Matsuyama Wins and Tiger Is Back

Matsuyama Wins and Tiger Is Back December 5, 2016

HidekiMatsuyamaYesterday, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan won the limited-field Hero World Challenge golf tournament by two strokes over Henrik Stenson of Sweden at the Albany Golf Club in Nassau, Bahamas. Matsuyama is on a roll, since it was his fourth win in his last five tournaments he has entered. He is now the most likely player in the world to win a major golf championship who has so far not won one. But then, he’s only 24 years old.

The main story was that Tiger Woods–after 466 days of no tournament golf due to injuries and surgeries–is back. He finished fifteenth in the elite field of seventeen players, but his performance looked better than that. He started his first three rounds with many birdies and thereafter made a bundle of “silly mistakes” as he called it. Surely that’s due mostly to not having performed in competition for so long. He shot 73, 65, 70, and finished badly with a 76.

TigerWoodsIt’s hard to come back after such a long layoff. It is tough to get your confidence back and feel like you belong. At forty years of age, and about to turn forty-one, Tiger Woods has had four surgeries on the same left knee over a period of several years now three surgeries on his low back during the past 1.5 years. But he says his body is feeling fine and he’s ready to get after it.

Yet Tiger may not play again until the Farmers Insurance Open in January at one of his favorite venues–Torrey Pines north of San Diego. That’s where he won the U.S. Open in 201o, his last of fourteen major championships. That was such a memorable tournament, watching Tiger hobbling around the course with his bad left knee. As he said after the tournament, he was practically playing on one leg.

It’s good to see the Tiger back. He’s still got his mojo. He said in a TV interview after his last round yesterday that he intends to still try to catch Jack Nicklaus’ record of eighteen major wins. That will really be a tough hill to climb. More power to you, Tiger.


Browse Our Archives