Staff Writer
After a five year drought, Tiger Woods is back on top of the PGA tour. On Sept. 23, at East Lake Golf Club in Georgia, Tiger Woods did the impossible and won the Tour Championship. Tiger shot 65, 68, 65, and 71 through the four day span. This win earned Tiger $1.62 million and 2,000 FedEx Cup points. Woods had a flawless round on Saturday, scoring birdies on six of his first seven holes. Finishing in second and third place of the tournament was Billy Horschel and Dustin Johnson.
This dominating victory from Tiger Woods came as a shock to the golf community because many believed Tiger would never play professional golf again, let alone win another tournament after all his back troubles. In the past, the world witnessed a spiral of unfortunate events with Tiger`s father passing away in 2006 and his divorce in 2010 all mixed in with reoccurring back injuries. Tiger Woods began to stumble away from golf. Suddenly he was not as dominant and so slowly disappeared from the golf world. But as many doubted and looked upon with uncertainty, Tiger proved them all wrong and made his way back slowly but surely.
This 80th win now puts Woods only two back from the most wins of all time. Tiger is second to Sam Snead who has 82 wins. Tiger with 80 is now 17 ahead of Jack Nicklaus with 63 wins. After his monumental victory, Tiger exclaimed, “I've been sitting on 79 for about five years now and to get 80, it's a pretty damn good feeling.” But this win did not come completely out of the blue. This year has been what many would call a “comeback year” for Tiger. He has come very close to winning other tournaments this year but could never seem to finish the job when he needed to. Woods had seven other top ten finishes this year, including a second place finish at the Valspar Championship. This excitement around Tiger is real as NBC Sports Group’s final round of the Tour Championship earned a 5.21 overnight rating. This made it the highest-rated PGA Tour telecast of 2018 (excluding majors). There is a new excitement around golf for those who have watched and played the game for years and those who have not. Everyone wants to be a part of Tiger Woods making history. As we continue to analyze and follow Tiger it will become interesting to see if he can get to 83 wins and break the record for most wins in PGA history. Although, with 80 wins, only 14 of those are major tournaments that he has won.
This year in golf has had mixed results with many of the previous years favorites such as Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, and Rory Mcllroy who all went without a major victory in 2018. There has not been a clear front runner to a lot of the tournaments in golf and sometimes that can leave fans confused as to who to root for and who to focus on. But with the return of Tiger this year, all of that has changed. Countless people come together at each golf tournament and follow, watch, and root for Tiger Woods. He is back at the center of the stage for mainstream golf. Tiger has not only broken barriers that almost everyone was skeptical of happening, but also created a stronger a community of previous and new fans of golf. This 80th win is one of the greatest comebacks of all time in the history of sports and will not be forgotten for years to come.
