Tiger Tiger Tiger Woods Y'All

Tiger Woods won today.  He is back to being the #1 player in the world.  This, in a way, is big news.  It is news because the sports world has been without Tiger as the #1 player for a couple years.  We have tried anointing new stars to take his place.  We fell in love with Bubba because he was a kind-hearted good ol' boy with a pink driver who makes insane shots.  We decided that Rory would be the next Tiger after he won one major, and then cannot fathom why he hasn't gone on a huge run.  We still want Phil to be the perfect foe for all of these players.  But, truthfully, none of it mattered.

None of it.

Why?  Because none of these people were Tiger.

Tiger Woods has always been the #1 player in the world, even if the rankings didn't reflect it.  There is no athlete more important to his sport than Tiger.  The NFL is about the uniforms more than the faces underneath the helmets.  Take LeBron and Kobe away from the NBA and someone else will come along to take their place.  MLB is too worried about its stars being on PEDs to be a star-driven sport, as well as being so traditional that is doesn't need them anyway.  But golf needs Tiger Woods.

PGA rating on TV are astronomically higher when Tiger is in the hunt on Sunday, across the board.  Tiger Woods, even after his personal troubles, is still one of the most recognizable and marketable stars in all of athletics.  I guarantee that if he just embraced his bachelorhood, along with returning to some of his winning ways, American would embrace him again.

So, Tiger is coming back.  Does he need to return to his complete dominance of the entire sport?  Probably not.  The chase for Jack's Major record is enough for him, and winning 5 more Majors in his entire life would pass Jack's 18.  Tiger is also only 5 wins, total, back of Sam Snead for the most wins all time.  Eyes will be glued to the screen any time he is in contention to move closer to being the best ever.

The #1 player in the world?  Of course he is.  He never dropped.