Even The Algorithms Finally Agree, Tiger Is Back!

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Tiger's 8th win at Bay Hill would make an admirable career win tally for some very well known players. Or duets of famous players.

And while I find the No. 1 status to be of less interest than major wins or near wins, this is a pretty astounding algorithmic resurrection. From Jay Coffin:

This latest version wasn’t as dramatic as some of the walk-offs in the past but it certainly was as significant. Woods moved back to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since October 2010. The lowest Woods sank during the stretch was No. 58.

Doug Ferguson recounts the various statistical superlatives, but uncovers this ShotLink beauty.

He walked off the 18th green waving his putter over his head to acknowledge the fans who have seen this act before. Woods made 19 of 28 putts from between seven and 20 feet and finished at 13-under.

Gene Wojciechowski writing at ESPN.com about a more dominant Tiger returning:

It isn't just that Woods is winning tournaments again, it's how he's winning them. Decisively. Confidently. Even boringly.

"I'm getting there," said Woods.

Those should be terrifying words for tournament fields everywhere. Because by his own calculations, Woods said it's been "years" since he's hit the ball this well and this consistently. Plus, ever since his buddy Steve Stricker gave him a putting lesson at Doral, the cup seems like it's the size of SeaWorld. And his short game is this close to the perfection zone.

"I've turned some of the weaknesses that I had last year into strengths," said Woods.

John Strege on the magic of Tiger's putter and the nice things are saying about it again:

He was locked in with the putter again in the final round on Monday, to wit the pivotal 27-foot birdie putt he poured in on top of Rickie Fowler's 38-foot birdie putt to maintain a three-stroke lead at the 12th hole at Bay Hill in Orlando.

"His putting is better than a machine," Miller said. "I've never seen anything quite like it. At Doral he had 100 putts for 72 holes, the least he's ever had. So he's in a total crazy time with his putting."

John Garrity tries to figure out why Tiger is so dominant at Bay Hill and uses an adjective I've never seen applied to perennial non-Tiger venue Riviera:

The one essential key to serial winning, if you think about it, is returning. Woods builds his schedule around courses, like Bay Hill, that fit his eye and build his confidence, and he avoids quirkier venues like Riviera Country Club, where he has never won in 11 starts. Most pros do the same to a greater or lesser degree. Palmer, for example, was partial to the winter conditions in California’s Coa­chella Valley, where he racked up eight of his 62 career victories.

Tiger downplayed the role that his prom photo release played, but as Beth Ann Baldry notes, Tiger revealed it was also about devaluing the first shots of them together. Where's the love for growing the economy TW?

This year during Bay Hill, he closed another dark chapter in his life by opening up about a new relationship with Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn. Of course, “opening up” means posting professional studio prints on his Facebook page. A few candid Instagram pics would’ve been more personal, but Woods said they wanted to limit the “stalk-a-razzi” and “sleazy” web sites that are out following him.

“We basically devalued the first photos,” he said.

When asked what conclusions could be drawn between Woods’ relationships status on Facebook and his return to World No. 1, Woods said “You’re reading way too much into this.”

And Mike Clayton analyzes the win from Down Under, imploring us to remember this about Tiger's driving stats:

At Bay Hill, his driving statistics were poor. He barely hit more than half the fairways but since the Steve Stricker putting lesson at Doral he has holed the proverbial ‘everything’.

It is always hard to tell from afar just how crooked his driving is because he hits so far (they all do now) and the fairways are narrowed by the tour in a futile attempt to defend courses against the ravages of the combination of modern driver and ball.

And also this about the rankings:

The other point about the rankings is that they are a statistical calculation purporting to identify the best players.

Jack Nicklaus was the undisputed best player in the game from the mid 1960s until, at least, the late 1970s. Others over that time including Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf and Billy Casper had better individual seasons than Nicklaus.

Had there been a similar ranking system (the current system was introduced in the mid 80s) they may have, at different times, climbed above Nicklaus.
That did not mean he wasn’t the best player in the game. It meant that someone else was temporarily having a better time of it.

The highlights from ESPN:



And from the PGA Tour, Tiger's last putts on 18 and his greeting from The King.