Heeee's Back!!!

His Former Coaches Think A Major Is Now Realistic

- Matthew Rudy

YOU'VE SEEN THE MADE-FOR-TV-MOVIE. Tiger Woods fights through personal demons and spinal-fusion surgery to make a triumphant return to tournament golf. He not only swings the YOU’VE club almost as fast as he did before he got hurt, but he’s a softer, calmer, more relatable character. He even wins the last event of the season after a couple of near misses on the biggest stage.

If it wasn’t real, you’d probably swear it was made up. But it happened. A collection of players and coaches—including, for the first time in one place, all four of the teachers who have worked with Woods during his professional career— are about to describe what they saw as it was happening, and what they think he’ll do in 2019, and beyond.

As for why Woods was able to reemerge after four years of professional and personal struggle, and what this unlikely second act in his career will ultimately mean in terms of tournaments won, former coach Hank Haney might as well be speaking for the group.

“No matter how unlikely it looks, I don’t ever rule anything out with him,” says Haney, who taught Woods from 2004 to 2010. “Because he’s Tiger Woods.”

In October 2017, the progress Woods had been making from anterior lumbar interbody fusion in his lower back had been leaking out from a band of tour-pro buddies he joined for matches at the Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla.

Mike Adams teaches at Medalist in the winter, and he watched Woods work his body and game to the point where he was consistently shooting 65 or 66 on one of the fiercest layouts in Florida, while generating a robust 180 miles per hour of ball speed with his driver.