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Last Wednesday was a hugely important day for the world of golf. The prodigal son returned and suddenly everybody became much more interested in the sport again.
When Tiger Woods teed off at the WGC-Accenture Match Play, the biggest sigh of relief was probably heard coming from PGA tour commissioner Tim Fincham, because interest in that Tour probably drops by around 50 per cent when the world number one isn't playing. The electricity and the buzz around a golf tournament involving Tiger is massive.
In my eyes, Tiger is the premier individual athlete in the world. His victory at Torrey Pines at last year's US Open, given the amount of physical pain he was in, was one of the greatest sporting achievements of all time.
In the ranking of great world sportsmen, Tiger Woods is right up there and I believe we are all very lucky to be around to witness his era. Furthermore, he is a fabulous role model in the way he conducts himself, both with the media and on the golf course. His demeanour makes him the ideal example for youngsters.
If you look at the youngsters coming through the ranks, they are all much more athletic and much more professional than in the past - and that is largely down to the way Tiger has taken the sport to another level. The game has changed out of all recognition because of him.
However, the sport has not really moved on during the time he has been away. In many ways golf has been in a time warp waiting for his return. His absence has enabled one or two players to step up to the plate and establish themselves, and nobody has made more of the opportunity than Padraig Harrington.
The Irishman has emerged as the second-best major golfer in the world behind Woods. We have also seen the arrival of a new breed of golfer, as recent victories from Rory McIlroy and Danny Lee have demonstrated, but let us not forget that none of those young guns have yet played with Tiger. It will be interesting to see how these guys react to the intimidation of playing with him, both physically and mentally.
The youngsters all look up to him, they are all hoping to challenge him and it will be interesting to see how they cope with being in the same field as him.
As for his comeback tournament, not even the great man was able to carry off the dream victory that even some of the harshest critics believed was possible. But there were typical 'Tiger Moments' along the way; he birdied his first hole back in competitive play and had a spectacular eagle at the 13th. At this point it seemed like he had never been away and that 'normal service' had been resumed. Victory over Australia's Brendan Jones by a margin of 3 & 2 seemed merely a routine opener.
But if everyone thought that Tiger would have everything his own way, Tim Clark gave him a big shock in the second round. Clark played some great golf and secured a 4 & 2 victory to send Tiger home for the weekend.
Woods, however, was pretty upbeat in defeat; the knee had held and not given him any pain and he had played some great golf. Match play is a format where you are solely playing the opponent and not the course. This means that you can shoot 74 and win one day, and shoot 66 to lose the next.
We are all disappointed that we didn't get to see more of Tiger last weekend, but this is just the start of his second coming. Tiger is back and the world of golf is very happy about it.
