The Athletic: Tiger Woods still believes, but can he rediscover 'winning time'?

By Art Spander
The Athletic

PACIFIC PALISADES — He continues to believe, which is understandable, because if Tiger Woods deep down didn’t think he could roll back the years and come back from those months of back pain and inactivity, then how could we believe in Tiger Woods?

Which some do. And a great many don’t.

Woods has returned to Riviera Country Club, classic, historic Riviera, where Humphrey Bogart belonged, where Ben Hogan won, where a teenage Tiger in 1992 played in a pro tournament for the first time. And where Woods never had much success, even in his dominant years.

The Hollywood fantasy lives large at Riviera, with photos on the walls inside the huge Spanish-style clubhouse of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Dean Martin — a longtime member — and Jerry Lewis, Clark Gable and Bing Crosby. Myth and reality and tales of Howard Hughes leaving the club because the pro told him he never would be the best golfer in the land.

That’s what Woods used to be. Not just the country, the world. Now, preparing for the Genesis Open, long ago called simply the Los Angeles Open, which begins Thursday at Riviera, Tiger is a man trying to regain the brilliance.

Is he fooling himself? They say you don’t lose greatness, but as months and years creep by, you lose flexibility, lose concentration. Woods says his two children are what’s important in his life. “Priorities change,” was a reminder nobody really needed.

That saying, “You can’t go home again,” is so full of meaning for Woods, who, having grown up maybe 25 miles away, is allowed to think of Riviera and the tournament, L.A. Open or Genesis, as sort of a home — one in which he never got quite comfortable. A second place was his best finish before he stopped entering 12 years ago.

“I love the course,” Woods said Tuesday. “For some reason I didn’t play it well.”

Two weeks ago, down the coast in San Diego, Woods tied for 23rd at the Farmers Insurance Open while playing in a PGA Tour event for the first time in a year. The back that required one surgical technique after another passed a test. And yet?

Golfers last longer in their sport than most athletes do in other sports, an advantage and a disadvantage because suddenly you’re facing the young golfer you used to be.

For the first rounds of the Genesis, Woods is grouped with Rory McIlroy, who is 28, and with Justin Thomas, who is 23.

“I made my debut here in ’92,” Woods said. “I flew out with Justin. He said that was a year before he was born. I’m sorry, but that really put things into perspective fast.”

To McIlroy, winner of four majors, and Thomas, winner of one, last year’s PGA Championship, Woods has been an example, an idol, even an advisor.

“I think now they’re starting to see me as a competitor,” Woods said.

But how much of one?

Surely one of the reasons Woods chose to return to Riviera and the Genesis is the involvement in his foundation, emphasizing education. One scholarship winner asked, “Who’s Tiger Woods?”

“That doesn’t bother me at all,” Woods said.

What does bother him is not winning a Tour event in five years. There’s impatience, although he said it’s tempered by the unavoidable fact his body wouldn’t allow him to take a cut at a golf ball for weeks.

“I’ve been away from the game for a very long time,” he said when asked about expectations, ours as much as his. “I’ve got a lot of room for improvement and a long way to go.”

At San Diego, some of his drives were crooked. He said he spent a week making corrections. Champions do not concede, and as the winner of 79 tournaments, 14 of them majors, Woods unquestionably has been a champion.

“I’d like to win some tournaments,” Woods said. “Jjust like not to feel sore, to play all-out again with … three days off.”

He's not yet ready to commit to playing in back-to-back tournaments, even with next week's Honda Classic near his home in Florida.

“It would be a great sign if I do play,” Woods said. “It would be a smart sign if I didn’t play. How about that? Does that dance pretty good?’

It dances elusively, even if his thought is direct.

“It’s winning time,” he said.

When hasn’t it been? For Woods or any other pro?