Here. Comes. Tiger….part 721

This week, in between the Fowler/Speith/Thomas/Kauffman bro-out tweets, instagrams, and snapchats, there began a slow trickle of news regarding the apparent return of Tiger Woods.

Then, this morning the Tiger Woods news cycle went into full gear for the umpteenth time this year, putting our shirtless, shoe-less, and most likely inebriated, four-some on the back-burner…at least for now.

So where do we begin with the plethora of Tiger news?

The best place to start would be the story of how exactly we got here. Wright Thompson over at ESPN.com wrote an in-depth article chronicling the three-year, downward spiral of Woods’ career beginning with the death of his father, Earl Woods, in 2006.

For both Tiger Woods detractors and fans, much of the story would not be considered new. However, Thompson does a superb job tying different stories, from some of the Navy SEALS Tiger befriended to Hank Haney’s and Stevie Williams’ books, together to give the reader a thorough description of how and why Tiger lost his way.

Wright paints a picture of a Tiger most of us wouldn’t expect. He’s somewhat of an awkward introvert. His only friends as a child were essentially his dad and other retired soldiers that the two of them would play golf with. Tiger is described as being in a kind of state of arrested development, which makes sense considering he was raised only to play golf and nothing else.

There is one part of the story when Tiger is at a club with Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter:

“Jeter and Jordan circulated, talking with ease to one beautiful woman after another. (Both declined to comment about the episode.) At one point, Tiger walked up to them and asked the question that lives in the heart of every junior high boy and nearly every grown man too.

“What do you do to talk to girls?”

Jeter and Jordan looked at each other, then back at Tiger, sort of stunned.

Go tell ’em you’re Tiger Woods, they said.”

The story goes on to tell of Tiger’s absolute obsession with the Navy SEALS. As in, he legitimately wanted to be a Navy SEAL. After his father’s death, he began taking more and more trips and spending more and more time going through different training with different SEAL units or specialists. He would run timed miles in combat boots in an attempt to meet SEAL physical requirements. He was also trained in Close Quarters Defense, who many believe is where several of his injuries have stemmed from.

And that’s truly only half the story. I highly recommend you take the half-hour or so and read the entire thing.

All that’s only the tip of the Tiger Woods iceberg today!

The other news is in regards to Tiger actually playing golf in the near future.

First, he showed up at a junior golfers event and was hitting iron through driver. And looking good doing it.

@TigerWoods hitting a 2 iron stinger 225. Full 2 irons at about 255. Swing looks great pic.twitter.com/GN7ccTmOv5

— Golfweek Junior Tour (@GWJuniorTour) April 21, 2016

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEgD13ZlJ2H/?taken-by=minwoo27lee

Great to see!

Then, Tim Rosaforte of The Golf Channel tweeted this:

Based on his progress it makes sense @TigerWoods comes back sooner than later. Indications point to @WellsFargoGolf–@THEPLAYERSChamp return.

— Tim Rosaforte (@RosaforteGolf) April 22, 2016

The Wells Fargo Championship is just two weeks away.

Rosaforte had previously reported that Woods was stepping up his practice sessions recently, spending four to five hours at the range or playing holes on his home course, Medalist Golf Club.

If Tiger does play competitively in the next few weeks, that could also mean appearances at the remaining three majors of the year.

There is still a long way to go, and as Tiger has stated previously, he is taking this recovery slowly and patiently, but the videos of a full, unencumbered swing is the most promising thing Tiger fans have seen in a while.

In related news, our mystery Twitter pal, GC Tiger Tracker, is preparing accordingly.

We go live to me furiously trying to drop some lbs. Gotta get down to my playing weight pronto. pic.twitter.com/wV0iQKnZcv

— Tiger Tracker (@GCTigerTracker) April 22, 2016

Cover Photo via Instagram