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The return of Tiger Woods: What you need to know

NASSAU, Bahamas — The Hero World Challenge is this weekend, an event featuring the most prestigious field of the young 2016-17 PGA Tour season. But with no disrespect intended toward the Bubba Watsons and Patrick Reeds of the field, for most of the sports world this event is about one story, and one story only: the return of Tiger Woods.

The greatest or second-greatest player ever to swing a club, depending on when you were born, Woods has not played a competitive round of golf since August 2015, back in the days when neither the Cubs nor the Cavaliers nor Donald Trump had won anything of significance. Woods has spent the last 16 months, the longest layoff of his career, in everything from cereal-eating seclusion to practice-range grinding to Ryder Cup vice-captaining, and finally makes his return to the game this weekend … and the venue couldn’t be more comforting.

Woods is the host of the Hero World Challenge, and he’s won the event five times. He’s not expected to do that this weekend, not with players like Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson in the field. But just getting through four rounds — there’s no cut at this event — will be a victory of sorts for Woods. And yes, the fact that we have to say that given this is a guy who’s won more majors (14) than the rest of the field combined (11) is an indicator of how far Woods’ game has fallen.

The particulars:

Tournament location: Albany, The Bahamas

Format: 72-hole stroke play, no cut

Defending champion: Bubba Watson

Television (Eastern time):
Thursday & Friday: Golf Channel 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Saturday: Golf Channel 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.; NBC 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday: Golf Channel 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; NBC 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Notable Day 1 pairings (Eastern time): Tiger Woods/Patrick Reed (noon)
Bubba Watson/Rickie Fowler (11:10 a.m.)
Jordan Spieth/Matt Kuchar (11:50 a.m.)
Dustin Johnson/Brooks Koepka (12:10 p.m.)

As for Woods himself, he’ll be sporting a range of new equipment, starting with his bag, adorned with Monster Energy:

Yes, golf has moved on from Tiger. The players at the tops of leaderboards today, many of whom are in the field this week, could hang with any of the game’s historic greats. Still, it’s about 120 days to Augusta, and for this week, the return of Tiger Woods will be the most fascinating story in golf.

Tiger Woods is back, but not even he knows what to expect next. (Getty Images)
Tiger Woods is back, but not even he knows what to expect next. (Getty Images)

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.