Tiger Woods Makes Brief Return To Competition

Since Tiger Woods last competed in a golf tournament before his knee required surgery, a new President had been elected, the economy went into the tank, and someone named Padraig Harrington took over as the sport's new Golden Boy, having won the final two majors of the season. Oh yes, and Woods now has a son named Charlie.

Declaring himself fit and ready to go, Woods competed in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship outside Tucson, Arizona. Suddenly, there was reason to watch a golf tournament in the middle of the week (or any other day). The Golf Channel was ready with hours of live coverage, also showing four ads featuring Woods pitching for his fine sponsors. So was NBC, with weekend coverage.

Woods responded in kind Wednesday, defeating Brendan Jones in the first round. Thursday was a different story, with Woods exiting the tournament with a loss to Tim Clark. Which is too bad for NBC, but at least Phil Mickelson is still in the running.

Golf, with sponsors dropping out of tournaments at record rates, needs Tiger Woods during these Tough Economic Times more than Woods needs golf. He delivers eyeballs to the tournaments he chooses to play in (usually a major like the Masters), and crickets to the ones he doesn't. People have run out of adjectives to describe how Woods has dominated his sport for over a decade.

You could tell Woods was a little rusty against Clark, doing things mere mortals would do such as doing over tee shots that landed in the desert, or missing crucial putts. But we know this was really a warmup for Woods. The real test comes at Augusta National in April, which is when he had intended to be back to begin with.

And the golf world awaits Tiger Woods' next move.