Golf fans rejoice! Tiger Woods, in his yet another comeback, will compete this Thursday at the Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas after a 15-month long absence from professional golf. Woods will compete with well-known golfers such as Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, and Emiliano Grillo.
Of course, his comeback stirred speculations about his health status and physical performance. As featured in The Washington Post, Woods was to compete in the Safeway Open in Napa, California only to withdrew later. He also has not played golf professionally for at least a year.
Woods has a good history of injuries that put him out of the game several times. CBS Sports made a good documentation of Woods' career-changing injuries, including arthroscopic knee and ACL surgery on 2008, knee and Achilles strain on 2011, back surgery on 2014, and low back pain and another back surgery on Feb 2015. The last were two spine surgeries that occurred just this Sept 2015.
It should be noted that, at the same tournament held just last year, Woods said in the press conference that he did not know if he could compete in golf again. At this time, however, Woods appeared healthy and confident in the lead-up to the tournament on Tuesday.
Woods' comeback makes this year's tournament particularly exciting. Only 18 golfers will compete in the tournament, but all of them except Woods belong to world's top 40 players. Currently, Woods is ranked 898th.
According to an article in Business Insider, it is also to note that golf has undergone significant changes during Woods' absence. Woods' preferred golf club maker, Nike, stopped producing golf equipment last August. Meanwhile, golf clubs technology has improved as well. Graphite shafts and heads with dials are now commonly used in competitions. Woods is known to use old-school steel irons and glued driver heads.
Woods is a former No.1 in World Golf Rankings and a 14-time major championship winner. For more sports news, check out Jobs and Hire.
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