Golf Channel analyst Notah Begay III liked what he saw out of Tiger Woods in the Bahamas so much that he's now confident in predicting the 14-time major champion will win a tournament in 2017.
Begay, who is a longtime friend of Woods', stated that Woods' return to competitive golf at the Hero World Challenge went better than expected, and that Woods looks poised for a successful comeback from multiple back surgeries at the end of 2015.
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"I expect him to win, and I expect him to have at least one win next year based upon what I've seen,” Begay said via Reuters. “It's just a matter of getting some more tournament rounds. I'm not going to say it's going to happen early in the year but I think you should expect to see Tiger peak during the springtime."
Like many interested golf fans, Begay said Woods' inner circle was anxious to see how his return would go. Apparently there were a lot of questions, and Woods answered most of them.
"I don't think anybody in the inner circle, including Tiger, could have been happier,” Begay said about Woods’ performance in the limited-field event.
“There was a lot of curiosity around what was going to happen, what his swing was going to look like … how his mind was going to adjust to the tournament environment because it's just so different, you can’t recreate that focus in practice.
“For him to go out and make more birdies than anybody else in the field after being on the shelf for 15 months was quite remarkable. He's seeing some definite returns on the time that he's put in with regard to his recovery.”
Woods will make his 2017 debut at the PGA Tour’s Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club from Feb. 16-19. Begay believes he will build on his already promising form displayed in the Bahamas.
“I'm not going to say there was perfect execution across the board but, for the most part, the shots you would want to have and the outcomes you would expect from a world-class player were all right there."