Getty Image / Ben Jared
Tiger Woods is fresh off of a dominant, three-shot win at the inaugural ZOZO Championship in Japan. The ZOZO was his first start of the new season and also his first since his latest knee surgery. With his record-tying 82nd PGA Tour victory there are both serious hype and serious questions surrounding the big cat.
The hype is pretty self-explanatory seeing as how over the past 13 months Woods has won a Tour Championship, his fifth green jacket and tied Sam Snead’s 54-year-old record; this all, of course, happening after going over five years without a win.
The biggest question for Woods now is whether or not he will play in the Presidents Cup in Australia this December. He is the U.S. team’s captain but can use a captain’s pick on himself making him a playing captain, which he all but said he would be doing so in a post-round interview.
We'd say @TigerWoods "the player" got everyone's attention 😉 pic.twitter.com/Zet3NtxouJ
— Presidents Cup (@PresidentsCup) October 28, 2019
What’s been lost throughout Woods’ comeback has been the possibility of seeing him tee it up in the 2020 Olympics. Olympic golf isn’t the greatest product the game delivers but seeing Woods compete for a gold medal for the first time ever next August would be awesome.
Woods seems pretty excited about the possibility, too.
“I hope to qualify for the team and represent my country,” Woods said. “I know some of my friends have made Olympic teams before in the past, and they said it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I have never played for a gold medal before and certainly it would be an honor to do it. And especially at the age I’ll be, I’ll be 44, and I don’t know if I have many more chances after that.”
Only the Top 4 ranked American players will earn spots on the Olympic team and after his win at the ZOZO he’s moved up to No. 6 in the world and the No. 4 American in the world. However, the Official World Golf Rankings use a two-year rolling points system that currently dates back to October of 2017, while points for the official Olympic rankings only began accruing in July of 2018.
Based on the two-year system, Woods is No. 5 among Americans at the moment but with plenty of golf between now and then seeing Woods representing his country at the Olympics is a strong possibility.