"I'm now ready to play again"

Tiger Woods said those words on Thursday. More than eight months after Woods won in an 18 hole playoff on one good leg to win the U.S. Open, the world's No. 1 player said his reconstructed left knee and his game were in good enough shape to compete. He entered the Accenture Match Play Championship, which begins Wednesday just outside Tucson, Ariz., and where Woods will hit his first real shot in 253 days. I know the PGA officials and the TV execs are happy to hear this news since the TV ratings have plummeted since his last tournament. "We are delighted that Tiger is returning to competition and look forward to watching him compete next week," commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement, which read more like an understatement.

As for Tiger being rusty next week, I am not sure that he will have a lot of rust to knock off. I expect he has been capable of playing and competing for a few weeks but didn’t want to come back until his son was born and he was able to spend some time with him. So if I were the other guys on tour, I would not expect him to go down easy in the match play next week. When his swing coach Hank Haney was asked about Tiger’s swing this is what he had to say; Haney said the swing hasn't changed, but there might be one difference. "He's working on the same stuff that he's always been working on, but he'll be able to do it with a strong leg now," Haney said. "It will be a little different in the finish because his knee doesn't give way." Not good news for the rest of the field.

When I think about it, I question why he decided to come back for his first tournament in a match play event. If he loses in the first round, everyone will say that he wasn’t ready and that he should have waited a little longer. But on the other hand, when playing match play, you don’t have to post a score, you only win or lose a hole. So he could actually have some pretty bad shots but the worst that could happen is that he loses a hole. All I know is that the media is going to be all over this and it will be a circus in Tucson!

It has only been 8 months since his ACL reconstruction and that is not an easy surgery to recover from, speaking from personal experience. It usually takes 10-12 months to be back at the level you were before blowing out the ACL. But knowing Tiger’s work ethic and determination, I am sure he is going to come stronger and more determined. I sure didn’t expect Tiger to be out a full year, 8 months sounds about right. I bet he could have played a month ago but didn’t rush back since he and Elin were having a baby. It will be interesting to see how he plays this week; I know I will be watching!