Tiger Marches On as If He Never Left

MARANA, Ariz. -- Surrounded by a hillly amphitheater of boulders, cacti, sunshine, giddy fans and a hovering blimp that recorded his every swing, step and nose-hair twitch, Tiger Woods took a seat on the 15th tee. To you and I, this meant absolutely nothing. Our questions had been answered on the first two holes, when he went birdie-eagle and stirred unrestrained shrieks in the mountain canyons somewhere between Tucson and Phoenix.

But to Woods, this was the first litmus test Wednesday in his personal Battle of Wounded Knee. There was a pileup of players waiting to tee off, much like the daily traffic messes on Interstate 10, and he was forced to wait, take some practice swings, chit-chat with woefully overmatched foe Brendan Jones and hope that his surgically repaired left knee didn't tighten. At one point, Woods wore a slight look of dread as he sat on a bench, a rare occasion when he was helpless on a golf course. Finally, after almost 20 minutes, he ambled to the tee box, accepted a 3-wood from caddie Steve Williams and, without fear, swung ferociously in trying to reach the green from 343 yards.

Of course, he did just that.

And, much more importantly, the most famous knee on the planet survived the ordeal without a tweak.

"I'm very pleased about how it felt all day. I thought it would be more stiff on the 15th tee when I had to hit my shot after that long wait, but I felt fine,'' Woods reported. "It held up. It felt good.''

Any soreness, boss? "Well, yeah, I'm sure that's going to be there a little while,'' he said. "It's to be expected. That's probably one of the reasons why it's a little bit nice to get out here and just go ice it and elevate it just a little bit and get ready for tomorrow.''

He is not a robot. The knee is going to bother him this season, from Augusta National to Bethpage Black, Turnberry to Hazeltine. He will be smart about it too, walking gingerly instead of rushing up fairways, and familiarizing himself with ice packs and whirlpool tubs. But the good news is that Woods survived the fairly rugged terrain of a massive 7,849-yard layout -- longest in PGA Tour history -- without limping, wincing or stalling. In taking a 3 and 2 victory over the stressed-out Aussie, Tiger did so much more than win his first match in the Accenture Match Play Championship. He turned us into a nation of amnesiacs, strutting around the new Ritz-Carlton course at Dove Mountain as if his eight-month layoff never happened.

"I told Stevie, it felt like we hadn't been gone. It felt like nothing changed,'' he said after his return to competitive golf. "Walking down the (first) fairway, it felt like business as usual. I thought I would be more nervous on that first tee, but when it comes right down to it, it was about just playing the game again. And that felt good."


If his start was another legend for the ongoing Tiger movie -- an 8-iron to within 5 feet for a birdie on No. 1, a stunning 5-iron from 235 yards that Jones conceded as an eagle on No. 2 -- the rest of his performance was merely OK on a hot, sometimes breezy afternoon in the high desert. The fans, borrowing from the "You da man'' soundtrack, greeted him with "You're back!'' shouts at every opportunity. It was impressive enough that a few thousands folks would brave dusty backroads to reach this mountainside address -- on a weekday afternoon, no less -- and accompany Woods on the first official round of his comeback. It was more impressive to hear their decibels when he drained a 20-foot eagle putt on No. 12, prompting Tiger to lift his putter above his head in one of his signature poses. Between that scene and an early fist pump, the realization was clear: Tiger Woods never went away. As usual, his steel-trap psyche made the transition seem easy, continuing the mind-over-matter mantra that has made him the grandest athlete of the early 21st century.

"Walking on the (first) tee, I was in my own little world -- just trying to make sure I knew what the number was to the bunker, where the wind was coming from, slightly off left, am I going to the hit a flat 3-wood, draw the ball, trying to decide what shot I want to hit,'' said Woods, keeping it simple. "And that's basically how I am in every round going to the first tee. So that didn't change. When it comes down to it, it really is just another shot. Just because I've taken time off from a competitive environment doesn't change the nature of how you execute a golf shot. At home or here, it doesn't matter. It's still a golf shot. There's a lot more pressure here, granted, but still, when you tee it up, you make a swing and go place it down the side of the fairway you want it to be on and go about your business.''

Technically, Woods missed four of 12 fairways and seven of 16 greens, meaning he would have vulnerable if Jones hadn't played so poorly. The 64th-seed was intimidated by the assignment and admitted overhearing a media person comment snidely after Woods' opening birdie, "Another nine holes to go for 10 and 8.'' Said Jones, well aware that the bloke was predicting Woods would win every hole: "That annoyed me to a point ... As I walked off the first hole, there was just mayhem -- media, and everyone was just running.'' But it wasn't the commotion that unnerved him as much as Woods' second shot at No. 2, which shrunk 235 yards into four feet.

"I've never hit a shot like that, so high and soft," Jones said. "He hits some shots that other people can't hit. His ball flight is different than pretty much everybody else's, and it was fun to see different trajectories that he hits the ball at. But yeah, he's Tiger. He does freakish stuff. He made two eagles on me, and he just really didn't waste any shots out there."


And this was just a decent day, mind you, a day when Woods made three bogeys during a five-hole stretch and let Jones creep to within a hole of the lead. "(Expletive deleted),'' Tiger yelled after landing in a bunker, another reminder that the old cuss never left. What happens when he starts hitting greens and making putts? He'll be the heavy favorite today in the Round of 32 against South Africa's Tim Clark, who said pragmatically, "It's obvious I'm not afraid of the match. I'm just going to come out and give it my best shot, and if I lose, it's no big deal, and if I win, great. I'm not going to put any pressure on myself. I live up in Scottsdale, so I'm prepared to get in my car and go home whenever I need to.'' If Woods sends Clark up the highway, it sets up a possible Round of 16 match against 19-year-old Rory McIlroy, the Northern Ireland phenom who idolizes Woods and quickly rattles off his accomplishments when asked. Not to be confused with Roy McAvoy of "Tin Cup'' infamy, McIlroy would be thrilled just to meet Woods, much less battle him in his comeback. From there, Woods could meet Geoff Ogilvy or rising Camilo Villegas, setting up a weekend in which Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and/or Anthony Kim could await. "I really wouldn't be betting against him,'' Jones said of Tiger.

Nor is Woods betting against Woods. "It's the same, you know? I don't go to an event that I don't think I can win,'' he said late in the day. "Why go? It doesn't make any sense to me. So I entered this event with the same intention I do every event since I was a little boy, and that's to win.''

Part of the healing process involved spending quality time with his family. It's one thing to recharge one's physical batteries, quite another to enrich an emotional homelife. Someone made the mistake of asking Woods if returning to golf is comparable to the recent birth of his son, Charlie Axel.

"Not even close. It can't even compare -- what I've done out here doesn't even compare to those things,'' he said. "Seeing Charlie born a few weeks ago and then teaching (his daughter) Sam how to say things and do things, those are things that, no matter what you do out here, no matter how impressive a win may be or wins or whatever, nothing compares to that feeling, that joy or the love you have when you see that and the satisfaction when you see them progressing in life. Nothing even compares to that, and it never will. What I do out here doesn't even come close to what my kids accomplish.''

They do have a pretty good teacher, though. Consider this week the latest immaculate lesson of Eldrick Woods, this one a study in perseverance and self-belief. If he wins his 66th career title Sunday, only a fool will be shocked.