Before celebrating how Tiger Woods amazingly flashed back to his long-lost era of dominance Sunday, let's flip the calendar back to Thursday's opening round at the Hero World Challenge.
Even for Tiger's most devoted and hopeful fans, the goals were cautiously mundane as he walked to the first tee as barely a blip in the golfing universe, ranked 1,199th in the world. The 683 weeks he once spent at No. 1 were nearly a forgotten memory. He was viewed more as an elder statesman than a viable threat.
With no cut in this 18-man tourney, would his career-threatening spine that has required four surgeries in four years finally permit him to stay upright for four rounds?