Tiger Woods returns to golf at Bay Hill on Thursday for his final appearance before the Masters after spending a week at the dentist.
What, it wasn’t like pulling teeth as Woods forced a smile while late night host Jimmy Fallon made fun of him on national television?
Know this about Woods: he’s proud - often to the point of hubris - and doesn’t ROFLMAO at the decimation of his life, even if it was by his own hand.
It’s still very much a raw nerve but he knows he’s got obligations to promote his new video game and thus was a good sport - laughing at least on the outside - and even Tweeting about the experience in a self-deprecating manner.
“First win of the year, unfortunately it was against @jimmyfallon,” he wrote.
On the subject of raw nerves … Woods hasn’t won since November, 2009, when they threw that garish jacket that looks like one big mustard stain over his shoulders for winning the Australian Masters.
Since before the infamous Thanksgiving night crash.
Closing in on 500 days.
Not only hasn’t he been winning, but he’s not contending, either.
Two weeks ago at Doral, Woods snapped a career-worst streak of nine straight fnishes outside the top 10, dating back to last year’s US Open at Pebble Beach.
This from a player who went 11 straight tournaments, from late 2007 to mid-2008 without finishing outside the top ten.
By the way, he won eight of those tournaments, which serves to remind us that, no matter how good the current crop of golfers is, there isn’t a Tiger Woods among them.
Because no one in golf today is going to win eight of 11 starts.
Not even, ironically, Woods.
But he’d sure be happy to take one and see where it goes from there.
And the good news for him is that he’s playing the Bay Hill Invitational, a tournament that’s always been good to him.
Woods has won at Arnold Palmer’s place six times. Three of those victories came dramatically, with long putts holed on the final green.
But none of them was more important than his last, two years ago, when the then world No. 1 arrived -- just as he is now -- needing to prove a point.
At the time, he was coming off major knee reconstruction surgery that some thought would rob him of the dynamism that had been a cornerstone of his dominance.
He’d heard the talk that he might not again be the same player and, as is his wont, used the doubters as motivation. (Like Michael Jordan, the bulletin board in his head is forever looking for new material.)
In 2009, Woods got his wish.
It wasn’t just that he’d won, it was the way in which he won that mattered: theatrically sinking an 18-foot birdie putt in the fading light after overcoming Sean O’Hair’s five-stroke final-round lead.
It was as if Woods was saying that the natural order of things had been restored. His confidence buoyed, he went on to win five more times in 2009.
Can Bay Hill provide the backdrop for yet another Tiger comeback?
He seems to think so, given how much he was reading into his final round 66 at Doral.
But there have been false dawns before for Woods since he took up with Canadian swing coach Sean Foley.
The promise of a first-round 65 at The Barclays -- only his second tournament with Foley -- last fall was quickly derailed by errant shots and missed putts.
The virtuoso nine-under par through 15 holes performance in the Ryder Cup singles didn’t carry through to his next event, the HSBC Champions in China.
The impressive opening three rounds at the Chevron World Challenge were torpedoed by a final round 73, leading to a playoff loss to Graeme McDowell, just as the opening 27 holes at Torrey Pines -- he was seven-under par and stalking the lead -- were sabotaged by the final 45.
At Doral, Woods’ old coach, Butch Harmon, said he’d be closely watching what Woods did at the Tavistock Cup. Harmon reasoned that it wouldn’t get any easier for Woods than a friendly atmosphere on his home course in Orlando.
Woods shot 69 in the individual portion of made-for-television event. It was, as it’s been for him for a while, a mixed bag.
He didn’t birdie any of the par fives, which might be a record, but he finished well, a good drive and beautifully carved long iron that landed softly to set up a birdie on the demanding 18th.
Woods seemed very pleased with himself afterward. As he did during the final round at Doral, he’d hit a handful of excellent iron shots that may be the key to his recovery.
“Tiger’s confidence has always come from his ball-striking,” said his estranged coach, Hank Haney in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.
“He can't feel confident unless his ball striking is in order.”
This is an interesting observation from Haney because what’s really let Woods down during the past year has been his short game. Yet Haney believes that’s because Woods has been so preoccupied with his long game.
“Eventually everyone gets to the stage where they don't want to have to get it up and down from everywhere just to make a score -- that's hard work -- and you just want to hit decent shots,” he said.
“That's the road every golfer travels.
“Tiger's confidence in his ball striking is probably so low he is spending all of his time on that aspect of the game. So his short game -- which could be saving him right now -- is most likely being neglected to some extent.”
That neglect has come at a great cost, especially when factoring in the bigger picture.
In an interview with a Tampa newspaper at the weekend, NBC analyst Johnny Miller said that Woods’ aura has been diminished because he’s not making the clutch putts that have come to define him.
“That's been the big difference,” he said, “He would always do whatever it took to beat you, and you knew that. You would be tied with Tiger on Sunday and you would think, "He's probably going to make a putt to beat me at some point, and the odds of me winning are one in a thousand.’
“Now players don't feel that way. Tiger not being like Tiger gives them hope.”
Hunter Mahan, one of several players coached by Foley, thinks Woods isn‘t as depressed at his poor finishes as most would believe.
“He doesn't really care about (finishes) because he knows the long-term success is going to be there,” he said.
“Mentally, that's tough to do, because that's a lot of criticism from a lot of people.
“But he doesn't care. He believes in it and he's going to grind his way at it. It's impressive.”
Mahan, who's played a lot of practice rounds with Woods, doesn‘t think the world No. 1 is a spent force.
“He just has to kind of find his groove again.”
For Woods, there might not be a better place than Bay Hill to find that groove.
