TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Tiger's Back! The Sports World Can Resume Turning

The Associated Press

Tiger Woods watches a practice drive Tuesday as he prepares for the Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2009

EARTH - We're out of the woods.

Tiger is back.

Forget the world's troubles. Forget what that president guy talked about Tuesday night. This is the real stimulus package. Tiger Woods and his reconstructed knee return to the links today.

Golf can resume breathing. It was a definite a (Fred) Funk since Woods went down eight months ago, going down as only he can, after winning the U.S. Open on what was your basic broken leg. I think I read something about it. There are children being born today who'll come out talking about it.

And here I am down in Port Charlotte, waiting to write about how the angels wept as the American League champion Rays open their exhibition season against the Cincinnati Reds.

Only I looked around the Rays' ballpark and I didn't see a single angel. They're all out in Arizona, waiting for Tiger to play someone named Brendan Jones in the Accenture Match Play Championship.

And is it lost on anyone that Tiger returns to his role as God of sports on the same day that cheater "I Was Young and Stupid" Rodriguez steps onto a field and into the boos when he plays in the New York Yankees' spring opener in Dunedin today.

Talk about two different galleries.

Basically, it's Tiger to the rescue.

Gold was going down the tubes — TV ratings, ticket sales, media coverage, you name it. And the rest of sports, save for the occasional Rays trip to the World Series, was so, so boring.

"I'm looking forward to the rush," Tiger said.

My 9-year-old daughter knows who Tiger is. My wife doesn't know anyone else in golf but Tiger, but if she happens to walk by a TV screen on a Sunday, she instinctively asks, "How's Tiger doing?"

We're about to find out.

If he was beginning his comeback at the local putt-putt, trying to hit the ball into the bear's navel, we'd stop what we're doing to watch.

It's Tiger, stupid.

Now Padraig Harrington, who won the last two majors of 2008 in Tiger's absence, can go back to being part of the field. Now Phil Mickelson can go back to being He's No Tiger. Everyone is playing for second. Maybe not this weekend, but, well, you know.

The scary thing is that Tiger thinks he'll be better this time around.

Better?

He thinks he has developed more shots because of all the free time, although he did manage to squeeze in another round of fatherhood — his wife, Ms. Tiger (Elin), gave birth to a second child, a son, on Feb. 8.

And today it's official: Big Daddy is back.

Does anyone care about A-Rod today?

Is bong-boy Michael Phelps a headline today?

Tiger Woods is back.

World. Axis. Spin.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT