Tiger? Whoops? Ever since the greatest golfer of this generation laced them up at the end of 2016, signalling a return to action, there has been a clamour for his competitive return.
Nostalgia is a dangerous beast in sport, because it creeps up on all of us in a manner that exposes even the most cynical among us as eternal romantics when it comes to happy endings.
Even the PGA, as Trump-American as it gets when it comes to whipping a mob up into a frenzy, couldn’t help themselves in the build-up to the Farmers Insurance Open this week. The biggest tour in the world has a new promotional video doing the rounds, continuing on their “These Guys Are Good” theme.
Woods, even when he was AWOL, always formed part of their marketing campaigns. Now that he is back inside the ropes, the PGA couldn’t help themselves. There was a video released recently, which is again centred on emphasising how difficult life is on Tour.
One by one, some of the brightest stars the Tour has seen list the number of victories they have, the astonishment growing with each number. Daniel Berger – 1. Patrick Reed – 5. Jordan Spieth – 8. Sergio Garcia – 9.
Then the really big numbers come. Dustin Johnson – 12. Jim Furyk – 17. Phil Mickelson – 42. All of these names are heroes in their own right, and many may yet go on to accomplish significantly more in their careers.
But, to a man, Tiger Woods dusts what they have achieved with his numbers. Seventy nine Tour victories is a ridiculous number, and the genuine sense of admiration at the scale of his achievements is evident in each of his peers as they repeat his number, is telling.
Tiger Woods, love his game or loathe his lothario past, remains the biggest drawcard in the game of golf. Almost all of golf wants at least one more Tiger dance, because everybody wins when Woods is in business.
During his latest, extended absence from the sport through injury, the sport found other names to get familiar, and those names found other means to get inspired on the back nine on Sundays. But, always, inevitably, there was one eye on the mooted return of the TW.
Now that he is back, and signed up to play a lot more regularly over the next month, the narrative switches from hope to cope. Will Tiger Woods, the 2017 version, live with the demands of what surrounds him, and will he be able to deliver the ultimate punchline?
It is a compelling question, and the earliest evidence suggests that it will be a struggle. Missing a cut happens, even to the very best.
Just as each one of his peers in the PGA promotional clip have won big, they have all missed cuts in their time. It happens, because golf at the sharpest end of the knife is especially fickle. If your game is not razor-sharp, you will come short.
Just as Tiger did. The cut he missed on Friday won’t be the last of his career, but it represents the challenge now in front of him.
Between now and the end of it all, Woods is not playing against his rivals. He is playing against the ultimate enemy, Father Time. That foe is the only one that never misses a cut, and if Woods even manages just one more mainstream victory, the golf world will go to town in reverence.
You can be sure that the PGA already has that Tiger #83 clip in storage, just waiting to press play if he somehow breaks Sam Snead’s ridiculous record of Tour victories. The only problem, of course, is that they may be waiting for a long time. Ten years ago, it was almost obligatory that Woods would smash the win record before he was done.
Now, after everything that has occurred, all that wasted time, the four victories he needs to stand alone would be the biggest of his life, because the odds are getting unlikelier by the week. Father Time never has, and never will stand on ceremony for anyone.
Not even a Tiger.