Tiger’s comeback: nine mind-boggling statistics

At 5pm Irish time on Thursday evening Tiger Woods will make his long-awaited return to competitive golf after 15 months away with back injuries which you required two operations.

After pulling out of last month’s Safeway Open and Turkish Airlines Open, Woods has certainly chosen the cushiest tournament possible for his return – the 18-man Hero World Challenge dollar-fest in a Bahamas resort that one-tenth of the world’s billionaires call home.

And yes, he is the tournament host. This is Tiger’s party and nothing will spoil it for him.

Bar, perhaps, the sort of disastrous golf that was seen in his initial comeback last year. Who could forget the Saturday morning 14-over-par 85 at the 2015 Memorial Tournament?

It’s hard not to get excited at the prospect of quite possibly the greatest player the game has ever seen teeing it up again, but the realistic question on everyone’s lips will not be whether the 40-year-old can win but whether or not he can physically play the game to the highest level anymore.

Woods upbeat, chirpy press conference yesterday was in stark contrast to his comments at this tournament last year when he virtually questioned whether or not he would play compeititive golf again, saying that “anything beyond this is gravy.”

On that day he struggled to get out of his seat on stage, such was the extent of his back pain. He spoke of collapsing while hitting chip shots in his back yard and having to lie on the ground paralysed until his young daughter happened to come outside and spot him.

Yesterday he bounded around the resort. He reeled off his usual line of being here to win. But, most importantly, in his pro-am round he looked to be completely comfortable with all of his swings, carding a two-under-par round of 70.

Maybe, just maybe this could be the start of a comeback that will lead up to a fully in-form Woods going to the Masters next April. Or perhaps it could be the beginning of the end.

Either way, it is never a bad time to look back at some of the truly staggering statistics Woods has conjured up throughout his career.

14: The number of major championships he has won. The last came at the 2008 US Open and and leaves him four behind Jack Nicklaus' record.

682: The number of consecutive weeks Woods spent at world number one. That's 352 (or nearly seven years) longer than second in the list, Greg Norman.

106: The number of professional, worldwide wins the 40-year-old has accumulated. On the PGA Tour alone Woods has won 79 times, second in the overall list only to Sam Snead and four wins ahead of Nicklaus.

142: The number of consecutive cuts he made from 1998 to 2005. That's a period of seven years in which he scored better than half of the field over the first two days.

5: The winning score in any major championship has only been 18-under-par or better on nine occasions. Woods has done it five times.

18: In the pecking order of professional golf tournaments, World Golf Championships usually come second only to majors. The series of events only began in 1999 – two years into Tiger's professional career. Since then he has won 18 WGC titles. Second on the list is Geoff Ogilvy with three.

1: In the year 2000 – a season in which Woods won three of the four major championships – he only went around in more than 73 shots on one occasion. That was in the first round of the Masters and he shot a 75. The field scoring average was 75.59.

126: From 1997 to 2008 – the period in which Woods claimed all 14 of his major titles – he was a total of 126-under-par in major championship golf. Second on the list is Joe Ogilvie who was...63 over par. Yes, you did read that correctly; Woods was a total of 189 shots better than anyone else.

2: The number of eagles he made on his front nine during yesterday's pro-am in the Bahamas.