Rozner: Tiger Woods moving the PGA needle again

After capturing the Honda Classic a week ago, Justin Thomas said he had never heard roars like that on a golf course.

But they weren't for the winner. They weren't even for the leaders. The cheers were for the guy that finished 12th, about an hour before the final groups came home.

Only one player can create that kind of noise. Only one player can bump attendance 40 percent. And only one can make Golf Channel the No. 1 cable sports network on Sunday by twice the number of any competitor.

It's no coincidence that it was the most-watched lead-in coverage for a PGA Tour event since the 2013 Farmers, which Tiger Woods won by 4 shots.

Yes, Woods is the reason for all of the above, and now he's committed to playing the next two events, the Valspar in Tampa and the Palmer in Orlando.

Not only is there a serious buzz around the game but there's real optimism after the progress Woods made in the week between missing the cut at Riviera and taking on PGA National. Somewhere between Los Angeles and West Palm, Woods began to hit fairways and greens again and the results were remarkable in the Honda's U.S. Open conditions, complete with a ferocious wind.

Maybe not remarkable for Woods as you remember him, but certainly for any mortal after four back surgeries - spinal fusion 11 months ago - and with little golf the past four years. Woods once again has you wondering if he is a mere mortal.

After so much time off and so many injuries, you might expect him to start showing some improvement a year from now, assuming health. Remember, he has played only 10 rounds of Tour golf since his last surgery nearly a year ago.

Crazy.

So now what? Well, believe in his back holding up at your own risk, but he is swinging as violently as ever with no setbacks. A 42-year-old with a bad back doesn't reach ball speeds of 180 mph and have a club-head speed of 122 mph, which is where Woods was heading into this weekend, good for fourth on the Tour and ahead of bombers like Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy.

It was so impressive that on Sunday afternoon on CBS, Jack Nicklaus said, "The question now with Tiger is can he stay healthy? If he does, he can be as good as ever."

As good as ever? Impossible. Woods' best years are the best of all time and no one will ever do it again, but it points to the excitement Woods is creating.

On a Golf Channel podcast, Brandel Chamblee - as fierce a Woods critic as has ever lived - was downright giddy. When asked about the chances of Woods making the Ryder Cup team, a notion so ridiculous a month ago as to bring hysterics, Chamblee said, "Eighty-percent chance he'll be playing on the team. If the Ryder Cup were played next week, he'd get picked based upon what he did at the Honda.

"There's only eight that are going to make the team. They're going to have four picks. There is nobody that is going to say, 'Hey, let's not pick Tiger Woods.' "

The 20 percent is where Chamblee left room for another back injury. Still, this conversation would have been unthinkable a month ago.

So let's be realistic. Woods needs time and reps. It could still be a year before he is playing consistently good golf and there's a lot to clean up. He might win this year, but he won't be playing his best until he can tee it up week after week, and for that he has to stay healthy. In that respect, it seems, so far so good.

He went into this week ranked 16th on Tour in strokes-gained approach, 18th in strokes-gained putting, 22nd in scoring and last week he led the field in proximity to the hole on approach.

Of course, you have to hit a green to have prox and he's still not hitting enough greens. Woods is one of the worst on Tour hitting fairways, which is why he's not hitting greens.

His distance is superb, which has allowed him to scramble, but he's also not scoring on par-5s, a Woods trademark.

So while he's flirted with contention on Sunday at the Farmers and the Honda, a failure to fire off the tee has cost him both times.

Just two weeks ago, Woods was a failure and would never win again, according to so many experts. Today, many of the same people have him winning majors this year.

Such is the lack of understanding of where Woods has been and where he has to go to get back into contention. What is not in dispute is what it will mean for the game if he does.

"I'm sitting with the trophy, so I'm fine with it, but I did say to (caddie Jimmy Johnson) that it's weird, that our galleries (at Honda) weren't anything close to Tiger's galleries," said the 24-year-old Thomas, who was 4 years old when Woods won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots. "He fully deserves it. He moves the needle. He is the needle. He's the reason attendance was so high this week.

"They weren't coming out here to watch Luke List and Justin Thomas. They were coming out here to watch Tiger, so I don't blame them. I'd go watch him, too."

Thomas is far from alone.

If Tiger Woods can stay healthy, if he can just keep playing for a full year, it's hard not to ponder the possibilities.

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.