Tiger Woods did not need a win to validate this comeback. But he had one anyway.

The final putt of Tiger Woods to win the Tour Championship had not even entered Sunday night and we were already doing it. As we are in 2018, we had to attach a label to victory. So, this victory achieved the "greatest return ever seen" in golf, or sometimes it was all sports, or "probably" the biggest return or perhaps the second biggest return to golf.

This is a label that can not be clearly defined or measured. We are sticking to golf for the moment, where the other option for this subjective title is Ben Hogan, who was, Hit by a bus and slowly rehabilitated his destroyed body to return and win six more majors in the 1950s. Hogan and Tiger are probably your candidates if you want to fight with someone on social networks. You will probably find many allies on the Tiger side, since it is the immediate reason why we are talking about it here.

Tiger, who won an 80th event on the PGA Tour, seemed so distant, so unlikely as nine months ago, that his return on this point is certainly one of the big returns that you will see. But we will take a break to talk about the story. Put the sort aside for a moment and enjoy the victory in the context of Tiger's past, where he is now and where he could go.

The past

There was a moment in the career of Tiger Woods, while the victory in the Tour Championship would hardly be a success. It was not there 10 or 15 years ago, but it was just five years ago. Tiger did everything in the game and when you have won so much, you have strangely less to win than the biggest stakes. If a basketball or high-level football program wins its division or a regular season title, the answer is "what they are supposed to do".

Tiger has reached a place in his career where almost all the weight has been put on the race at his major league tables. He was supposed to win at Firestone and Doral and Bay Hill and all those "regular" stops on the PGA circuit that he had owned for 15 years. It has come to the point that winning again at one of these places has almost raised more questions about the value of this win and why it was not happening at a major also.

It was crazy. Winning on the PGA Tour, regardless of the tournament, is extremely difficult. Tiger's dominance has distorted the standards for himself and he will never be able to quiet down quietly in the twilight of his career, the moment when one would naturally win fewer majors than at the peak of his career. So when Tiger won, he also came up with the question "but what did he win? That no other player would have to answer.

He subsequently underwent four back surgeries, rips, bad golf, another public separation, impaired driving, identity photos, re-education, nudes, and a series of failed short return attempts. duration. Many of these problems have self-inflicted, but this year was not a simple return from injury and surgery. There was so much more than Tiger still won so improbably.

There was the pain of simply going through life with his deteriorating back. At various times, it is difficult to walk, stand, sit and lie down. Swinging a golf club is not really an idea, especially when you are standing on the floor in your yard looking for help. A person living in Life Alert advertising does not really think about the shot to throw the first tee at Augusta.

There was the embarrassment of having trouble making the most basic golf shots and resembling a high breath as the cameras followed each of his movements. There is no surgery to repair the yips.

There was the shame of the DUI, which seemed to be the final touch of its hasty fall that was becoming more and more ignominious in the month.

There was the addiction, the health problem that we rarely consider when it comes to back surgery. We could see him slamming and struggling when his back was not right, but the effects of his problem with painkillers were much less noticeable. Tiger has not been slow to quote back pain and surgeries, but never returns from a health problem for which he asked for a "cure" last summer.

Pain and embarrassment, shame and addiction, and that was all since her last victory in 2013. We are not even in the crash of the 2009 standpipes and the effects she had. Again, a lot of things have self-inflicted. But this return is more than a return of a torn ACL. A combination of physical and mental scars makes it unlikely that he has played competitive golf again. That's how we arrived at this time when winning non-major events had no value in evaluating his career so far, while winning a championship is one of the best achievements of her career.

"It's certainly where there are obviously all the major leagues I've won," Woods said Sunday night. "But it's under different circumstances. You know, I explained throughout the year that I did not know if it would happen again. "

Five years of humiliation and injury can make Sunday's Tour Championship, often asleep, the most triumphant victory of a historic career.

The present

The context of the past five years has made Sunday's win in Atlanta unlikely. But in the context of the past five months, this should not have been a surprise.

That's why the whole return season is so incomprehensible. Tiger not only got hot with his putter for a day and nibbled gains with smoke and mirrors before disappearing again with mediocre play. A win seemed like a natural end for a player who has been one of the best in the world in recent months.

No matter what the world rankings say, and they now have Tiger in 13th place after starting his comeback last November at 666, Woods is one of the best players in the world. He plays as one of the 5 best players in the world. He finished the PGA Tour's No. 1 season by winning strokes on the approach to the green. N ° 1! That means he's back to being the best ball player in the game, which has made him the best player in the world.

In Atlanta, he combined that shot with the second best week of fielding and his best week of driving at this event. This return was already a massive success. The victory was only the formal affirmation of this victory and gave us a reason to celebrate it with unforgettable scenes like this one.

L & # 39; s future

Tiger is doing his own thing, the greatest golfing spirit of all time just training. He seems quite comfortable in the swing that he "restored", as he said Sunday night. This golf spirit also includes how, at age 42, it's easier to get around a golf course than anyone else in the game, especially any young talent that's out there.

He seems happy too. It is always precarious to enter the Tiger psychoanalysis based on limited interactions and the public figure he decides to show. He certainly seems happier with his peers, the press and the public. He seems grateful to be here and his colleagues seem to be grateful to see him again. He has been different all season, what he continues to call "gift" and an opportunity he never imagined.

Now, Jack Nicklaus has resumed the usual routine and said that his main file was not safe. This return could always fade with a swing that pushes him to the ground, but the game of Tiger is complete again and it is exciting to think of the possibilities available to us.

We started the season just happy to see Tiger try again to play competitive golf. Then we saw shots that we never thought we would see. Then we saw it go beyond competitive golf and at the golf competition, even at two major championships. No matter what happens next or how you want to settle it, this year back, which Tiger propelled appropriately with a win on the last day of the season, is one of the best performances of the season. history of sport.