Who knows if No15 will arrive in Augusta or Shinnecock Hills or Carnoustie or Bellerive but with Woods fit again the biggest obstacle to a fairy-tale comeback has been removed.

In his first tournament in 10 months at the Hero World Challenge in December he was hitting the ball 315 yards off the tee and his ball speed was touching 180mph. Those are not the numbers of an also-ran, nor of someone in pain. 

Woods’s fourth spinal surgery in four years has been a success. There were a couple of duffed chips in the Bahamas but the Tiger the world saw after so long out of the game was still far better than anyone had the right to expect.

An example. The final round. Second shot to the par-5 third – 271 yards into the breeze. He pulls out a two iron. Woods goes at it with everything he has. Woods recoils like he has fired a blunderbuss as up, up and away the ball soars at an impossibly steep angle into the blue sky.

The outcome is not perfect – it lands softly on the green but rolls gently through it – but it is a shot to turn heads. The mouth of Justin Thomas, the player of the year, alongside him hangs open.

So this is the guy they used to talk about. Woods congratulated Thomas on his five wins in 2017 while he was in the Bahamas. He added that he only needed to do it another nine more times to catch him. The competitive juices are flowing again.

It is fantasy to expect Woods to dominate golf in the way he once did. The young pups pack too much collective punch for one of the old guard to keep on top of them. He turns 42 on December 30. But he has shown he still has it in him to stand toe to toe with them when the occasion demands.

Woods beat Thomas and the World No1 Dustin Johnson in finishing ninth of 18 on his return. With more golf under his belt he can be a threat again. And the places where he wants to contend more than anywhere are the Majors.

They are a curious set in 2018. Bellerive, in St Louis, the venue for the US PGA, is an unknown quantity. Woods’s one memory of it is of having to drive 15 hours home to Florida in 2001 after an event there was cancelled after the 9/11 attacks and all flights grounded.

The US Open is at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island. The last time it was staged there in 2004 the greens ran out of control and Woods finished 17th. 

Carnoustie, which will host The Open, is the toughest course on the rota. Woods has finished seventh and 12th there and likes the challenge. Nowhere though suits him better than Augusta, the setting – as always – for the season’s first Major, the Masters, in April. 

He loves the place and why wouldn’t he with four Green Jackets and nine other top 10 finishes? Woods has missed three of the past four Masters through injury but an elephant never forgets. He knows every blade of grass around Augusta.

In 2017, Roger Federer, above, showed the passage of time can be suspended by ripping up his sporting obituaries and winning two tennis Grand Slams.

Woods’ renaissance would be from further out – he has not won a tournament for four years – but his baby steps could not have been more encouraging.

Sunday at Augusta... the roars echoing. Tiger in red on the leaderboard. Just imagine.

It is a fantasy, yes, but it can be a reality too. 

The salivating prospect for 2018 is that Woods truly will be back.