Tour recap
There was literally no break between the 2017 and 2018 season on the European tour as the players took a flight straight from Dubai to Hong Kong where Australia’s Wade Ormsby won his first European Tour title on his the 264th attempt, after a nerve-wracking finish, he carded a final round of 68 at Fanling to finish 11 under par, a shot ahead of a strong chasing pack, including Tommy Fleetwood.
Tiger's back...hopefully
As you will all probably know, Tiger is back this week playing his first tournament since withdrawing from the Dubai Desert Classic in February of this year. Apart from, by his standards, an average to good season in 2013, we really haven't seen much of the Tiger of old on the course this decade.
It's a massive shame that, mostly due to his own shortcomings, Tiger hasn't been at the forefront of golf for a while. To think that in 2008 he was arguably playing the best golf he'd ever played in his life, having played 6 tournaments and won 4 (75% win rate), including the US Open on one leg, with his other two finishes being 2nd place at The Masters and 5th at the WGC-CA. Since then Tiger hasn't been back to his old self, mainly due to his scandal and numerous injuries, and it's obvious now that golf would love him back.
The questions remains - Is the Tiger Woods of old coming back, at least in some way? It's hard to tell, even if he is swinging comfortably and remains injury free he needs to find his shortgame and putting. His shortgame has been questionable his last few outings (some even said he had the yips) and his putting has been degrading for a while now (his former coach Hank Haney made this claim in his book, and it's hard to disagree looking at some of his major performances since 2005).
I certainly hope the real Tiger comes back, what a lovely golden age of golf it would be to watch him going head to head with the new crop of world class golfers on a Sunday. Time will tell and I'm sure many of you will be watching him this weekend. |