Commentary: Stars wonder what it was like to face Tiger

Honolulu — The question was as much rhetorical as it was cynical.

Matt Kuchar was playing alone on a slow Monday in Shanghai last fall, holding court on all things golf in between shots when the topic turned to Tiger Woods. Out of the game for nine months, Woods had just begun to post video of his swing.

Woods was still a week away from announcing he would return to competition in the Bahamas after recovering from a fourth back surgery.

“Do you think guys today believe they could have taken on Tiger at his best?” Kuchar asked.

He didn’t offer an answer, perhaps knowing that just like comparing generations, there are no answers, only speculation.

Besides, what could anyone say?

“You’d be stupid to say you couldn’t. You’d be doubting yourself,” U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka said. “I watched it growing up. I knew exactly how good he was. I wish I could have played against him. I think it would be cool to compare yourself to it.”

The question now is whether it’s too late to find out.

Woods begins the real test in his latest comeback this week in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, the public course along the Pacific bluffs that once served as his personal playground. He won eight times as a pro at Torrey Pines, including the 2008 U.S. Open.

He looked healthy — and strong — in the Bahamas, when he tied for ninth at the Hero World Challenge against an 18-man field. Scouting reports from the elite in golf who have played with him over the last few months have been glowing. While it’s doubtful that Woods — now 42 and with eight surgeries behind him — can ever get back to who he was on the golf course, it’s enough to wonder how close he can get.

Only then will today’s stars get an idea of how they could fare.

“Truth be told, I’d love to have these young guys that are dominating the game have a piece – just one year – of what we experienced,” Zach Johnson said.

Johnson is among 78 players who have been runner-up to Woods on the PGA Tour. He finished eight shots back in 2007 at the Tour Championship.

Stewart Cink was intrigued by the question.

He competed against Woods his entire career and knows how difficult it could be. Cink tied for second when Woods won Bay Hill by 11 shots. He also was on the wrong end of an 8-and-7 outcome when Woods won his third Match Play title.

“I’ve played with Tiger when he was playing the best he’s ever played, and it was a real treat to see it – although it wasn’t a treat to be humiliated by his dominance,” Cink said. “I’ve also played with some of these younger guys. They’re special players. I would love for the game to give us Tiger getting back to where he was so we could see what he would do against Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.

“The golf world would get a real kick out of it.”

Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Spieth are the last three players to be voted PGA Tour player of the year. They are major champions.

Could they have taken him?

“My self-confidence and self-belief would say, ‘Yes,’” Thomas said.

Then he paused and began to smile before adding with a chuckle, “But everything I’ve watched and everything I’ve heard … no.”

Thomas learned last year that he didn’t need his absolute best stuff to win tournaments. He’s not sure anything but his best would have worked against Woods.

Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, has 17 victories on the PGA Tour. Woods played in only one of those events, the 2010 BMW Championship.

“If I’m playing my best? Yeah, I’d take him,” Johnson said. “But over the course of a season? For nine years, 10 years in a row? He kept that level up for 10 years. That’s very, very sick. My best versus his best, I think it’s going to be neck and neck. But he was playing at his best for 10 years.”

Spieth, realizing there is no way of knowing because of how much the game has changed in 10 years, found his answer in numbers.

There are a lot of numbers when it comes to Tiger.

Spieth had his best year in 2015 when his five PGA Tour victories included two majors. Woods had years that good or better in 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2006.

“You get out here and you get caught up in the world ranking, what you’re doing compared with those around you,” Spieth said. “It’s not until you look at data, or statistics, where I’ve started to see, ‘Wow, that was absolutely incredible.’ The win percentage is the most amazing stat of his career.”

Until Woods had his first back surgery in April 2014, his rate of winning on the PGA Tour was 26 percent. Spieth is the most reasonable comparison because of his age and the schedule he keeps. He already has 11 wins and two majors at age 24.

His rate of winning is 9 percent.

“It’s absurd,” Spieth said. “What he was able to do year in and year out … I don’t think it’s going to happen again.”

But to get just a glimpse of it, would that be asking too much?

PGA Tour

Farmers Insurance Open

Site: San Diego.

Courses: Torrey Pines GC. South Course (Yardage: 7,698. Par: 72) and North Course (Yardage: 7,258. Par: 72.)

Purse: $6.9 million. Winner’s share: $1,242,000.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 3-7 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 2-3:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), 4-7 p.m. (CBS); Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6:30 p.m. (CBS).

Defending champion: Jon Rahm.

Last week: Rahm won the CareerBuilder Challenge.

FedEx Cup leader: Patton Kizzire.

Notes: Tiger Woods plays his first PGA Tour event in a year. He missed the cut at Torrey Pines last year, flew to Dubai and withdrew after one round with back spasms, and then had back surgery two months later. … The field features four of the top 10 in the world ranking – Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler. … Rose, who ended 2017 with 10 consecutive finishes in the top 10, began this year with a tie for 22nd in Abu Dhabi. … Woods has a career scoring average of 69.09 at the PGA Tour stop at Torrey Pines. He has finished the tournament over par in his last two starts. … Rahm last year became the first player in 26 years to make win his first PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines. … Jason Day is making his 2018 debut. Day began last year at No. 1 in the world. He now is at No. 14. … The last seven winners have started the tournament on the South Course. … Torrey Pines will host the U.S. Open again in 2021.

Next week: Waste Management Phoenix Open.

LPGA Tour

Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic

Site: Paradise Island, Bahamas.

Course: Ocean Club GC. Yardage: 6,625. Par: 73.

Purse: $1.4 million. Winner’s share: $210,000.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 3:30-5:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Sunday, 3-5 p.m. (Golf Channel).

Defending champion: Brittany Lincicome.

Last tournament: Ariya Jutanugarn won the CME Group Tour Championship.

Notes: The field features five of the top 10 from the world ranking. Among those skipping are Sung Hyun Park, who shared the LPGA player of the year award last year with So Yeon Ryu. … Shanshan Feng won twice at the end of last year to move to No. 1 in the world, where she starts the 2018 season. … Feng was among five players who spent time at No. 1 in the world last year. The others were Lydia Ko, So Yeon Ryu, Park and Ariya Jutanugarn. … Lexi Thompson is in the field. She had the lead last year in the Bahamas until making two bogeys on the back nine and losing in a playoff to Brittany Lincicome. … The Bahamas is the closest the LPGA Tour will get to headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida, until the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples. … The LPGA Tour plays four events overseas before its first domestic tournament on March 15-18 in Arizona.

Next tournament: ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open on Feb. 15-18.

European Tour

Omega Dubai Desert Classic

Site: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Course: Emirates GC. Yardage: 7,238. Par: 72.

Purse: $3 million.

Television: Thursday 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.; 6-8 a.m. (Golf Channel); Friday, 2:30-8 a.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 3:30-8 a.m. (Golf Channel).

Defending champion: Sergio Garcia.

Last week: Tommy Fleetwood won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Race to Dubai leader: Fleetwood.

Notes: Garcia at No. 9 is the highest-ranked player in the field, joined by the next three players behind in the world ranking — Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy and Fleetwood. … McIlroy tied for third in the Abu Championship and still remained at No. 11 in the world because of the players around him also doing well. … Pat Perez is playing Dubai for the first time. That means missing out at Torrey Pines, where his father is the longtime announcer on first tee. … One of the exemptions was given to Sean Crocker, the Zimbabwe-born and California-raised player who earned a British Open spot last week in the Singapore Open. Crocker played in college at Southern California. … The tournament dates to 1989 and claims 10 major champions as its winners, including Tiger Woods (twice), Fred Couples and Mark O’Meara. … The Dubai Desert Classic is one week earlier than normal. Instead of cutting the field because of the slight loss of daylight, the tournament has installed floodlights around the combined ninth and 18th greens to make sure everyone can finish the opening two rounds. The field remains at 132 players.

Next week: Maybank Championship.