Tiger Woods Wins Tour Championship

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It may not be a major, but Tiger Woods won’t complain.

Woods finished at -11 to top the leaderboard and win his first tournament in 5 years on Sunday. Just 17 months after having his spine fused, Woods, at least for this weekend, had the appearance of a major contender. Holding off Billy Horschel (-9) and Dustin Johnson (-7) over the course of the final round, despite some late issues, to capture his first win since the 2013 WBC-Bridgestone Invitational. This is the 80th victory of his career.

There have been some ups and downs for Tiger over the past few months. He finished in 32nd at The Masters in April and missed the cut at The US Open in June, but in the other two majors (PGA Championship and The Open Championship) he finished second and sixth, respectively. There were also four other top 10 finishes and five finishes outside the top 20.

Woods opened the third round with six birdies on his first seven holes, the second time in his career he’s started a round that hot. While he couldn’t carry on that level of success the rest of the round, he still shot the lowest round of the day at a 5-under par 65, and carried a three-stroke lead going into the final round on Sunday. A lead he didn’t give up while he looked as good as the Tiger from 10 years ago. He has still never lost after leading by 3 or more strokes going into a final round of a tournament, winning all 24 of those tournaments.

After the win, Woods is now the favorite in Vegas to win the 2019 Masters.

It will be interesting to see if Tiger can keep this kind of form up in The Ryder Cup which starts next weekend in France. Not to mention his $9 million dollar match against Phil Mickelson on Thanksgiving weekend.

There are some sports that are just made better when certain teams are performing well. The Lakers and Celtics in the NBA, the Steelers, Cowboys, and Packers in the NFL, Tiger Woods in golf. He is still a big name in the sport of golf, one who will bring in viewers and provide some excitement. If he can keep playing like he did this weekend at the East Lake Golf Club, it shouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities to see him winning a major soon; for the first time since 2008.

Image Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images