To most people the Masters or other Majors or the Ryder Cup are the most important golf events of 2018 and the Farmers Insurance Open starting on the 25th January at Torrey Pines would be just another tournament on the PGA Tour. That would normally be the case, but the 25th January sees the return to Tournament golf of Tiger Woods. Such is the furore surrounding the event that Americas leading golf magazine Golf Digest has just devoted 18 (yes – eighteen!) pages of the current issue to Tiger’s comeback as well as featuring him on the front cover. Our own Golf World has him on the front cover as well as 10 pages in the magazine.
As the event is still a few days away the speculation can only increase, and it will be interesting to see if all the hype will be justified. Certainly, his new swing looks most impressive and he has shown in the past that he is very capable of bringing a new swing to the game and competing successfully. What would be a good result for him? To win would be amazing and would ignite what already looks like being one of the most exciting seasons in golf for many years. Can he still compete with Dustin Johnson and the rest of the new breed of golfs superstars? If he wins or even contends the media will go wild with speculation and he would suddenly become a contender for the Masters and we would have weeks of speculation leading up to that event. He is already in the top ten betting fancies for the Masters despite not hitting a ball in serious competition for such a long time and is a shorter price than last years winner Sergio Garcia.
The increased coverage that golf will get if Tiger performs well can only benefit the game and increase its exposure to non-golfers. Hopefully that will then lead to more people taking up the game and a rejuvenated Tiger will certainly make Tournament golf in 2018 the most exciting for a number of years.
What do you think?
