After 268 Sunday, Tiger Woods is finally back

By Chuck Culpepper

ATLANTA – One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six days later, not to mention the 268 Sundays hidden here, he went out by the rope chute at a quarter to six. Sunday and turned left until the eighteenth tee, and it seemed almost old. His facial muscles remained as still as ever, even through a hoarse patch of fans chanting "U.S.A. United States! He grabbed a towel.

Soon, Tiger Woods would have blown up a record that would have told a spectator: "Pure," and it took off Sunday at the 18th hole of the East Lake Golf Course, this former Bobby Jones harbor, and the scene that broke out behind him. Rory McIlroy, his gaming partner, should be considered important even in an incredibly rich sport. Crowds of fans swept under the ropes and behind him, a spectacle that was expected at a British Open and not a Sunday in September in Atlanta, and they managed to build a great irresistible torrent. He strove to throw the tear ducts.

The man once so intricately associated with the victory once again won the Tour Championship with two shots over Billy Horschel, which caused inconvenience to Woods. Woods won more than five years after winning the 2013 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational with seven shots to win a fifth PGA Tour victory over a fantastic season that seemed both boring. He won after completing his four left knee surgeries with four back surgery surgeries between 2014 and 2017, the latest in April 2017 from a spinal fusion work that seems a feat.

"You know, I explained throughout the year that I did not know if – when that would happen again," Woods said. "If I could recreate a swing this year, I felt I could do it. My hands are pretty good and I did not know if I could recreate a golf swing.

"But one way or another, I've been able to do that, and here we are."

"It's huge," said Justin Rose, adding, "The return is real."

That return has consolidated at the top of the leader board next to a score of 11 under par, even after a par 1 by 71 on a grinding Sunday. He won even though he dropped three-fifths of the head five shots that he led a good part of the day, a gaping lead so that he seemed to have finished with a spoon of wood and a spatula. He won even though he did not quite win the FedEx Cup, the four tournament tournament that Rose won.

He won, and when he won, an 82-79 history of historic history stuck at 82-80, the former Sam Snead's record on the PGA Tour titles, the latter measures the Woods pursuit. "I've been sitting on 79 for about five years now," he said, "and being 80 is a good feeling."

He won, and as he won, he seemed to do something deep within those spectators.

The roars swept the place into a storm, sometimes almost the Southeast Conference in their sound. Spectators packed three, four and ten depths into the ropes, their t-shirts bearing slogans such as "The Return" and "He's back" and "If everyone can," plus the famous "Do it Sunday again. Woods' final win took place before the Georgia – filled galleries (Bulldogs), Auburn, Alabama, Clemson, Atlanta Braves and Masters, before the kids in. jerseys of Julio Jones. Horizon after horizon around the course has proven compelling by the depth and depth of the feel. People wanted to see part of the history of golf, but they also seemed to understand, on the one hand, the value of the fight.

"Probably the weak point was not knowing if I could live again without pain," Woods said later. "Will I be able to sit, get up, walk, lie down without feeling the pain I felt?" I did not want to live like that. That's how the rest of my life is going to be? It will be a hard life of rest. And so – I was beyond playing. I could not sit down I could not walk. I could not go to bed without feeling the pain in my back and leg. It was a low point for a very long time. "

He always accurately describes himself as "42 years old with a fused lower spine".

"You know," said veteran Horschel, "Rory and I discussed it a little yesterday. He never lost his game. His game was gone because of injuries. It was not like he was a healthy guy and he had lost it mentally and just could not understand how to play golf. There are many guys in the history of golf who have won events and then the game is struggling and they are disappearing. It's not for health reasons; they just lose their part. But he just had wounds and everything and a lot of things to deal with. "

While playing a course on which he had won one of his previous two Tour Championship titles, he enjoyed fighting and fighting even though he did not savor "where I kept going". He had spent the week playing what he called "very conservative" golf, aimed at "making sure I throw the ball 30 to 40 feet from the hole and I'm confident I'm late", while still being recorded 65-68-65. While Sunday was almost a back for Woods, without suspense without being useless, his bugs at numbers 15 and 16 were completed with the closing birdie of Horschel to eliminate 60% of the head of five shots. That would become drastically different from his Saturday's 65 which included an opening – 3-3-3-3-3-4-3, with six birdies in the first seven holes – which he said "Good God".

Then there was a sudden stop at par-4 # 17, which Woods would have described as "much bigger than people think". Then he appeared in the kind of # 18 to which he was wondering if he would ever see one again, after a six year period with six top 10 finishes and two seconds but nothing like that, then that deluge. humanity in its human posture of the 21st century: elevated phone cameras. ("I guess it's different now because the art of hitting is gone," Woods said. "You can not clap when you have a cell phone in your hands.") But. . .