Tiger Woods is far from finished

It wasn’t exactly a Michael Jordan moment. Tiger Woods did not stand up after his Sunday round of golf at the Chevron World Challenge and declare: “I’m back!”

But even in his defeat, the signs were there that the game of golf — representing millions of fans and millions of sponsorship dollars — may be at least temporarily saved from its worst fear: the loss of a competitive Tiger.

When Woods shot 65-66-68 in the first three rounds of this late-season, mostly-for-charity event in Thousand Oaks, ears that had tuned out news of Tiger perked up again. His four-shot lead going into the final 18 holes had editors taking notice and sports fans twirling radio dials and clicking onto the Internet on Sunday.

That hadn’t happened in awhile. Sports heroes are disposable, and Tiger’s game and reputation had been in the garbage.

He had not led a round of a tournament since the Barclays in late August, had not — more stunningly — won a PGA event for the first time in his 15-year career. On Oct. 31, he had lost his No. 1 world ranking, which he held for a record 281 weeks. His average winnings a year ago had been $618,000. In 2010, his biggest paycheck was $330,000 from his share of fourth in the Masters. He went seven consecutive tournaments without a top-10 finish.

And, of course, things were even worse off the course. He had cheated on his wife, got caught in one of the uglier public celebrity messes ever, got divorced and lost piles of money in the divorce and sponsorship deals. That travesty began Nov. 27, 2009, with the crashed car in his Florida driveway. Since then, 2010 has been a pothole for Woods.

But on Sunday, only 25 days before the end of the year of his discontent, a few clouds parted and some sun shined down.

He was matched in the final foursome with golf’s man of the year, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell. McDowell not only won the U.S. Open this year at Pebble Beach, where Tiger once dominated a U.S. Open field by 12 strokes, but also sank the lightning fast, near-impossible putt that won the Ryder Cup for Europe two months ago.

Even though this was mostly a nice, little, end-of-the-season afterthought tournament, with a field limited to 18 via invitations from Tiger; and even though it was played on a Sherwood Country Club course that Tiger chose and the event benefits his foundation, the Woods-McDowell matchup had a chance for drama.

That it had.

Woods lost 75% of his four-stroke lead in the first four holes, then dropped two more at the par-five 13th, when he played it like the Wednesday morning crowd at Azusa Greens and took a seven. But the two-shot lead that presented to McDowell vanished when the Irishman hit his tee shot on the par-three 17th into waist-high rough and had to scramble for a miraculous four.

Then the good stuff began. Tied for the lead at 15 under, Woods hit his second shot on No. 18 to three feet, McDowell to 20.

Game over? Not this year with McDowell.

He stunned a crowd that had been poised to celebrate the return of Tiger by rolling in his putt. Tiger made his three-foot putt and they went to No. 18 for the first playoff in the event’s 12-year history.

Again, they calmly sailed approach shots over the water in front of the green. This time, McDowell was about 24 feet away, near the same spot as before, and Woods was 10 feet closer on a similar line.

Reality was that McDowell would not do it again. Vegas oddsmakers would have given you 10-1. The planets that aligned all year for the likable McDowell could not be expected to be in place again.

Wrong. McDowell stroked it just right again. Woods slid his by on the low side and it was over.

It was the kind of finish that left the crowd dazed and buzzing, the kind of action that keeps the sport alive and thriving. It was December, and golf was back on many front pages. The gallery nerds who yell robotically “You the Man” each time Woods swings his club, had it right this time.

Even the man, who likes to lose like jockeys like loose saddles, had to grudgingly agree.

“I’m proud of today, even though I lost,” Woods said. “I lost my swing in the middle part of the round and put it back again, piece by piece. I was proud of that.”

It wasn’t the Tiger Woods of old, but it certainly wasn’t the Tiger Woods of April through November.

McDowell won $1.2 million, Woods his biggest check of the year at $650,000. Traditionally, most of Woods’ check here goes to his foundation, which pays for children’s causes, including specialty schools.

That made Sunday a win-win. Two causes, children and golf, were served well.

For Woods, time may not heal everything, but the vitamin E oil applications are starting to work.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com