It wasn't exactly the 72-hole slog of a U.S. Open at Oakmont, but Tiger Woods acquitted himself nicely with a T9 finish at the Hero World Challenge and beat the No. 1 player in the world by eight strokes.

More important than his swing or his putting speed, though, is how his back feels. This was always going to be a test. Not of whether Woods is good enough to win a golf tournament right now (he's not) but of which direction Woods' trajectory is pointing.

After 72 holes of walloping long irons and not holding back with his driver, Woods said his surgically-fused lower back is holding up nicely.

"I'm excited," said Woods. "This is the way I've been playing at home and when I came out here and played, I was playing very similar to this. Not quite hitting it as far, but I had the adrenaline going and overall I'm very pleased. I'm excited the way this week has gone on. With not only as the competitive rounds but also all the functions at night. I still got my training in. It was a very good week."

That it was. But we've been here before, right? Woods looked good at the 2016 Hero World Challenge and there was much reason for optimism going into 2017. Then three rounds later, he was back on the shelf for another 10 months. Is this time really going to be different? I don't know, but what I do know is that Woods' back was fused, and he treated it as such this week. He never held back and never looked as if he was trying to ease back into things.

He just got after it. It was wince-worthy at first because nobody knew if the dam would hold. But it did, and Woods seemed carefree about it afterwards when speaking to the media.

If you were really hurting, would you even tell us?

"Yeah, I would tell you."

Are you hurting right now at all? 

"No, nuh-uh."

Woods hasn't exactly been a bastion of truth over the course of his career when it comes to personal or internal battles, but I'm inclined to believe him in this case. If you watch his swing from the 2016 Hero World Challenge compared to this one, it's easy to see just how much better he's feeling now.

"Last year I was still struggling with a little bit of pain ... I was able to hit some good shots, able to play, but in looking back on it now, I look on it as playing in slow mo but it was as hard as I could hit it," said Woods. 

"I didn't realize how bad my back had become and how much I was flinching and just how slow I was. I didn't realize it because it's been a slow degrading process. I thought I had some speed, thought I was playing halfway decent, shot some good scores, but now I've looked back on it and man, I didn't even have much at all."

Compare his swing in the video above to some of these from 2016. Where he struggled to get through the ball last year, he was overpowering it this year. We can argue if it's a good swing or good form, but I think it says a lot about the state of his back.

Woods looked far sharper this year than last year when he led the field in double bogeys. He only shot one round in the 70s and only had a couple of "uh-oh" moments early in the week. Frankly, it was astonishing. Maybe it shouldn't have been because, you know, he's Tiger Woods. But it still was.

"I think (I'm most pleased with) the way I drove it," said Woods. "I really drove it well and I really putted well. I know I had one day where I didn't have speed on the greens, but I hit a lot of good putts this week."

It all added up to a one-stroke mini-victory over Sunday playing partner and reigning FedEx Cup champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year Justin Thomas. J.T. said early in the week, tongue in cheek, that he wanted to kick Tiger's ass. Tiger clipped him at the end despite making bogey at the last two holes.

"There's probably really no words to describe (what it would mean for Tiger to return to playing at an elite level)," said Thomas. "Golf's already in, I'm biased, but I would say it's maybe the best place it's been. Obviously I've only watched it for 19, 20 years ... or 16, 17 years I can remember, but it's in a great place. It's hard to do the things that he did in terms of winning that many tournaments in a year with how deep the Tour is and just how many good, hungry young players there are. But it would be fun."