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Tiger Woods has never been one to shy away from length. The 14-time major winner has always had an itch for the long ball, and he spent the first two decades of his career scratching it.

Apparently, he has the itch again. Rickie Fowler was recently asked by Golf.com's Dylan Dethier how Woods was looking, and Fowler said Tiger was hitting it "way by" him.

Of course, Fowler might have also been joking, but let's presume he wasn't. Fowler ranked No. 41 on the PGA Tour last year, averaging 300.3 yards off the tee. In his last full year on the PGA Tour, Woods ranked No. 49 at 293.2. So he apparently picked up a lot of distance since then. Or maybe the equipment is just that much better.

"I can't believe how far I'm hitting the golf ball," Woods told Geno Auriemma on his podcast recently. "I'm back to hitting it my full numbers and not really trying to do that. I didn't realize how much I had dropped off because of the pain in my back and from me going at it and hitting it normal just because I just lived it from day to day and I really couldn't tell the difference. But now I can tell the difference."

So is he hitting it past Fowler, or was Fowler joking? Who knows. Dethier clarified that the exchange might have been a bit tongue-in-cheek. What I do know is that we'll find out at the end of this month when both of them tee it up at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.