Tiger is back and the second coming is here

By Al S. Mendoza 

I SAID it would come.

It finally did, when Tiger Woods won the Chevron World Challenge on Monday at Sherwood in Thousand Oaks, California.

Time, indeed, has its way of dealing with us.

For nearly 25 months, Tiger Woods was in the pits.

For exactly 749 days, Tiger Woods was on a victory drought.

For 26 tournaments, Tiger Woods was a non-winner.

Such was a cruel fate that had befallen the world No. 1, who tumbled down to No. 52 after revelations of sordid “sexcapades” in 2009 shattered his game, his confidence, his name.

That all ended when he sank two clutch putts for birdies in his last two holes of the tournament.

The first one on the 17th hole from 10 feet tied Woods for the lead with Zach Johnson.

That was huge because a hole earlier, Johnson, the Masters winner in 2007, holed a birdie putt also from 10 feet to lead Woods by one.

But if that lead-tying putt by Woods on 17 was huge, how about the one he faced on 18?

It was from eight feet, a distance described in golf as “criminal.”

“Criminal” because it wasn’t exactly an easy putt to make, especially if the crown was on the line, if one’s vaunted reputation to pull it out of the fire was being put to the test once more.

Woods drained his brain, all his famed patience, all his silken skills, before finally stroking the putt that would spell either a continuity of agony or a comeback to the world stage.

When it disappeared in the hole, Woods unleashed his all-too-familiar punch in the air and yelled out a primal scream that was muffled since that Thanksgiving Day mishap in November 2009 unraveling the start of his fall from grace, from golf.

Now, Tiger is back.

The world of golf will, must, rejoice in his second coming.

Expectations for the game’s rebirth will soar sky-high.

He will be seen again in action in January 2012, when he tees off in Abu Dhabi.

And what about the 2012 Masters in April?

The world waits with bated breadth for his stint there, which is listed as the world’s most prestigious golf event.

Despite what he has gone through –– struggles with his reconstructed swing, a mangled mental approach to the game, knee and Achilles heel injuries, a wife that had left him and stashed away $100 million in a divorce settlement –– Tiger Woods will forever be venerated as the greatest golfer of his generation.

At 35 going on 36 on December 30, Tiger Woods has a lot of golf left in his tank.

Good golf, that is.

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