An American named Eldrick Woods is teeing it up next week at the Safeway Open, a PGA Tour stop in California.
You may know of Woods, because he played in a bunch of tournaments up until August of 2015, when he was sidelined with injury.
Since it will have been 417 days between tournaments, and it’s been 1,160 days since he last won, you may have forgotten about Woods. It’s time to get re-acquainted. Also, there are 8-year-old golf fans out there who have never seen Woods win a major. So here’s everything you should know about this new(ish) face on Tour:
Name: Eldrick Tont Woods (he goes by ‘Tiger’)
Age: 40
Hometown: Cypress, Calif.
World ranking: 767
Major championships: 14
Green jackets: 4
What he brings to the table
Where do we even start? He brings excitement. He brings intrigue. He brings huge TV numbers for networks. And he’ll wear a red Nike golf shirt on Sunday at the Safeway Open, if he makes the cut. That’s one of his traditions.
Woods used to dominate golf to the point we all kind of expected him to win every week, despite the fact golf is a fickle, fickle game. He really didn’t discover that for himself, personally, until the last few years. He hasn’t won since 2013.
Still, Woods has done quite well for himself. He’s won 79 times on the PGA Tour and has made $110,061,012 in prize money. Did you know he was world No. 1 for 281 weeks in a row, up until October of 2010? Incredible.
Also worth noting is that Woods was in the tabloids for quite some time after it emerged that he cheated on his wife—with many, many women. He also ran his car into a fire hydrant and a tree. He and Elin Nordegren are no longer together, and his decline in play began right around the time all this news came out.
He was really good from a young age
Little Tiger was just two when he started playing golf. And he was something of a prodigy as a kid.
Watch this:
He has experience
A lot of people put a lot of stock in experience in high-pressure situations. Tiger has this. He’s drained long putts to win championships many-a-time. He once drained a 91-footer.
The last time he played on Tour he finished T10. If you think everybody’s watching Shea Weber and wondering how he’ll fare as a new member of the Montreal Canadiens, know that even more people will be wondering how Tiger will do in his return to the Tour.
So many questions remain
Including: Is he done? Will he ever win again? Does he have a chance to win four more majors and tie Jack Nicklaus as the most decorated major-winner in golf? Could he win five and pass Nicklaus? Will his back and hip hold up?
It’s all, really, up in the air.