If the rest of the Tiger Woods comeback tour goes anything like his opening round Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open, TV executives and the golf industry are in for a good year.
The 14-time major champion finished with an even-par 72 in San Diego, including a spectacular tee shot on the 16th that was nearly a hole-in-one. More impressive, though, is that he didn't seem to be in any pain during the round and didn't seem worn out at day's end. That's major improvement for a golfer who underwent spinal fusion surgery last year and hadn't played in an official tour event in 10 months.
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"Fun to compete again. Fun to be out there," he said afterwards. "... I was probably a little bit rusty."
Overnight ratings for the Golf Channel telecast will be available within the next few days. Regardless of what they show, the biggest takeaway is that Woods seems poised to play more golf than he has in years, and at a more competitive level than some of his other attempted comebacks from surgery. The 42-year-old former world No. 1 heads into Friday's round seven strokes behind leader Tony Finau and needs to make the cut to continue on into the weekend. Based on Thursday, no one should count him out.
Woods dominates Torrey Pines like no other course. He's won eight times there, including the Farmers during his last big year, in 2013. And Torrey Pines was the site of his last major victory, the 2008 U.S. Open, where he out-dueled Rocco Mediate on one healthy leg.
Those stats are reason enough for Jim Nantz of CBS Sports to expect Woods to still be in the field on Saturday, nearly a month after he returned to competitive golf by playing in a non-cut event in the Bahamas.
"We saw enough in the Bahamas to realize this is the closest he's been physically to being the Tiger Woods we knew who was winning all the time," Nantz said in a conference call days before the Farmers began. "Well, we're going to see him. Again, this isn't an exhibition. This is for real. It happens to be on a stage where, man, he has put together a highlight reel that most players will never have for a career."
Of course, it's in Nantz' and CBS' interest to see Woods play into the weekend. The network will kick off its season-long coverage of the PGA Tour with its Saturday coverage at Torrey Pines from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET, and 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. But Nantz noted that he and CBS were also on the call for most of Woods' tournament and major victories. They know how he super-charges golf TV ratings just by his presence in the field.
There's a handful of "superior" superstars like Woods, Michael Jordan or [Tom] Brady who command attention whenever they step into a competitive arena, according to Nantz. "Imagine if Tom Brady had taken a step away from the game. And we didn’t really see him complete in five years… And all of a sudden Tom Brady is going to go back, throw the jersey on and No. 12 is on the field again. What is that going to look like this Sunday? I mean, I'm watching. If Michael Jordan decides to come out of retirement, after all these years, and he’s going to go play in a real game again, not an exhibition, what does that look like? I've got to see that. My day is being scheduled around that. Well, that's kind of where we are with Tiger."
Woods hasn't won a tournament in five years, and hasn't taken first in a major in nearly a decade. But as he showed Thursday, he's swinging the golf club faster and better than during any of his previous short-lived comebacks from back/knee surgeries and a personal scandal. In round one, he was again bombing long drives past his competitors.
Of course, we've been here many times as Woods has returned only to fade away again with another injury. This time might just be different.
