Tiger Woods made the adjustments that he needed to at the Honda Classic, and the results were better than anyone could have anticipated.
We have been searching for a sign that Woods is coming out of his two-year slump. There have been small moments in the past where it looked like he had figured everything out, including a win at the Chevron World Challenge last December.
Jonathan Wall of Yahoo Sports put it best, when he wrote that Woods finally put all phases of the game together for the first time in a long time.
We'd seen him get hot before on the front nine, but cool when he made the turn; however, this time around it seemed like Woods found that gear he'd been missing, as he birdied the 11th before closing things out with two holes that could go a long way toward boosting his confidence going into the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral.
Sunday's performance was exactly what Woods needed to show and what we needed to see. The biggest problem that he has had this season was on the green. His driving was getting better, but his putter kept letting him down.
All that changed with a brilliant showing on Sunday. He only had to putt 26 times. He sank his first putt 10 times, and never needed more than two on any hole. That was a vast improvement from where he was at on Thursday, when he needed 33 putts to get through the first round.
When all was said and done, Woods shot the best round of his professional career--an 8-under par 62 that carried him to a second place finish.
Everything that Woods has been doing over the last two years on the course has been building up to this moment. But this will not be the end of it, not by a long shot.
What we saw on Sunday was the rebirth of Tiger Woods as a championship caliber golfer. He may not be the player he was from 1999-2001, but he doesn't have to be that player to win big.
Instead, Woods just has to trust himself and his ability again. He is going to start winning majors, starting with The Masters on April 5, because he has figured out what he was doing wrong.
Tiger Woods is back and he is going to be better than ever. He will prove that next weekend, in the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
