Dec 4, 2016 By Mike Dudurich for The 4 min read

Although I suspected overkill, I didn’t expect nuclear-like overkill.

Tiger Woods returned to competitive golf for the first time in 16 months at a tournament he hosts, The Hero Challenge, in the Bahamas. The whole week leading up to Thursday had been dominated by analysis of his every move in practice rounds and while the event is not a big-time event by any means, news coming from the Albany Golf Club was primarily about the guy who has plummeted to 898th in the world.

But Golf Channel went nuts on Thursday. Their coverage window from noon-4:30 started with Woods standing on the first tee and nothing he did during the day was missed.

And then came the post-round analysis. Woods’ former coach Hank Haney tweeted that from what he saw on TV, Woods will win more events and at least one more major.

Really? He could have seen that from 18 holes?

Woods was criticized for still having the two-way miss with his drives. His short game did not show any of the shanks he exhibited the last time he played, but he did misplay a couple chips and went from a waste area on one side of the green to a bunker on the other side.

He hit some massive drives, some down the middle, a couple into the plants off the fairway and one that got wet.

What do I take from what I saw? There was plenty of rust in the game that went public for the first time in over a year and a half. Can he win and win majors again? Honestly, for someone to be able to make that kind of statement based on this event is preposterous.

His swing, obviously modified and more compacted since we saw him last, did not feature the kind of powerful lashes we’ve come to know and be in awe of. But is the controlled swing the way Woods has to play the rest of his career because of all of his back issues or was it the swing of a guy just trying to survive a round of golf?

There’s only one person who knows that answer and he’ll never tell.

I’m sure Golf Channel’s ratings were through the roof Thursday afternoon and that’s great for them. But, in reality, this event is just an extension of the considerable rehabilitation he’s gone through since August of 2014.

He definitely gassed on the way in Thursday, putting four 6s on his card in the last 10 holes. But like his swing, his touch and his stamina need to be built up. That will only come with repetition. Getting through four rounds this week will be a step.

Then it will be at least a month off before he tees it up again, most likely not until the PGA Tour returns to the mainland after its two-tournament stay in Hawaii.

Bottom line? While there’s been a great deal of excitement about Woods’ return, excitement that was ramped up when he blistered the course with a no-bogey 65 in the second round, golf fans around the world are going to have to start exercising great patience.

For Tiger Woods, this is not a sprint, but a marathon. It’s a building process toward Augusta National, Erin Hills and the rest of the 2017 major championships.

He is a long way from any of that. He’s at the stage of trying to put four rounds together and be healthy, then compete in back-to-back weeks and be healthy. And then, of course, he’ll be doing that and hoping to keep his game together, which might be as big a task as anything else.

Let’s see how he’s doing when the calendar turns to April and thoughts turn to the Masters.

Who knows, we could be on the verge of one of the great comebacks of all time.

Or maybe not.

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If you have an interesting story about your club or course or an individual who has done something special, let me know. Send your story ideas to mike.dudurich@gmail.com.