Tiger Woods

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — On the eve of The Players Championship, Tiger Woods went out to dinner with Mark O'Meara and his wife — an infrequent occasion these days as O'Meara plays his golf on the Champions Tour. "How's Mark hitting it?" Meredith O'Meara asked. Woods' reply: "Short. " Well, check out whose name was near the top of Thursday's leaderboard: O'Meara, whose sprightly 6-under-par 66 left him two shots behind leader Nick Watney in a tie for third. As for Woods?

It has taken three years, a stretch of time when their career arcs crisscrossed, when their successes and failures were dissected like frogs in a high school biology class, when they seemed to share little except the same swing coach. Such is the way things have gone for Hunter Mahan and Tiger Woods since the final round of the 2009 AT&T National. The last time the tournament was held here at Congressional Country Club, Woods appeared invincible, recovered from a serious knee injury and in the midst of another dominating season.

HONOLULU - Spend a few minutes at the practice range here at Waialae Country Club, and you will come away thinking that all is dreamy on the PGA Tour. Ernie Els smiles after launching balls into an island breeze. A few spots over, Luke Donald chuckles with his new caddie, John McLaren. Shigeki Maruyama does a double-take after spotting John Daly, who has been a walking advertisement for lap-band surgery. (Daly shed the equivalent of a Chinese gymnast in five months.) "Johnny, good shape!"

The legendary Bobby Jones once remarked about an otherwordly star taking the sport by storm, "Jack Nicklausplays a game with which I'm not familiar. " Decades later, Nicklaus said nearly the same thing about another prodigy named Tiger Woods. Woods probably won't say it -- at least not yet -- but he could say of Rory McIlroy, "He plays a game with which I was once familiar. " McIlroy showed again Sunday in the final round of the PGA Championship on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, S.C., what all the excitement was about when he burst on the scene a few years ago as a curly-haired teenager from Northern Ireland.

Palmer Invite logical pick Tom Yantz, Hartford Courant Despite all the unflattering reports about his personal life that have reduced the world's No. 1 athlete to a level once thought impossible, he remains a determined person. So he'll try his best to mend the wounds and to save his marriage. He won't sit out the year from golf, though, just as he won't return for the San Diego Open next month. Familiar surroundings of success will ease his return. He'll play in The Masters, which will limit tabloid and paparazzi intrusions to a certain level.

In the old days, Tiger Woods might have won the AT&T National with ease. In the old days, Woods might not have needed his closest competitor to bogey the last three holes at Congressional Country Club. In the old days, Woods might not have stopped to acknowledge the two military officers waiting his arrival at the 18th tee before he made his final putt. In the old days, Woods might not have acknowledged the crowd - twice - and high-fived some volunteers en route to the scoring tent.

BETHESDA - A victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March seemed to signal Tiger Woods' return to a short list of the world's best golfers. His five-shot win was reminiscent of what Woods had done for more than a decade - right down to the signature fist pump. That victory - his first in 2 ½ years on the PGA Tour and his 72nd overall - seems almost as distant as his last major championship, nearly four years ago at theU.S. Open. The win has been quickly overshadowed by what has been the worst three-tournament stretch of Woods' legendary career.

In the long, dubious history of celebrities shilling for products, one of the strangest pairings has to be Tiger Woods and Buick. Kirstie Alley shills for Jenny Craig and you think: OK, she let herself go a few years ago, gained all that weight, spoofed herself in that Fat Actress reality show, then turned to a well-known weight-loss program to slim down. Makes sense. Burt Reynolds appears in those "Man Laws" Miller Lite commercials and you think: Fine, aging macho actor with a bad hairpiece, had a big rep as a person who partied, still likes to kick back with a couple of cold ones.

How I Play Golf, by Tiger Woods. Warner Books. 306 pages. $34.95. Think Like Tiger, by John Andrisani. G.P. Putnam's Sons. 192 pages. $23.95. Tiger Woods got his first course-management lesson from his father, Earl, while playing the Navy golf course near his home in Cypress, Calif. Tiger drove the ball behind a large clump of trees. Prodded by Earl, Tiger finally realized the only safe shot he had was to chip the ball back into the fairway and try to hit it on the green and one-putt for a par. Not bad for a 3-year-old.

Tiger Woods is faltering on the PGA Tour these days, while Vijay Singh has taken over the No. 1 ranking in the world. If only Woods could play like his video game character in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005. All ribbing of Woods aside, this game from EA Sports excels because of the strong partnership with the PGA Tour which brings familiar names and faces from the tour to my Xbox for me to whoop on. Oh, how I've longed to teach Ty Tryon a lesson on the links. Now I can. One of the best components is the ability to create my own character from scratch.