Golf: Woods about to make a comeback: somewhat stiffer, but finally painless

Tiger Woods is about to make his next comeback. The golf superstar, who was chronically injured at the back, will return to the tee-off on Thursday for the first time since February.

The arrest of Tiger Woods after driving under the influence of medication is a thing of the past, and the thoughts of a career end have been forgotten: When Tiger Woods returns to the tee for the first time since the beginning of February on Thursday in Albany on the Bahamas at 12:05 local time, the golf superstar starts at zero.

Number 1199 in the world rankings. As a convalescent. But most of all relieved.”It was a battle that lasted for years. Getting out with a happy ending is exciting,”said the old and new hopefuls of the industry.

Only a few people had believed that he would ever get into such a situation again. The tiger seemed to be finished. In April he had been operated on his back for the fourth time, a month later a police patrol found him asleep in the car on the side of the road, pumped up with a medication cocktail.

Woods got off lightly in October with a suspended sentence and the promise to start therapy.

Germany’s golfing icon Bernhard Langer had also already lost faith in the former “saviour”:”I believe that Tiger Woods as a golfer will never return to where he once was. He was too long away from his former level,”the 60-year-old had explained.

Woods himself sometimes didn’t know what to do next. The view of the future was grim:”I don’t know what the future holds,”he explained helplessly in September. According to Woods, even the career end is “absolutely possible”.

The only thing that kept him going was the hope of making it back to the fairways and greens somehow. And gradually improvement began to take place. In mid-October, the 41-year-old caused some excitement when he posted a short video. I’m making progress,”announced Woods to the Golf community, who was immediately enraptured.

The fourth surgery has apparently shown the effect Woods had been waiting for for years. He feels a little stiffer in the back, but more importantly, the pain is finally gone. He has adapted his swing from the textbook to the new conditions:”Whether my swing now looks classic or unorthodox, I don’t care. As long as I’m not in pain,”said Woods.

Observers, including US President Donald Trump and World Ranking leader Dustin Johnson, were surprised to see that Woods and Johnson did not lose any of their stroke length in a four-ball competition last week,”Woods and Johnson were five times longer in each of the ten holes where they used drivers,”said former tour player Bradon. Dustin Johnson is one of the longhitters on the US tour.

Now lay-length doesn’t mean success at the same time, but Faxon was also impressed by the tiger’s short game. For Woods it’s all about “finding my rhythm, after all, I haven’t played much in the last two years. He was last seen on 3. Febuary in Dubai, but gave up before the second round.

Only in December of last year he had also made his comeback in the Bahamas after a 15-month break. It was a return with light and shadow, but without pain. That’s how it should be from Thursday.