, Sunday was already a gift. And despite a relatively boring round until the final 15 minutes, that’s still absolutely the case. Tiger started the final round of a real PGA Tour event just one shot off the lead and playing in the second-to-last tee time. Even with losing an hour to spring forward, the Sunday morning wait until his 1:50 p.m. tee time was unlike any feeling we’ve had on Tour in years. It felt like a major but it was just the dang Valspar Championship.

This week, we got Tiger in the solo lead on Friday, a hole-out chip shot on Saturday on the way to another run to another lead, and that moment on the 17th green late on Sunday. What we’re watching is still unreal and don’t let a cynic (often me!) tell you otherwise. This should not be happening so soon in his comeback. This comeback happening at all is an improbability on its own based on everything that’s happened over the past five years.

We’ve seen hype and anticipation for Tiger comebacks in the past but he’s shown us now over the first two months of the season, and especially during this Florida swing, that this one is different. The clubhead speed is among the fastest on the PGA Tour, which should not be possible at 42-years-old with a fused back. His irons are as sharp again and his short game has repeatedly saved him.

Sunday’s round sputtered at times, but that the show even existed was a success on its own. We know now, without getting carried away in the typical hyperbole surrounding Tiger-mania, that Woods can contend again and he can win again, maybe as soon as this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. Or maybe in a month’s time at the Masters.

Here are your final results from the Valspar Championship: