The Return of Tiger Woods

As of now, Tiger Woods has not follow up what was a successful 2013 season albeit not winning any majors, with a good 2014 campaign. He is hampered by a bad back and missed both majors this season. Woods decided to come back for the Quicken Loans National, a tournament hosted by Woods himself. Some people are critical of the move thinking Woods is doing for his sponsors. But Tiger believes he can get himself ready for the Open Championship in a couple weeks and needs practice in preparation for the final two majors of the season.

Woods might not be ready to play this week but looking at the upcoming schedule for the PGA season, this is his best option. It happens to be his own tournament which is a major factor in all of this plus Congressional is a major-like golf course giving him a good challenge. The Greenbrier Classic next weekend has a significant payout, but the course doesn't present as much of a challenge as what the players should be dealing with this weekend. Additionally, Woods' sponsors would have been irate had Tiger spurned this tournament for Greenbrier therefore it is a no-brainer for Woods to use this tournament as a tune-up. Although I wouldn't be shocked if he played Greenbrier next week.

Tiger isn't one of those guys whom always plays in back-to-back weeks, but if he feels good or feels like he needs more preparation against competition, he will be in The Greenbrier Classic as well.  Then he gets two weeks off before heading overseas for The Open Championship, a tournament he hasn't won since 2006 at Royal Liverpool Club, where The Open is taking place this season. Further, Woods finished third in 2012 and finished sixth in this major tournament. It could argued this is one of Woods better major tournaments in the last five years. It is obvious he wants to try to capture the magic again even though he's battled a back injury all year, and it could be a thorn in his side.

Woods claims he will be changing his approach to the game. ESPN's Farrell Evans described him as 'relaxed' and 'laid-back' talking about how he wants to change how he plays citing Michael Jordan as the player he looked towards in terms of changing it up. Now we heard this before from Phil Mickelson this year at the U.S.Open, and Phil went away from it on Thursday afternoon so until we actually see some change from Woods,  it is not a given Woods will actually change things. Another thing to watch is if Woods struggles with new stuff, he might revert back to his old ways which is exactly what Mickelson did at Pinehurst. Now for the horrible play on words... It is hard for a tiger to change his stripes.

My expectations for Woods is he will play all four rounds and not be threat to the leaderboard. I could see him getting cut this weekend, but a part of me wants to believe he will play well enough to hang around all weekend. If he ends up near the top five, it will cause an avalanche of overreactions. But Woods seem poised to make a run at getting his first major win since 2008.

Charlie.