Tiger Woods’ big talk the sign everyone has been waiting for

NASSAU, Bahamas — The state of Tiger Woods — post 15-month tournament layoff — can be characterized best by the following question-and-answer exchange at this week’s Hero World Challenge.

“What do you feel like has been the strength of your game this week?’’ Woods was asked.

“My mind,’’ Woods said.

“Can you elaborate on that?’’

“Always has been,’’ Woods said.

If the kind of interview exchange with Woods sounds familiar, it should.

Woods is cocksure again. His competitive arrogance has returned. And that’s a sign of better things to come for him after he closed out a 15th-place finish in the Hero on Sunday with a final-round 76 at Albany Golf Club.

A year ago at this event, which is hosted by Woods with proceeds benefitting his foundation, he spoke like a defeated man. His body language screamed concession.

Still saddled with the back-injury complications that kept him away from tournament golf since August 2015, Woods said at that time he could barely get out of bed, had little to look forward to and, if he was able to compete again, anything beyond the 79 tournaments (including 14 majors) he has won would be “gravy.’’

Those were alarming words — words that seemed to signify the end of one of the most brilliant golf careers ever.

But this week at Albany, an uber-exclusive playground for multi-millionaires where Woods and a number of fellow players own homes, Woods proved his playing career is definitely not over.

The returns on Woods’ week — from him, his caddie, Joe LaCava, and the other players in the field — were universally positive. The statistical result — Woods finishing higher than only two players in the field and 14 shots behind winner Hideki Matsuyama — somewhat belied what took place over 72 holes.

Woods had as many birdies for the week (24) as Matsuyama did. But he also had six double bogeys (three of which came on No. 18) and eight bogeys.

“I made a lot of birdies, but also made a lot of mistakes,’’ Woods said.

Woods always used to measure the success of a tournament week by whether he was loading the winner’s trophy into his courtesy car on Sunday night. Expectations, however, have changed with the times and the multiple back surgeries he’s endured.

“Getting back to this point is beyond anything that I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime,’’ Woods said. “The pain issues that I had, it was rough. Quite frankly, there were some pretty dire times where I just couldn’t move.’’

Still, Woods talked boldly on Sunday about the fact he “was planning on playing, competing, trying to win this tournament.’’

LaCava had much more modest goals for the week.

“He’s upright, No. 1,’’ LaCava said. “Seriously. You laugh, but I think that’s good. I wasn’t going to compare him to the rest of the field. It’s a great field, they’ve been playing all year and they’ve all been playing great. My goal was to get him through five rounds [including the pro-am] on his feet. That doesn’t sound like much, but he hasn’t been doing much of that, so that was big.’’

Woods’ swing looked free all week. He went after some shots with all his might, and there was no outward evidence of back pain. His short game looked pretty sharp, with little evidence of those ghastly yips he was experiencing when he last played. His putting had some good moments and some indifferent ones, but that all comes with playing more.

The highlight was the bogey-free 7-under 65 Woods shot on Friday, a score that got everyone’s attention.

“I think he’s certainly exceeded expectations — though it’s hard to say he’s exceeded any expectations, because it’s Tiger,’’ Jordan Spieth said. “But I think he’s very pleasantly surprised. Taking off that amount of time, you can’t really expect to come back and get right into it.’’

What’s next for Woods? As usual, he was noncommittal on his upcoming schedule, but he’s most likely to play next on the PGA Tour Jan. 26-29 at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where he’s won eight times.

“I’ll consider a lot of things, but I would like in my heart of hearts to play a full schedule next year,’’ Woods said. “Big picture? It feels good to be back out here playing again, competing and trying to beat these, the best players in the world. I missed it. I love it.’’