default-cbs-image

Tiger Woods shot a 76 in the final round of the Hero World Challenge on Sunday in the Bahamas. This followed rounds of 73-65-70 over the first three days. He finished 15th of 17 in a really good field and shot up nearly 250 spots in the Official World Golf Rankings.

None of this really tells the story of why the week was a success for Woods, though.

Coming in, I thought Woods would do well not to finish last. Not only did he not finish last, but he was in contention and tied for third late in the third round on Saturday afternoon. That's after a 16-month layoff!

What was unfolding in the Bahamas was a startling revelation that Woods still has the goods, and he showed them off in stretches all week. Yes, he faltered late, but I never really cared about his final score. This week was not about scoring and all about how Tiger set himself up for the future.

Here are five reasons Woods' first tournament back at the Hero World Challenge should be considered a success.

1. He didn't get injured: Not only did he not get injured, but I can't remember a single time he even winced in pain despite a dozen bad lies and awkward stances. His caddie Joe LaCava summed this up well after the week was over. "I thought it was good,'' LaCava told ESPN. "He's upright, No. 1. You laugh, but that's good."

2. He led the field in birdies: This is a real stat. Woods made 24 of them. He had at least five in every round. Woods' mistakes are correctable, but the way he got to his score of 4 under matters. He was not clawing out pars and making the occasional birdie. He was pouring them in over and over and over again. A handful of double bogeys that led to his ultimate demise on the week can be fixed. If he had made, say, 65 pars, six birdies and a double bogey on the week to score 4 under, I would be a lot more concerned about his ability to play in real PGA Tour events than I am right now.

3. He looked completely engaged: Speaking of scratching out pars. How great was it to see Woods fist-pumping long par-saving putts? You can always tell when a golfer (especially Woods) is locked in or disinterested. I never saw the focus leave Woods' brow this week on the course. This did not matter for the tournament because he was not ultimately a contender, but it told me a lot about how he views the future.

4. His swing looks sustainable: There were two different swings going on this week. The first we will talk about is his iron swing. It looked short, crisp and honestly what we have wanted to see from him for the last five years. Woods was swinging in a way that made you think he could do it for the next decade. It was a delight to watch.

The second swing was with his driver. He got after some shots, but as the video below shows, he didn't have quite the same torque he's had in recent years. This is a good thing for a back that has seen three surgeries in three years. In some ways, we saw everything we wanted out of the swing. A stable-enough back to hit some monster drives and a wisdom with his irons that said he didn't have to go all out on every shot.

"I love the fact he was hitting a lot of shots that he was picturing in his mind, like right-to-left wind and hitting a little hold-up cut shot with mid-irons and hitting the little low, semi-stinger with the longer irons," LaCava told ESPN. "And when we were downwind, getting the ball up in the air and bombing it."

5. That Scotty Cameron putter: Old faithful. It took Woods about three minutes to throw the Scotty back in his bag.

Maybe it's all in his head. Maybe it's all in my head. But Woods seemed more confident with his stroke and his lines than he has in recent memory. His speeds were off, yes, but the portion of his game that has betrayed him at majors and other big tournaments recently is the flat stick. I'm not sure that's going to be the case in the future.

I wrote a best-case scenario for Woods heading into this event. Here's what I said.

A best-case scenario for Woods this week involves him looking free off the tee, tight with his short game and painless throughout. It probably involves in a little old-man swagger and definitely a fist pump or two.

That's, uh, basically what happened. My point is this: Nobody thought Woods would look this good this early. Nobody thought he could find his "feels" as he calls him right out of the gate. Six double bogeys will sink anybody's tournament, but this comeback is not about what he does in December 2016. It's about how what he does in December 2016 lays the foundation for April 2017, June 2017, July 2017 and August 2017. It's about the four majors for Woods.

Consider the foundation laid.