By: Will Schiffman ’19

Tiger Woods is finally back.

After 1,876 days Tiger Woods is finally a PGA tournament champion once again. Woods won the 2018 Tour Championship on Sunday beating the 30 best golfers in the world. Some golf experts and many avid golf fans never thought that Tiger could come back and win a tournament due to three back surgeries, one back fusion and an arrest for driving under the influence in Jupiter, Florida.

Woods has shown signs of his comeback as of late, finishing second behind Brooks Koepka in the PGA Championship. In the Open Championship, the British Open, he finished only a few strokes behind the lead, finishing in sixth place. Woods proved that he could still swing the club, but he was having trouble putting together four good rounds in a tournament.

With these top finishes in majors and recent playoff events, Woods came into this event in the 20th spot in the playoffs. The Tour Championship is the last tournament in the FedEx Cup Playoffs where there are only 30 golfers left. The playoffs consist of four tournaments including the Dell Technologies Tournament, in Norton, Massachusetts. Each week players are eliminated based on the points they have that are accumulated throughout the entire season. The player who has the most points from the entire season and the playoffs is crowned FedEx Cup and awarded ten million dollars.

Woods started off the tournament at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta, Georgia with a round of 65, five strokes under par. On Friday he came back with another great round, shooting three strokes under par on the par 70 course. To start off the weekend Woods shot another round of 65. Tiger went into the final round with his signature “Sunday Red” shirt and a three-stroke lead, and when Tiger Woods has a lead going into Sunday it is very rare that you see him give it up. Even though he shot a round of 71 he was still able to win the tournament by two strokes.

Woods even came close to winning the entire FedEx Cup Playoffs, coming just one shot short of Justin Rose. After being so far back from the top of the Playoff leaderboard, Woods finished in second place after the Tour Championship.

Not only is Tiger Woods back, I believe that the sport of golf is back as well. When Woods is playing well, the tournaments sell out. People who do not watch golf regularly tune in to see Woods play. The economy even improves when Woods is playing well because people want to play more golf or go out to bars and watch Woods win. When I was at the Dell Technologies Tournament this summer everyone wanted to see tiger hit a shot, even if it meant standing in crowds seven people deep. You could tell when Woods was coming because you could hear the roars or see a sea of people in red shirts running in the hundreds to the next hole.

Some people may argue that after last week’s disappointing Ryder Cup finish that Woods might not be back. For the first time in a Ryder Cup Woods did not win a single match, going 0-4 against a dominant Europe team. But Woods had to face Tommy Fleetwood, Francesco Molinari, and Jon Rahm who were absolutely lights out. But these Europeans knew this course better and all had more experience at Le Golf National, in Paris, France, than the Americans had.

But watching Tiger Woods walk up the 72 hole at the Tour Championship was truly incredible. The gallery of fans started to walk behind Tiger as he made his way up to the green, knowing that he had won the tournament. Even my mom who describes herself as a Tiger opposer thought that seeing Woods win was remarkable.

Tiger Woods is one of the best golfers that has ever played the game of golf, now with 80 PGA tour wins and 14 major championships, just four behind the great Jack Nicklaus. This is one of the best comebacks in sports history and I can’t wait to see how Tiger Woods will finish off his amazing career, continuing next year.