The importance of having Tiger inside the ropes

As Tiger Woods returns to the battlefield once again, his battered body and his ability to put mind over matter will be tested at the Hero World Challenge. It's a gentle start for the 47-year-old on a venue ideally suited for a comeback - Albany is a wide-open golf course with a terrain as flat as a pancake. What he shoots will be inconsequential compared to how his fused subtalar reacts following the 72 holes.

- Joy Chakravarty

On Wednesday, Woods played nine holes of the ProAm and did not show any outward signs of discomfort. There was no visible limp, except on a couple of occasions when he had to walk downhill from the tees and he seemed a little wary climbing up mounds.

Because a golf swing requires so many moving parts, a fusion of two adjacent bones the talus and calcaneus in his case-in as crucial a place as the right ankle is bound to hinder proper movement.

It would have sent Woods back to the drawing board and reconstruct his swing to allow for that immobility.