It has been over two years since Tiger Woods has been called a winner in the golf world. Seven hundred and forty nine days and twenty-six tournaments later, things have changed for the better.
The Chevron World Challenge took place this past weekend in Thousand Oaks, California. The tournament is hosted by Tiger Woods and is held at the Sherwood Country Club. It is a charity fundraiser tournament where all of the funds raised go to different charities Tiger is associated with.
With two holes left Tiger found himself one stroke behind previous tournament winner Zach Johnson. We had seen Tiger in a similar position about a year ago against Graeme McDowell who ended up winning after Tiger lost a four-shot lead. This time around we watched a very calm and collective Woods shot back-to-back birdies to win the tournament.
As the winner, Woods won $1.2 million, which he donated to his foundation. When Woods spoke about his victory he did not mention if this win felt different. In fact he stated, "They all feel good. They're not easy. People don't realize how hard it is to win golf tournaments... I don't think I've taken it for granted. And I know because of how hard it is."
His victory moved him from No. 52 to No. 21 in the world ranking, a ranking where he used to sit on the top at No. 1. Woods has not been ranked in the top 10 since his personal life got out of control. He was found cheating on his wife, crashed his Escalade, and even checked himself into a sex-rehab where he sought after therapy. Since that time Tiger has changed his swinging coach, his caddie, and endured injuries, which prevented him from entering in two tournaments.
The question now is will Woods continue on this upward path? Was this win a fluke? Is the old Tiger Back? For now we will just have to wait to see. He does not appear in another tournament until the end of January in Abu Dhabi.
