NASSAU, Bahamas – For a brief instant, it appeared that Tiger Woods had spent the last 15 months quietly cobbling together some sort of Bahamian time machine.
The irons were accurate, the chips were crisp. The birdie putts fell – first one, then another, then another still.
This was not the hobbled shell of a man that flashed across TV sets so often in recent years. This was Tiger Woods, walking with an extra spring in his step as he climbed up the leaderboard at the Hero World Challenge.
But fairytales are rarely authored inside the ropes, and Woods quickly returned to Earth, as he eventually showed signs of a man whose last competitive rep came nearly 16 months ago.