Over the weekend, Tiger Woods managed to secure his first win in five years at the Tour Championship. With the anticipation of Tiger Woods being back on top of the leaderboard, TV ratings spiked over 200% from last years’ tournament.
Golf fans have a mix of emotions due to Tiger’s win. From extreme excitement regarding his comeback to coaches expressing how much this sole win spiked golf viewership and brought forth a new admiration to the game – we took it upon ourselves to interview Leadbetter Golf Academy instructors and get their take on what Tiger’s win means to the golf community.
Leadbetter Junior Golf Academy instructor, Matt Richardson, believed that Tiger could come back and secure a win following his injuries.
“Tiger is the greatest golfer of all time, it was inevitable that he would win in due time,” said Matt. “Tiger had won nearly every year of his entire career up until 2013. Coming back after such an enormous low with the amount of criticism he received equates to a great comeback, if not the greatest comeback of all time,” said Matt.
Andy Leadbetter, son of David Leadbetter, who is following closely in his father’s footsteps as a golf instructor also had a few things to say about the subject.
“Many people had given up on Tiger. Considering that thousands of players started playing because of him, a lot of players probably lost interest in the game due to everything that happened. Now that Tiger has climbed back up to the top of the mountain, I think it is one of the greatest comebacks and I am sure it will bring many players back to the game and drive more interest in golf,” said Andy.
“Tiger is one of my favorite golfers of all time. Since he began winning U.S. Amateurs when I was around 8 or 9 years old, I have looked up to his game. I love watching him play; I love his passion,” said Andy.
“If I had to predict when he’d come back and win another Major, I would say within the next two years. Tiger proved to us at The Open that he can put himself in contention to win another Major. Now it is up to him to trust in himself and truly believe he can win again, as he demonstrated over the weekend,” said Andy.
Even David Leadbetter chimed in on the action posting on Twitter on Monday.
It comes as no surprise that Tiger’s comeback has made a splash in the sports world. As one of the most recognized athletes of all time, sports fans from around the world have tuned into golf and watched in anticipation of what’s to come from the all-time great.