Tiger Woods was the toast of our town the first time he played in the Honda Classic at PGA National, in March 2012, shortly after moving to Jupiter Island from the Orlando area.
No one would have, or should have, expected anything less.
He didn’t play quite as well last year, but Woods was still the biggest attraction and he will likely be so again this year even though we can only assume he’ll be teeing it up on the Champion course in March.
No one but Tiger may know for sure until a month or so beforehand.
To the delight of record crowds in 2012, Woods shot a hard-charging 62 on Sunday to tie Tom Gillis for second at 270, two strokes behind Rory McIlroy’s 268.
Last year, Woods was 12 strokes higher the last day, a 74 after three straight 70s, and tied for 37th on 284. That was 13 shots behind the winner, the unheralded Michael Thompson’s 271.
Nevertheless, as he continues to cut his ties to his native California, no one should doubt that Tiger has become a Floridian for life.
His elite gathering last weekend at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks marked the last time it would be played in California. Next year, Woods is moving the event to Isleworth, his old home course in Orlando. Then, it could be headed to the Bahamas (Note to Mr. Woods: There are many high-quality golf courses in this area worthy of consideration.).
Woods, a native of Cypress, Calif., made his PGA Tour debut at Riviera CC in Pacific Palisades in the 1992 Nissan Open when he was a 16-year-old high school junior.
AS THE STORY GOES
As the story goes, he might have made the cut if not for a growth spurt during the week that made the shaft in his driver too short. He never won what he often referred to as his “hometown event” at Riviera.
He made up for it by winning five times and counting at Sherwood; and last weekend he closed a chapter on golf in the area he had always called home. But he stopped playing at Riviera in 2006 after he narrowly made the cut. The only regular tour event in California that Woods still plays is at Torrey Pines near San Diego, a two-hour drive from Cypress.
When Tiger won the Canadian Open in 2000 with that 6-iron out of a bunker and over the water, his father, Earl, said that day, “In every tournament, he’ll hit shots that people will be talking about for the next 30 years.” And now we here in South Florida will be able to see them more than ever before, maybe even more so than golf fans in Southern California.
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