World Match Play / Bill Elliott / 22 February 2009 / Leave a comment

Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods. He's back and it's such big news that we've typed his name three times. but what does acclaimed golf journalist Bill Elliott make of it all? Read on...

Have you noticed that Tiger Woods is about to play pro golf again this week? Yep, thought so. Difficult to miss the news wasn't it? Not so much a return to action for an injured golfer as a second coming, according to the hype.

Not that this is Tiger's fault. Even his ego, however, must be inflated following the general sighs of relief following his announcement that he is to defend his Accenture World Matchplay Championship title at the Ritz-Carlton Club in the Arizona desert just outside Tucson.

This swanky place is a new Jack Nicklaus designed track and weaves its irrigated way through some stunning scenery. It's so new that nobody knows it really and this will suit Woods just fine. As will his first round opponent, the 33-year-old Aussie Brendan Jones. If Tiger is an artist - and he is - then the amiable Mr Jones is a hod-carrier. If he was any more anonymous then he would need to wear a name tag. Maybe he does.

Whether Woods, 254 days out of competitive play, will beat him is another question. The smart money will say that he can and, logically, this is the way to go. Except that 254 days is a very, very long time for any sportsman to be away from the heat.

John McEnroe once took an extended break from tennis and was never the same again. Ernie Els struggles still to touch the old flame following his enforced absence after ripping his cruciate ligament four years ago. Nothing at this point is set in stone.

What we may be certain of, however, is that Woods is genuinely ready for action again. Let's get one thing straight here...the damage to his left knee was, maybe still is, a real threat to his career. He will never be the same player again, believe me. He may be worse, may even be better but he will not, cannot, be the same.

For me, his decision to make his return in a matchplay event is typically smart. For the first time since turning pro 12 years ago Tiger is in a win-win situation going into a tournament. Sure, there will be a massive media spotlight but, you know what, he loves his fame and, anyway, if he loses - even to Brendan Wotsisname - nobody will give him a hard time. He has been missed too much for that to happen.

What is also true is that after eight months of rehab and then practice, Tiger Woods is returning to a new scene and he will know how important it is for him to re-establish the old dominance by the time he cruises into Augusta for the Masters in six weeks time.

Never mind Padraig Harrington's major triumphs during his absence, it is the emergence of a new generation of Tiger-inspired golfers that will have caught Woods' attention most. Players like Anthony Kim and Camilio Vilegas, Martin Kaymer and Alvaro Quiros and, perhaps most of all, Rory McIlroy.

These guys will not cower in the great man's presence. Unlike the Phil Mickelson-Els generation they know that as they improve over the next decade so Tiger will inevitably lose some of his power, touch and may even a bit of his ambition. Time is on their side. It is no longer on Tiger's as he chases that Nicklaus major record. He needs five to beat Jack and right now the sensible members of the jury are not sure which way things will now stack up.

As Els has said: "When Tiger appeared among us he quickly turned into what seemed to be an unstoppable force. This is not true for the young guys today and that's important." Or, as Thomas Bjorn points out:" Young players today have only one thing on their minds and that is to win. They don't care who they have to beat."

This sort of hard-nosed mindset has been handed down to them by, you guessed it, Tiger Woods. Now as he contemplates a return to the old jousting fields and the competition he has missed so much, he knows that while the landscape remains familiar enough, the dramatis personae has changed utterly. In just eight months.

How he deals with it all offers the most compelling sporting narrative of the year in prospect. Which way are you betting?