SportsFullCircle

Once again, Tiger and amazing in the same sentence. No people not Tony the Tiger, but Tiger Woods, and like never before he is leaving many of us saying “Is this guy for real?”.

Tiger Woods came back to the tee today and brought a parade equipped with a Macy’s day float and the whole shibang. Walking to the tee he was greeted by fans and spectators with the chants of “Welcome Back”. The guy has been known to fight the outrageous opposition, but coming back from a stress fracture after sitting out for 254 days is an accomplishment that many have overcome but not in the fashion that Tiger brought to the green on Wednesday.

After the first hole he shot a birdie, following an eagle and there was no looking back after that. Woods proved to be relentless and the injury didn’t seem to make a dent in the varnish of his success. Looking at the 16 holes he shot today, you would never expect he is coming off a stress fracture and what doctors and patients call alike a grieving and arguably one of the worst recoveries to withstand when playing a sport such as golf.

The last time Woods laid a foot on the competition he crushed it, winning his 65th PGA Tour Title and his 14th Major, at the US Open in June. Although the opponents that he battled it out with today were no superhero’s they still pulled there weight. Pulling in 400,000 tickets meant the world to the PGA. Unknown to many people who DO NOT watch golf, it’s a sponsor run sport and if you can get 300,000+ to an event such as this its an amazement and you will take the paper. On Tuesday Woods made his first public appearance in his practice and pulled in many fans from around the area to see him work his magic on the lawn.
Now to take this into perspective a little bit. Not everything is seen by the naked eye and with saying that neither is this little situation that we have on our hands or I should say what the PGA is and has banked on in the past. Tigers’ wake from his “slumber” struck in  many fans and the sponsorships will be through the roof now that he is back. I already saw a commercial as of late that showed the professional golfers such as Stewart Cink, Trevor Immelman, Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard and Carl Petterssen. During the commercial we see the golfers and there basically highlight reel of 2008.…. The part of 2008 in which Tiger was on bed rest sipping tee and looking at his fine collection trophies that he has collected over the years….(My guess is that he has a whole house for his accomplishments, but what do I know I watch football, the Lombardi trophy is the only piece of silverware I take into consideration). When the reel is finished and the players are in the locker room looking peachy and have a chat like a bunch of middle age house wife’s playing poker, Tiger walks in and rains on there parade. Although the Titans of golf still kiss the feet of “The Tiger” he still has his flaws.

The reconstructive surgery to his knee was the knee in which he puts his weight on, anyone that either took physics or plays/played golf at one point in time knows that even though he looks fine now, wear and tear will get to the phenom eventually. The reconstructive surgery is tough to overcome as it is and I am not taking any thunder away from the Tiger, but give it time. People are jumping on the Woods train again and its very unlikely that anyone stopped off that train while he was gone, people who still watch golf focus on the PGA and if Tiger isn’t on the golf course less people will be watching the Golf Channel.

Its great that the guy is back and in action but after about 180 days of playing golf we will see how the “Invulnerable” handles the situation.