Happy Tiger Woods Day!

Or as some of us call it, Tiger Woods Groundhog Day!

It seems oddly familiar, doesn’t it?

Staring at our televisions, monitors, Twitter feeds, or all of the above.

Watching Tiger Woods swing a golf club. From this angle, from that angle, in slow-motion. Oh wait, there he is chipping!

Hoping, pleading, begging, that this time it will be different.

This time there will be no Tiger grimaces after swings or chunked chip shots.

That this time, finally, he’s truly back.

Yes, this time last year, Tiger made it through four rounds at the Hero World Challenge. And he played pretty well. He shot a 65 during his second round. I remember it well. I watched that round twice.

Don’t judge me.

But he would finish 15th out of 18 golfers after posting a 76 on Sunday. But that didn’t deter the golf world from believing the Big Cat was back, despite his subtle warnings. Things weren’t still right with his body. And before long, like two tournaments later, his season was over.

But like the jilted lovers we are, he’s back now and we’re obsessed, enthralled, and captivated by his every move.

Welcome to the 2017 #heroworldchallenge | @TigerWoods pic.twitter.com/p4MfWOyz32

— Hero World Challenge|TGR Live (@TGRLiveEvents) November 26, 2017

For the entire week, it’s been all Tiger all the time. Save for the entertaining little Twitter spat between Chamblee and Dufner.

So what can we expect from El Tigre over the next four days? How will we know he’s really back?

The very simple answer is…we won’t.

In fact, I won’t be convinced he’s truly back until I see him at Augusta come April. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be watching every tournament he’s in, but I watch every tournament anyways. My point is, even if he gets through a few tournaments in February and March, I want to see his body hold-up through the Spring. He’s even admitted that he hasn’t truly challenged his swing yet.

How will we know he’s really back and able to compete with the new generation?

While this weekend could be a good test considering the small and elite field of golfers, I don’t expect Woods to hang with the kids in the Bahamas. Although, if he wins this tournament, God help us all. I mean, Twitter Golf will 100% meltdown.

Personally, I have no doubt he can hang with the Rorys, Spieths, JTs, and DJs of the world. But I’m not sure when he’ll be ready to hang with them. We would all love to see a Spieth/Woods Sunday as soon as possible, but I just don’t know how realistic that is at this point. As super-human as Tiger Woods has been in the past, it has nothing to do with today.

Nevertheless, Tiger Woods is playing competitive golf again and it’s glorious. If you don’t think the game is better with him in it, you’re simply wrong.

Now let’s all go back to staring at our TVs, monitors, and Twitter feeds for that next Tiger swing!

Cover Photo via Twitter