All is right with the world again.
It is now safe for you to relax and forget about such things as the global economic crisis, terror attacks, climate change, civil unrest, political upheavals, child sex abuse scandals, and anything else that has made it seem like the end of civilization was near.
That’s because Tiger Woods has finally, at long last, won another golf tournament.
Yes, it happened at a quaint little gathering in which the man himself served as host, included only a select number of opponents (17), and wasn’t even a sanctioned PGA Tour event.
No matter. This two-year national tragedy is now over, finito, and the sports world’s greatest conundrum – would Tiger ever win again? -- has thankfully been solved.
There was a time when Tiger – not Charlie Sheen – held the copyright to the term “winning.” That was, of course, before the much ballyhooed trials and tribulations of the globe’s greatest golfer. The ensuing fallout from his Thanksgiving night 2009 car crash, that sent both his marriage and career spiraling downward, certainly seemed more Sheenesque than Woodsian.
But winning – ah yes, that word again – cures all that ails. And for Tiger Woods, divorced from not only the mother of his two young children, but his long-time caddy and swing coach, finding the elixir that once and for all would help heal the most prevalent of his self-inflicted wounds, turned out to be the most elusive.
Somehow, someway, after more than 24 months and 26 tournaments, he discovered that magic potion at the Chevron World Challenge on Sunday.
More than just winning, what was most impressive about the drought-ending triumph was how it was completed. Down a stroke with two holes to play, Woods watched Zach Johnson flat out hit a pair of sparkling approach shots on the final two holes at Sherwood Country Club. Undeterred, Tiger proceeded to out do him, answering both Johnson missiles with his own duo of radar-locked precision shots that landed inside that of the 2007 Masters champ in being closest to the pin.
And then Woods did what he seemingly always used to do before the events of Nov. 26, 2009. First he jarred a 15-foot birdie on 17 to pull even with Johnson, and followed that up by rolling in a six-footer at 18 to end the curse.
What ensued was both emphatic and emblematic. There it was, for all the world to see, a sight once-upon-a-time-ago habitual in nature, but most recently, starkly absent: a victorious Tiger fist pump.
Almost equally as telling was the reaction to all of this by the man who he had just defeated. Zack Johnson simply stood there, grinned, and shook his head. You knew what he was thinking, too.
As a result of having played well in Australia before the long-awaited return to the win column in Thousand Oaks, the former world No. 1 moved from 52nd to 21st in the latest rankings. Obviously healthy once again in mind, body and soul, Tiger Woods assuredly will be brimming with confidence entering the 2012 PGA campaign.
And rest assured, there will still be those with doubts and many questions to pose regarding whether or not this actually means that Tiger will once again be a dominant force in the game. After all, he didn't win at Augusta this past weekend.
Still, there's that look on Johnson's face to consider. It spoke volumes about where our friend Eldrick's golf game is currently at, and seems destined to travel in the future.
He’s baaaaaaaaaack.
Mitch Evans - A fixture on the Atlanta sports scene since 1997, Mitch Evans has been recognized for his work on three seperate occasions by the ...
