Column: Tiger Woods is back, and golf is better for it

They had waited more than five years for this moment.

No way were those frail little ropes, strung up on flimsy poles, going to hold them back.

No way were they listening to those red-shirted marshals, a bit of terror in their eyes as they pleaded futilely for everyone to come to their senses.

They had to feel it, touch it, see it with their own eyes.

Maybe that was the only way to persuade themselves that this most remarkable of comebacks had actually happened.

Tiger Woods. A winner again.

The staid ol' Tour Championship became a boisterous street party late Sunday afternoon, the fans storming down the middle of the 18th fairway like a bunch of crazed college kids laying siege to a football field after a last-second victory.

"Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" they chanted over and over, looking very much like they may storm the Tudor-style clubhouse, the roar carrying all the way to Peachtree.

It was thrilling, exhilarating, even a bit frightening for those caught in the middle of the mob.

Then again, it was not an unexpected reaction given what Woods has meant to the game of golf to the entire sporting world, really.

"From one goat (greatest of all time) to another I can only imagine what @TigerWoods is feeling today," tweeted Michael Phelps, the winningest athlete in Olympic history.

"Pumped to be watching this today!! Have fun out there today my man!!!" Despite an influx of talented young players in recent years, golf just hasn't been the same since Woods went away, his brilliant career derailed by debilitating injuries and personal demons.

As NBC analyst Roger Maltbie put it, "He doesn't just move the needle, he is the needle."
"Am I going to be able to sit, stand, walk, lay down without feeling the pain that I was in. I just didn't want to live that way. Is this how the rest of my life is going to be? (If so), it's going to be a tough rest of my life. So, I was beyond playing. I couldn't sit. I couldn't walk. I couldn't lay down without feeling the pain in my back and my leg."
"I just didn't know if I could ever piece together a golf swing."