Be Honest! Did you think it would happen?

[Jeff Schley]

Tiger wins the Tour Championship. I know this isn't a major although, he did fairly well this year by anyone other than his standards in those as well.  But I have to believe next year will see him as a major factor.
I did think he would win again and I think he will win another major again, because he is a great iron player and can make clutch putts.  The only question in my mind has been his health.  If he stays healthy (not a given) I always thought he could and will win another major.
Did you think he would win again?  Much less the Tour Championship and 1 Justin Rose putt away from the FedEx Cup?

[Jeff Evagues]

I did not.

[JESII]

I thought he’d get to where he could win at one of his haunts like Bay Hill or Firestone. I never thought he’d get near the level he is...which is the best player in the world.

[Tommy Williamsen]

You could never count him out. He has one of the strongest minds and a will of iron. If he stayed healthy I thought he would win again.

[jeffwarne]

In December all the hosts at Sirius XM were asked to give predictions for all Majors, plus The Fedex Cup and Player of the year.
Expecting a slow start....

I picked Tiger to win the PGA
The FedEx Cup
and Player of the year
https://twitter.com/McLeanGolf/status/1042921865293979649


I was openly ridiculed.......


and thanks to an incredible shot by Justin Rose, I was 0 for three.....but really only two shots out (in the PGA) of nailing all three predictions as a PGA win would've provided the points to secure the other two.


What an event..
Tiger has finally brought his range tempo to not only the competition, but through the final round

and they want to change the format?

[JESII]

In next years format Tiger would have had that 8 footer to win the season long thing also

[Peter Pallotta]

Yes, about half way through his 2018 season I did think it would happen.
It was clear that he could compete with the best in the world, and on the biggest stages in golf.
But it was only today that I remembered: "Oh yeah, they *aren't* the best in the world - Tiger is. It's just that he was *away* for a little while".
Peter 

[Jay Mickle]

His competiveness and and ability to focus like few others in any sport made me believe that if his body cooperated he would be a winner again. Great for golf.

[Jeff Evagues]

How about the Ryder Cup team:  Koepka +4  Reed +9  Watson  +10  Mickleson  +13.

[PCCraig]

Yep.


Where is Shivas or whatever the hell he's going by when you need him?

[Pete_Pittock]

Yes, he had shown constant improvement and is long enough to remain competitive. He remains a fan favorite. I think he has rehabilitated himself, just as the swing has been rehabbed. Just don't get another swing coach. He will win majors, but the down time will have him fall short of the major record.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I voted back in January that Tiger would get 1 win, 0 majors. I was right in the last event of the year.

Next year I voted 2-3 and 1. I'm not sure at all of the 1, but I'm feeling pretty good about the 2-3. Three gets him past Snead, now, too.

[mike_malone]

I never lost faith as it seemed he was moving away from his father’s ways and towards his mother’s.

[Keith Phillips]

At a February bachelor party in New Orleans the boys were debating career sports accomplishments ad nauseum...and the question arose 'will Tiger catch Jack?'  The popular answers were 'Tiger will never win again' and 'there are too many young guns these days', at which point I - perhaps affected by copious quantities of alcohol - suggested the contrarian view that Tiger would not only catch Jack (my idol) but would in fact win 6 more majors!  It was a shock and awe moment and I'm standing by it - there is no better bet than Tiger, and if he gets his mojo back look out, he will run all over the young'uns.

[Ira Fishman]

Even Mr. Hogan is smiling.


Ira

[Ash Towe]

No.


I cannot believe how successful his recovery has been from fusion surgery. He must have been incredibly diligent in his rehabilitation.

[Pat Burke]

When he first turned professional, I was lucky enough to be playing.
He had that “sound”with his irons, but seemed pretty loose with wedges.
A year later he was among the best with those clubs.
Many stories from Isleworth about him playing with the older guys and seeing them hit a shot that caught his attention, and how hard he would work to elearn that shot and hit it perfectly.


In his recent comeback, his entire short game, putting and driving were suspect early on, and each time the weakness got him in a tournament, he seemed to go home, figure it out and put another piece together.


He was so far ahead of everybody when I was playing, that I certainly believed even if he lost a bit, he was so far ahead before that a slightly diminished Tiger would still be winning.


If he stays healthy, it should be fun imo

[Ben Stephens]

Yes


I thought it would be at East Lake as he likes the course and had a scoring average of 67.96 before going into this year's Tour Championship.


I have to say East Lake's greens were the second best behind Augusta of all of the courses played on the PGA Tour this year. Is there a link between high quality greens and being in Georgia? they were an absolute peach!


Rory was rather disappointing and quite naive tactically hopefully he has learned from Tiger on how to manage the way round an old fashioned classic course.

[Steve Kline]

I am a huge Tiger fan.


All the way until the tournament in Tampa, I was in the camp that he would never win again. Too much emotional damage that seemed to have crept into his putting and chipping plus the physical state of his body.


After seeing him in Tampa, I was convinced he would win again. I am not surprised he won the Tour championship. He has gotten better each week as someone above mentioned.


Now that he has gotten the emotion of winning out of the way (and not was he emotional yesterday) he has going to start kicking butt. Further he will win majorS again. He will win at least one next year.


These young guys are about to get a taste of what all the old guys have been dealing with for a couple of decades.


On a related note, I was surprised at how terribly everyone else seemed to play yesterday.

[Sean_A]

Well, I thought Tiger could win (including a major) because I was never going to count him out. Watching Tiger play here and there this year has convinced me that Tiger could even win a major at an older age than Jack was...thats 46.  Why, because what I see from the game's best in the past few years is a very inconsistent lot and Tiger seems to be getting smarter in how to takes care of himself. 

Ciao 

[Thomas Dai]

I don’t think I ever really thought this was likely to occur.
To recover from his injuries in this manner is remarkable. Personal circumstances too. A tribute to modern medicine and patient rehab too. Many folk in such a situation without his strength of character would have likely given up any semblance of playing serious golf again, maybe even the game completely, just dropped quietly off the scene.
Watching his play on TV last night reminded me very much of Jack Nicklaus circa Jacks mid 30’s-early 40’s, ie playing intelligently within himself and letting the others play more ‘gamble golf’.
Brain over brawn golf. A lesson this week perhaps for many of the young bucks who have done well in Tigers absence from the top of the leaderboard.
Atb

[Tom Birkert]

Yes, absolutely - with one caveat - that he was healthy. If he's healthy, he's still the best out there.


What I never understood was people saying that this or that can't be done based on conventional wisdom. This is the greatest golfer to ever swing a club. He won 46 times in his 20s - the next best is 30 (Jack). That's a crazy difference. Conventional metrics / comparisons simply don't apply.


Now we're hearing it again. He can't get to 19, he can't do this, no one has won this many Majors over a certain age etc. Newsflash. This is Tiger Woods. He's not like anyone else. He's always done things others thought impossible, and obliterated any records. So why shouldn't he continue to do this? Be the oldest to win a Major, win more Majors than anyone else has after the age of 40.


Assuming he is healthy, which he currently is, then I take him to get to 19+ and 100+. If Vijay Singh can win 22 times in his 40s on the Tour, then Tiger can.


He's the greatest iron player ever, and the players he beat were easily as good (if not better) than the current crop out there. As Duval said earlier in the year in response to all these guys saying they want to go up against Tiger at his best, "the hell they do". He will wipe the floor with them, just like he did with Ernie, Phil etc.


The frightening thing is that this swing is still a work in progress. The iron play is simply fabulous, and the more he plays the better he is going to get. I thought he would win this year, and next year I think it's 4+ wins including a Major.

[ChipRoyce]

Nope, Nada, Zilch
Knew somebody who is close to Sean Foley who had told me a few year's ago that Tiger himself had given in to the cumulative injuries (knee, back, etc...) and was likely to become a ceremonial golfer at best.
I'm not the biggest Tiger fan, but give him so much credit for a what he's accomplished.

[Niall C]

Yes. I thought he'd win at least one tour event but probably not a major. Well done to him but he's a million miles away from the pre-crash Tiger when he did his 4,000 mile stare routine and Phil, Ernie etc all collapsed like a bunch of faulty deckchairs.

Molinari didn't go away in the final round of the Open this year when Tiger made his move. That's the new reality for Tiger. A lot of these (relatively) young guns haven't been beaten into submission.

Niall

[Mike Sweeney]

When he first turned professional, I was lucky enough to be playing.
He had that “sound”with his irons, but seemed pretty loose with wedges.
A year later he was among the best with those clubs.
Many stories from Isleworth about him playing with the older guys and seeing them hit a shot that caught his attention, and how hard he would work to elearn that shot and hit it perfectly.


In his recent comeback, his entire short game, putting and driving were suspect early on, and each time the weakness got him in a tournament, he seemed to go home, figure it out and put another piece together.

Pat,


Really insightful comments about Tiger. I never doubted him, just his health/back. I did not even think he could finish 4 rounds of competitive golf at one point.


Thanks for sharing.