Tiger Woods contends and Tigermania returns: ‘The absolute best-case scenario’

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Tiger Woods is tied for the lead at the Wyndham Championship through 36 holes. “This is the kind of thing tournament directors dream about after a hearty meal,” Charlotte Observer columnist Luke Decock writes. “Rarely does it come to fruition like this: The absolute best-case scenario when Woods decided…to make his first appearance at the tournament. It’s one thing for Woods to show up. It’s another for him to contend on the weekend…After selling all 30,000 tickets Friday, the Wyndham will make a few thousand more available Saturday. If the course isn’t too crowded, they might sell even more Sunday.”

“The ramifications of so little golf for Tiger Woods over the past two years are innumerable. No continuity. No rhythm. No momentum. No success. And then there are the factors not given much thought, such as Woods not having much of a chance to come in contact with his peers, especially those who are new to the scene,” ESPN’s Bob Harig writes. One of them is his co-leader at the Wyndham Championship, Tom Hoge. “His name is also pronounced ‘Hoagie’ and so when Woods was asked if he had ever heard of him, or if he would recognize him, there was a funny exchange. ‘No, I wouldn't. What is it, or him? I don't know,’ Woods said.”

Woods is playing in the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., for the first time, and in doing so, is tracing the steps of the man he called his grandfather, the late Charlie Sifford. “Tiger Woods was flanked by seven members of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday as he moved about the grounds of Sedgefield Country Club,” Chip Alexander of the Charlotte Observer writes. “Another golfer once was given similar treatment at Sedgefield, but for a far different reason. When Charlie Sifford began play in the 1961 tournament, he was the first African-American golfer to compete in a PGA Tour event in the South.”

Lydia Ko was 15, still an amateur, when she won the CP Canadian Women’s Open at Vancouver Golf Club with a member, Brian Alexander, as her caddy. The Canadian Women’s Open has returned to the club this week and Alexander reminisced about the experience. “He dropped Ko’s driver on a cart path and left a nick in the club,” Ed Willes at Canada.com writes. “He miscalculated on yardages a couple of times. After each practice round, Alexander was afraid he’d get the call saying his meagre services were no longer required. ‘I think what clinched it is I told Tina (Ko, Lydia’s mother and very much the CEO of Team Ko) I’d do it for free,’ he says.”