Tiger Woods is Back

Monday, April 13th, 2009
by AGermain

Tiger Woods returned to the golf world February 23, 2009 for this first time since the US Open at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain. The tournament was called the WGC- Accenture Match Play Championship. The tournament included big players such as Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Sergio Garcia, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas and Padraig Harrington. In the first round Tiger faced off against Brendan Jones from Australia. On the first tee everyone was anxious to see how the golf god would return. He pulled out his three wood, and stood over the ball taking five practice swings, slow and steady. He then ripped the ball right down the middle of the fairway. It seemed like a blast from the past. Tiger later said, “I thought I would be more nervous on the first tee. It just came back down to playing the game again, and that felt good.” He ended up with a birdie on the first hole, and an eagle on the second hole. These two holes just helped show how much golf missed him ever since his unexpected US Open win just about 8 months ago. Tiger looked as if he never hurt his knee. He did not pay any attention to it other than once, when he stretched it while waiting on the 13th hole. Throughout the round, Tiger never trailed Brendan Jones. The match ended after the 16th hole, when Tiger came out victorious with a 3 and 2 win. Jones later gave two statements about his loss. The first being, “He’s Tiger”, he followed this with another statement saying, “He does freakish things.” After the match was complete Tiger said that all the time he missed built up inside him, so he was striving to finally return.

Although Tiger ended up losing in the second round to Tim Clark from South Africa, he still played very well. Tim Clark could not miss any shots, if he wanted to defeat one of the greatest golfers of all time. Clark later made a statement about his play during the match, “That’s as good as I can play.” Tiger still played well, but he could not compete with the game that Tim Clark brought to the table. Woods later stated, “I was pleased with the way I hit the ball for two days. I had one bad 8-iron and one bad drive. Tim is a wonderful player. He made birdies and I just didn’t answer him.” Over the round Tim Clark got six birdies, while having no bogeys. The match was dormy until Tim Clark ended up defeating Tiger after the 16th hole, beating him 4 and 2. This is the type of play you need to beat Tiger. Tim Clark is now part of the scarce group, of who have defeated Tiger.

Photo Credit: Keith Allison

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