By sunset on Easter, when Jonathan Byrd is being ushered into the clubhouse for the winner’s dinner in a borrowed club coat, all this Tiger-Rory talk might seem a little rash. But the fact is, this moment, before Augusta draws her curtain, belongs to them.
Right now, Woods remains by far the dominant figure in the game. Bay Hill proved that all over again, and so does the response to the Hank Haney book and everything else. If Tiger should win his fifth Masters next week? Welcome to Tigermania, Part II: Balding and Beautiful. But should ­McIlroy win his first? Well, golf will have its first two-name conversation since the last days of the cardigan. Jack and Arnold, find Mr. Player and get yourselves down to the 1st tee, would you please? A weirdly warm March is over. This 76th Masters needs to begin.
Don’t even try to compare them, Rory with his swing from God, Tiger’s swing (these days) assembled on the practice tee. (After a Friday 65 at Bay Hill, Woods lukewarmed his ball striking to reporters and went to the range.) But Tiger and Rory share two important things: They are both only children, and they were both golfing prodigies. Tiger was 21 when he won his first major, the 1997 Masters, by 12 shots. Rory was 22 when he won his first and only, last year’s U.S. Open, by eight. Tiger, at 36, has 14 major titles. Augusta will be the 14th major in which Rory has played. He’s what Tiger once was: a kid with a future. Is Rory in the same class as Woods? Set your time machine to 2026.
Woods became Woods by way of an überfocus that the game hadn’t seen since Ben Hogan. Rory’s becoming Rory on the back of a flowing, well-oiled swing that brings to mind a racehorse on a grassy flat: hooves in the turf, sod flying, breathless power. The fact is, focus has a longer shelf life than a glorious swing, no matter what the life and times of Fred Couples might suggest.
Fred won at Augusta 20 years ago with Joe LaCava on his bag, and now the big guy is caddying for Tiger, who calls him Joey. Wherever he is, whomever he’s with, Tiger creates a boys’ club.
It fits, because his father was Army, and camouflage pervades Tiger’s worldview. Haney—best-selling author slash TV personality slash swing guru—knows that, of course, and he got Tiger all wound up by leaking a couple of Navy SEAL tidbits from his new book. Woods wants nothing to do with the tome by his ex-coach and former friend. But while evading a reporter’s question at the Honda Classic about his interest in the SEALs, Woods couldn’t help himself. He used the word book four times in a single terse response. From the master of deflection, it was so strange. It’s obvious that Woods is done with Haney for breaking rank, sharing secrets, talking about their relationship. (Blech!) Tiger has moved on. At Bay Hill, Woods praised the swing work he’s doing with the technocrat Sean Foley.
Mark Steinberg, Tiger’s agent, called the book’s eve-of-Augusta release date “disruptive timing.” But The Big Miss—the book, not his formerly off-the-map driving—will probably help Woods at the Masters. After all, who plays better red-light, red-ass golf than Tiger Woods? Two years ago at Augusta, Billy Payne spoke about his disappointment in Woods. The club chairman offered the golfer a path to redemption. Woods’s public response to Payne was benign. (“I was disappointed in myself too.”) But Tiger was hot. Playing for the first time in five months and with his home life falling apart, Woods tied for fourth. Last year at Augusta, despite many misses, big and small, he did the same. Who would be surprised if his finish this year is better?
At the Honda, where McIlroy won by two over Woods, Tiger closed with a 62 on a hard course in a stiff wind and was the leader in the clubhouse with McIlroy still playing. Later Rory said, “To be honest, I was thinking, Could it not just have been anyone else?” How charming and candid and fun.
The next week, at Doral, where Woods WD’d mid-round with a strained Achilles tendon, ­McIlroy finished third. He signed, slapped himself across the thigh, stood in front of a microphone and said he hoped that Woods would be back soon, for Tiger’s sake and the game’s, too. How magnanimous.
Three days later McIlroy went to the White House for a state dinner. Did you see the snaps, with that polka-dotted pocket square in his Alexander Nash (whoever that is) tuxedo jacket and that Alfred E. Neuman grin on his face? McIlroy tweeted up the jacket and later the soiree: Unbelievable experience at the White House last night! Big thanks to @BarackObama for the invite! We’ll get that golf swing sorted soon! You can be sure Rory typed those 136 confident characters himself and that he meant each and every one of them. The kid’s living large and loving it.
Things were never that easy for Tiger, and now they’re only harder. Winning Tour events might change things in his public life, but it doesn’t have much influence on his private one. These days he’s a single parent first, and as a golfer he always has one eye on various body parts: his reconstructed left knee, that right Achilles prone to inflammation, his back during the Bay Hill pro-am.
Golf has had older 36-year-olds, though not many. Seve was pretty much done at 36. Hogan was 36 when a Greyhound bus nearly killed him, but he still won—and won big—after that when his body cooperated. Tiger will keep winning too, most likely at places that are loaded with good vibes for him, like Bay Hill and Doral and Firestone, tried-and-true Tour stops. If he’s going to get to 18 major titles—Big Jack’s final resting place—he will be particularly dependent on the courses where he has already won, where his cunning ways will give him an edge over ever-longer brazen youths like Rory. But how many major cracks will he get at Pebble Beach and St. Andrews and Torrey Pines and a few other happy hunting grounds over the next decade? Maybe a half dozen. His annual tour at Augusta National will make or break him, assuming his body holds up.
If you were on the 12th tee on Sunday at Doral when Tiger suddenly packed it in, you couldn’t doubt that he was in pain. His face was contorted, and he didn’t even discuss the possibility of playing on. But so many ordinary fans simply didn’t believe him. They think that Woods, as insiders said of Michael Jordan in his NBA heyday, believes there are special rules only for him. It’s a harsh view, and it may or may not be true. But the point is, people have become suspicious. The one thing everybody believes is his wins. Didn’t he look heroic, standing on the 18th green at Bay Hill on Sunday? Tour events are important, but what Woods needs more than anything is a 15th major. He talked about that Sunday night, when his win seemed to generate more fascination than euphoria among golf fans, and more relief than happiness for Woods. He’s been stuck on 14 for three years and 10 months.
This will be McIlroy’s fourth trip to Augusta. He finished 20th in his first major as a professional, the 2009 Masters. That year, on the 18th hole in the second round, he left a shot in a greenside bunker, and he kicked the sand. If you kick the sand out of anger, with your ball still in the trap, it’s considered testing the ground, and there’s a two-shot penalty for that. If you’re kicking the sand to smooth it out, you’re fine. Rules officials brought McIlroy, then 19, back to the course four hours after his round was over to review a video of the shot. He said he was simply smoothing the sand. The rules officials decided to believe him. Would Woods have been given the same benefit of the doubt?
McIlroy was just a kid then, and he still is, really, an Irish (Northern) lad. Your cousin’s kid at St. Cecilia’s is bigger than he is, and she’s in the eighth grade. Even with his newly sleek physique and his splashy girlfriend (tennis star Caroline Wozniacki), he’s just a boy with a big watch and the money to pay for it, his parents following him on the course but giving him his space too. (B.J. and Bo Wie, meet Gerry and Rosie McIlroy. They’re easy to find. Maybe bring Michelle. Let them buy you a beer, but pass on the smokes.) A night or two a week, sometimes far more, Rory hangs with his folks. When fans say hi, he says hi right back. In press sessions reporters ask questions, and Rory answers them. “It’s nice to be nice, and it doesn’t cost you a penny,” Gerry likes to say. He’s been a food-and-beverage man all his life. He knows how bread gets buttered.
How did these simple things get so complicated with Tiger? When he was 14, Tiger and his father were with the writer Jaime Diaz when Tiger asked, “Why do they have to know everything?” It was an insightful and telling question. Two decades later Diaz, who knows Woods better than most writers, started helping Haney with his book.
Jeff Silverman, in an incisive review of The Big Miss for GOLF.com, summarized Haney’s take on Tiger with this sentence: “He’s cheap, arrogant, reckless, narcissistic, selfish, immature, icy, defensive, entitled, walled-in, imperious and a sore loser.” Tiger most likely is all those things, but there’s more to him than that, just as there is surely more to Rory than his charming quotes, his beautiful play, his genial parents and his Alexander Nash duds.
Tiger may be cheap, but the Tiger Woods Foundation has improved thousands of lives. If you’ve watched Tiger closely this year, with Ernie Els at Bay Hill and Steve Stricker at Doral and Lee Westwood at Honda, you can see that his need to connect with other people—that is, other people who actually understand what he has accomplished in life and what he’s been through—is almost desperate. The hugs, the soul shakes, the knowing smiles. That doesn’t mean he’s not imperious. He is. You should have seen the icy glare he gave an Augusta National member who dared to tell him to stop practicing and get on the course because play was about to begin after a rain delay. Everybody loves a winner. You saw that all over again in Tiger’s win at Bay Hill. But it doesn’t cover up the fact that he IS a sore loser. If you need a reminder, just YouTube his Sunday night interviews from the 2011 Masters, the 2010 Masters, the 2009 PGA. We could go on.
Rory knows how to lose, and we love him for it. At last year’s Masters he had a four-shot lead going into the final round, then fired a back-nine 43 on Sunday and tumbled to 15th place. The goofy, over-the-top public response to his U.S. Open victory two months later was rooted in his post­round grace and honesty on that Sunday at Augusta when Tiger and 13 others raced past him. At Congressional, Rory himself had the presence to remind people that he had now won exactly one major. It was endearing. It never seems like an act with him.
With Woods, you never know, and it’s always useful to remember that he’s a skillful actor. (Remember the old Buick spots, in which he saw dead people? Or his impassive face in that weird 2010 Nike spot, Earl providing the voiceover from the hereafter?) Masters of subterfuge are always good actors.
Four days after Doral, Woods appeared on Good Morning America in New York City, and he was relaxed and loose and fun. Was he under the spell of the extraordinary Robin Roberts? Was he inspired by his desire to sell the game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13? Whatever motivated him, it was a command performance. How many units did he move in those five minutes? A bunch. Tiger Woods, as Robin Roberts noted in another context, is “all about the numbers.” Nothing truer has ever been said of him. On the range at Doral, Woods wanted to know the loft on Jason Day’s driver. Day himself didn’t even know.
How will you feel if Tiger’s in the mix on Sunday at Augusta? Awed, for sure, just as we all felt watching him at Bay Hill. But will you pump when he pumps? The Southern fraternity brothers will be there for him, but what about the gals? The Tiger Woods action figures marked down to $3.98 in supermarket toy sections suggest diminished enthusiasm on the distaff side. And what will your rooting heart do if McIlroy is right there with him? Tiger plays for ­second-chancers, single fathers, true believers in the post-racial American dream. Tiger, when he was even younger than Rory is now, talked about being Cablinasian, but now he’s a different sort of melting pot. He’s Lance Armstrong and Michael Jordan, he’s Clinton and Romney. He used to be American Express, and if he wins at Augusta next week maybe he will be again.
Against all that, doesn’t rooting for Rory just seem so … easy?

He never won the Masters, but Johnny Miller did play in 19 of them, finishing runner-up three times. In this no-holes-barred tour of Augusta National, the game's best analyst reveals Augusta's toughest shots, the hole he'd redesign, and how he blew his best chance at a green jacket.
 

Tom Breazeale
KNEE-KNOCKER: Lay up at 15 and you're left with a wedge off a downslope to a well-guarded green.
 
No. 15: MY FAVORITE HOLE
So many things can happen here because you have to fit your drive between those pine trees left, and the right hills and the rough. If you get it over there you're confronted with the hardest shot in golf, which is when you want to hit a high ball off a downslope. When you do that, like when Seve lost the Masters to Nicklaus [in '86], you're on that little downhill lie. Then you're trying to get it up in the air, and you hit it thin right in the pond. So that second shot is amazing because you must swing with the slope and hit a high cut that will hold that shallow green. If you lay it up, you've got that downhill lie again, and you're trying to hit it high, and you can hit it thin or fat. And over the green, all kinds of bad things happen. This is probably the most compelling hole. You can have the eagle-bogey exchange. There are many great holes at Augusta, but to pick one hole, I'd go with 15.
 

Fred Vuich/SI
MIGHTY MITE: The scenic, maddening par-3 12th.
 
No. 12: A "CRAZY" HOLE
I don't want to say there's luck involved on this hole, but, well, there's sort of luck involved. It's a crazy hole; I've seen a guy hit a really good shot and hit the middle of the pond when a gust of wind came out of nowhere. That wind comes down 13 and swirls around over to 11 green, so you never know what's going to happen. In some ways, it's a very intriguing hole, but it's not the kind of hole I like because I prefer a hole that has perfect strategy, where there's not luck involved.
 

Mark Newcomb/Visions in Golf
PIT OF DESPAIR: At the par-3 4th, a tee shot into the front-right bunker can lead to big numbers.
 
No. 4: A "TREACHEROUS" HOLE
One reason Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have done so well at the Masters is that they hit a high fade. Augusta favors a hook off a lot of tees but a fade works for approach shots. Many holes on the front nine favor a high fade, especially the par-3 fourth. No. 4 is treacherous. It can eat your lunch because of that front-right bunker. It's a double-bogey hole because you can bury your tee shot in that bunker, and it's easier to do that if you hit a hook, rather than a nice, high fade. From there, it's tough getting the bunker shot to within 30 feet, and then you can 3-putt a big ol' sweeping right-to-left putt. But if you play to the left side of the green and cut it, regardless of where the pin is placed, you're in good shape. It's one of the hardest holes on the front nine. Bury your ball in that bunker and the bunker will bury you.
 

Evan Schiller
APPROACH WITH CARE: The 13th green is guarded by Rae's Creek in front and bunkers in back.
 
No. 13: TOUGHER THAN IT LOOKS
The 13th is an amazing hole because you hit it around the corner on that big sidehill lie, and the green is designed for a cut. So you have these contrasting things going on. You've got a hook lie, and you need to hit a high cut. That's why the guys that win Augusta can usually cut their long shots in to the green, and so 13 is an amazing second shot because the lie wants you to hook it, which the green does not let you do. So that hole, that second shot on that hole is very underrated. A lot of people don't realize how hard it is to pull that shot off.
 

Robert Beck/SI
REVERSE ENGINEERING: Miller would toughen up 18 by pushing back the green.
 
No. 18: FINISHING FIZZLE
If I could redesign one hole, it'd be 18. It's pretty good but not a sensational finishing hole. It could be so much better if the green was farther back and to the left. It could be a tougher, more dangerous par. The drive is difficult, but once you get it out there, you're not scared to death. Don't get me wrong — it's not bad to have a birdie hole that maybe lets a guy force a playoff, but I'll put it this way: There's no such thing as a great uphill hole in all of golf. Uphill holes don't set up well. They're not pleasant to play. The best shots are when you have a plateau and the green is a little below you. It's pretty. It shows off the hole. An example is No. 8 at Pebble, which is perched up on a plateau, with the cliff and hole in front of you, the green sitting there on the edge. That's probably the greatest second shot in all of golf. Not only does it play great, it looks great. Uphill holes are blind. For a finishing hole at Augusta, 18 is kind of bland.
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY: MY BIGGEST AUGUSTA REGRET
My most nerve-racking moment at Augusta was the '75 Masters, that great battle with the three best players in the game at the time — Tom Weiskopf, Jack Nicklaus and myself. I was challenging Jack to be the No. 1 player in the world, and then I got off to a bad start. I shot a 71 the second round and a 65 on Saturday with six straight birdies on the front nine. On Sunday I was trailing Weiskopf and Nicklaus by a shot or two, and I birdied the 71st, which put me one back of Jack, who was in the group ahead. It was the first time I got within a shot [of Jack] and I'd tied Weiskopf. Suddenly, all this fun I had chasing the lead horses, I'm within a shot of them. I finally have a chance — birdie the last hole and I probably force a playoff — and all this nervous adrenaline came through. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck went up. I got too nervous — probably the most nervous I've ever been in my life. A fun nervous but nervous nonetheless. If I have any regrets, it's the second shot on the 72nd hole. One part of me said go right at the flag, and the other part of me said, "Gee, the pin's front left, don't go at the pin, you might go down the hill on the left." I hit it to within an inch of where I was aiming. If I'd aimed at the pin, it probably would have been a "leaner" because it was dead pin high. I think that was part of the nervousness. I still have regrets about that decision.
YOU CAN'T SCRIPT THIS STUFF: MY THREE FAVORITE MASTERS SUNDAYS
1. Jack Nicklaus winning in 1986. The guy'd been written off. But they say every great fighter has one last great fight in him, and this was Jack's last great fight. And who you beat at Augusta is important. He didn't beat some Cinderella stories. It's one thing to beat an Ed Sneed; it's another when Greg Norman and Seve are involved.
2. In 1975, the three best players in the world went head-to-head…to head. I was one of them, along with Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf. I don't think we've ever seen literally the three best players in the world in two groups go at it. And we all played our A-game. No A-minuses. A-game. As good as it gets. [Nicklaus beat Miller and Weiskopf by a stroke.]
3. Call this a three-way tie for third. Ben Crenshaw's win in 1995, after Harvey Penick died, was pretty darned good. Nick Faldo's come-from-behind win in 1996 was special because he shot 67 on a course playing brutally tough, and it was Norman's last big hurrah. And Phil Mickelson getting his first major, in 2004 — that was pretty great.
 

There is a new roadmap to 19.
Tiger Woods's victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational is notable for a bunch of reasons, but it may ultimately be remembered as the tournament at which golf's greatest scrambler reinvented himself as a merciless ballstriker. This has profound ramifications for Woods's quest to win five more major championships and accomplish his lifelong goal of breaking Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 career majors.
During the first act of Tiger's career he had periods of fabulous ballstriking, but it was his short game that was the difference-maker. For a dozen years he putted as well or better than anyone ever has, and his Houdini-esque escapes were legion. Through sheer force of will Woods routinely turned 74s into 69s. But that's a young man's game. In the last 30 years only Seve Ballesteros could claim a short-game on par with Woods's. The dashing Spaniard won five majors by age 31 but never another as his swing flaws became too much to overcome. You can only fly so high on borrowed wings.
Woods, 36, has always been a tinkerer — after all, he's won the Masters with three different swings — but the latest overhaul to his action is likely the last. He has entrusted Sean Foley to help him eliminate the big miss. In his new book about his ex-pupil, Hank Haney writes that when they started working together circa 2004, Woods had the beginnings of the driver yips. Everything Woods did from then on was basically defensive, and the power advantage he enjoyed in his youth was largely lost.
Now, 18 months after joining forces with Foley, and with his body mostly intact, Tiger is swinging with a renewed confidence and aggression. He is first in the PGA Tour's total driving stat, and at Bay Hill he bludgeoned a brutal course setup into submission, leading the field in greens in regulation. On Sunday he took control of the tournament on the front nine with a brilliant stretch of four birdies in six holes, despite high winds, brick-hard greens and brutal pin placements. The key blow was a majestic 267-yard 3-iron on the dangerous par-5 sixth hole, which Foley called "the sexiest long iron I've ever seen Tiger hit." The 182-yard 8-iron to four feet on the eighth hole wasn't bad, either. Asked to pick his best shot of the day, Woods was stumped.
"Well, I hit a lot of good ones today," he said. "I can't say one shot stood out, because I hit I thought a boatload of good ones. I had really good control of my ball all day. I was shaping it both ways, changing my traj. Felt so comfortable. No, I can't pick out one shot, sorry."
Woods's ability to shape shots is what makes him so dangerous in the majors, where every weakness is exposed and those with a limited repertoire are overwhelmed by the demands of the setups, much like every other player was at Bay Hill.
Woods made some crucial putts during the final round, but the fact remains that his putting has been mediocre over the last two years, and it's doubtful he'll ever wield the wand as fearlessly as he did as a young, carefree bachelor. But if he controls the ball like he did at Bay Hill, it won't matter. Ben Hogan had one major championship victory when he turned 36 — Tiger's age — and then he took eight more, and he was never more than an average putter. Hitting it long, high and straight is the way to win majors, just as it always has been.
The defining performance of the young Tiger was when he decimated Augusta National in 1997. Despite the retrofitting in subsequent years, the home of the Masters remains a bomber's paradise. Woods will go there this year with a totally different mindset.
"I went through a number of years where I lost a lot of distance," he said on Sunday, following his 72nd career PGA Tour victory. "I've gained all that back, and I'm one of the longer hitters out here on Tour again, which is nice."
Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and the rest should consider themselves forewarned. Woods is definitely back, but he is not the same player he was before. He may be even more potent.
 

Every Sunday night, the editorial staff of the SI Golf Group conducts an e-mail roundtable. Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors and join the conversation in our all-new live Readers' Confidential or in the comments section below.
TIGER WINS BAY HILL BY FIVE SHOTS
Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: What impressed you most about Tiger's victory?
Cameron Morfit, senior writer, Golf Magazine: Definitely his putting. He made an all-world two-putt after getting into a bit of trouble on 10, and a great putt from about 15 feet to save par on 15, just like he used to in the old days.
Jim Gorant, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: It wasn't a great score, but he kept the pressure on all day. He hit a lot of good shots and forced McDowell to continually match him. Tiger had a lot of tap-in pars.
Jim Herre, managing editor, SI Golf Group: I thought Woods putted well all week. Nothing crazy, but solid on extremely fast greens. He also hit a lot of solid iron shots, and aside from the drive on 15 on Saturday, kept his ball in play. Overall, a nice B+ effort for four days, which has always been enough for TW to win.
Van Sickle: Tiger was in near complete control of his ball on the weekend. Just like old times. Great ballstriking, great shotmaking, great putting. It would be tough to make an argument that he isn't back.
Jeff Ritter, senior producer, Golf.com: I also can't remember a week since he started working with Foley where he hit this many 3-wood stingers off the tee. That's going to serve him well at Augusta.
Charlie Hanger, executive editor, Golf.com: And the British Open. I was most impressed that Tiger was so much better than the field. This was a blowout of old-school-Tiger proportions.
Van Sickle: If Tiger isn't playing, McDowell runs away with this thing. Instead, he's the B-Flight champ. Sound familiar? Tiger was a touchdown ahead of everyone else.
Have a question for Gary Van Sickle's mailbag? E-mail editor@golf.com or ask it on Facebook.
Rick Lipsey, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: His margin of victory was most impressive, and on a HARD course.
Ryan Reiterman, senior producer, Golf.com: Lag putting. Tiger made it look relatively easy. Just like old times.
Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: The win is deeply impressive because he earned it on the practice tee, and it's hard to devote yourself to the practice tee when you're 36 and your kids need rides and the lawn needs mowing. He earned it. It wasn't smoke-and-mirrors. It was not like old times. It was totally different.
Hanger: I'll give you the kids' rides, but he's not mowing much of that lawn, which is actually his personal golf course. Still, point taken.
Shipnuck: I loved Tiger's demeanor. He seemed utterly in control all day, and even a couple of 50-footers from G-Mac early in the round couldn't change that.
Van Sickle: When McDowell holed that eagle putt on 6, it was hard to tell whether Tiger even noticed it go in. In the zone, for sure.
Ritter: Other than the new caddie and the goofy shoes, the whole scene felt a lot like something we saw frequently in 2007. Other than one three-putt, he was in total control on Sunday. Just like old times.
Mick Rouse, editorial assistant, SI Golf Group: Impressive performance all around by Tiger, especially with the putter. We've talked about Tiger not being able to close lately, but he never looked like he was going to falter today.
Stephanie Wei, contributor, SI Golf+: I was impressed by his great iron play all week, and his ability to recover after a bogey (or the double on 15 Saturday). He made those key 5- to 15-foot putts to keep his momentum going or swing it back in his favor.
Van Sickle: Tiger is driving it straight. I can't point that out enough. That's a scary thought, given his shotmaking skills with his irons. Not only is he back, I think he's going to win multiple majors in the next few years.
Wei: Tiger is ranked No. 1 on Tour in total driving. He hit 57 of 72 greens this week (more like 65 if you count the fringe). Behind the 18th green, Foley said, "The sexiest long iron I've ever seen Tiger hit was the one on No. 6." (Yes, he really said "sexiest." It was a 3-iron.) It's scary to think what Tiger will do now that he's driving it on a string and finally has found some rhythm with his putting stroke.
Tell us what you think in the all-new readers' live Confidential or in the comments section below: What impressed you most about Tiger's five-shot victory at Bay Hill?
IS TIGER NOW THE MAN TO BEAT?
Shipnuck: No doubt this week was a big step forward, but is Tiger really "back"? Is he now the guy to beat every time he tees it up?
Van Sickle: Tiger's biggest challenge will be to remain healthy. His ballstriking this week looked better than at any time since the Harmon years.
Gorant: Not quite. I certainly expect him to be in contention, but I can't quite expect him to win yet.
Herre: We'll see. This could be another incremental move. You have to keep in mind that Tiger won a higher percentage of events entered than any player in modern history — by a mile. I don't know if he'll ever reach that pinnacle again. I'm not surprised at all that he won again. I will be surprised if he becomes the player he was 10 or 12 years ago.
Gorant: I don't know. It was a pretty dominant performance on a tough course, and you can see lots of room for improvement. He could distance himself again.
Van Sickle: He is the guy to beat, yes. If he'd slopped it around and won with his putting or something, maybe not, but he played dominant golf. He's the new favorite for Augusta now, and if he wins there, as I've said many times, 19 majors will be back in play and Tiger mania will vault to a new high.
Lipsey: In people's minds and player's minds, yes, Tiger is the man to beat.
Wei: I'm tired of the "is Tiger back or not?" storylines. He's back in the winner's circle, but he'll never be the same person/player he was pre-scandal. It's just not possible. Let's move on and focus on the fact that Tiger's playing well again.
Van Sickle: Personally, I don't know how much more obvious Tiger could've made it this week. He dominated, and now he's going to Augusta, where he finished fourth the last two years with no swing. Now he's playing his best in half a dozen years. I'm not easily swayed, but we've seen Tiger's steady progression since late last year. It was a process, Tiger said, and now the process is over. He's there. He's back.
Tell us what you think in the all-new readers' live Confidential or in the comments section below: Are you ready to say that Tiger is "back"?
Go to Page 2
PICKING A MASTERS FAVORITE
Shipnuck: A lot of jabronis win PGA Tour events. I think we all agree the Masters will be the true gauge of where Tiger's game/head is. So, who is now your pick to win the green jacket?
Bamberger: Kyle Stanley, Jonathan Byrd, Phil, Rory, Tiger, Fred, Zach Johnson, Johnson Wagner. In that order.
Van Sickle: If forced to wager, I'd put my money on Tiger 3.0. McDowell mentioned how this course was U.S. Open-esque, and Tiger crushed the field.
Gorant: It has to be Tiger, Rory and everyone else going in.
Hanger: I'd say Tiger, Rory, Phil and everyone else. Winner? If I had to bet my life, I'd still pick Rory.
Herre: As Michael Bamberger has written for this week's SI Masters preview, the Masters is going to be all about Tiger and Rory McIlroy. I'll take McIlroy.
Lipsey: After this win, I think it'll be all about Tiger, with Rory as a sidelight. Winning today vaults Tiger back into Tiger mania, and everybody else is second fiddle, no matter what they've done or how much talent they have.
Morfit: I can't pick Tiger to win the Masters, even after winning at Bay Hill. He hasn't won at Augusta since '05. I've got to go with either Phil or Rory.
Van Sickle: I'll go back to what Curtis Strange said in the SI roundtable about Tiger's intimidation factor. If he starts winning again, the other guys will be intimidated. I agree with Curtis.
Morfit: Loved that quote from Curtis, and I also agree.
Gorant: Me too.
Lipsey: It seems like that happened today, with the field going south and Woods going low.
Bamberger: Guys will be intimidated if he putts short ones with guys breathing down his neck like he used to. It's hard to imagine that skill coming back.
Ritter: I'm still picking McIlroy, but Tiger won't be outside the top five. It's going to be a great week.
Lipsey: Robert Karlsson. You're welcome, Mr. Garrity.
John Garrity, contributing writer, Sports Illustrated: Will Karlsson be intimidated by Tiger's resurgence? I don't think so. But for the record, I picked Tiger to win the Masters way back in December.
Wei: Tough not to pick Tiger after that dominant performance, but I'm going to stick with Rory as my favorite if I have to pick just one.
Tell us what you think in the all-new readers' live Confidential or in the comments section below: Who's your pick to win the Masters?
WILL TIGER PASS JACK?
Shipnuck: Since we're going deep on all things Tiger, let's get everyone's updated thinking on whether Tiger gets to 19 majors. I say no.
Morfit: I still don't think he gets to 19. I think there's just too much talent out there now, and Tiger's body is just too iffy.
Lipsey: Unlikely.
Van Sickle: I say it's back on the table. If he can win one more major, he can win five more. It now looks possible again after some very barren years.
Ritter: I still think he wins two more and finishes two behind Jack.
Gorant: I've been saying yes all along, and I'll stick with that.
Bamberger: I say no. I think we'll all enjoy watching the attempt, though.
Herre: I've been on record as a "no" for quite a while now. I've always maintained that he would win again, probably many times. I simply think that winning five majors is a Hall of Fame career for any player. I don't think Woods, for a variety of reasons but primarily his health and his 20 years in the spotlight, has that much career left.
Reiterman: I'm staying with yes, but one more left leg injury, and I'll probably jump off the bandwagon.
Garrity: Tiger's shown me enough to put me back on the 19 majors bandwagon. Forty isn't a mental barrier any more, and his game is always going to be better suited to the big events and the toughest courses. It's like Nicklaus used to say — half the field at the Masters was out of it before the first tee shot on Thursday.
Tell us what you think in the all-new readers' live Confidential or in the comments section below: Did Sunday's result change your opinion on whether Tiger will pass Jack? How many more majors do you think he'll win in his career?
Go to Page 3
ELS STILL OUT OF MASTERS
Shipnuck: It's been agonizing watching Hall of Famer Ernie Els try to play his way into the Masters field. Should the lords of Augusta have given him a special invite?
Bamberger: Yes. This is the year to have Ernie there, when he could contend.
Gorant: Since they gave one to Ishikawa two weeks ago, I say yes. I know ANGC has been all about courting Asia, but Ernie has done enough.
Herre: Yes, and they still might, although waiting this long is sort of cruel.
Van Sickle: Absolutely not. Ernie had the same chance as every other player in the world. I don't think Ishikawa should've gotten a free pass, either. The Japanese tour is clearly over-weighted in the World Ranking, so it says something that Ishikawa still didn't play well enough to be eligible. For the Masters, it was strictly a Japanese media buy. I'd love to see Ernie at Augusta, but he's got to do it the SmithBarney way — earn it.
Shipnuck: Ishikawa is not about golf, it's about TV demographics, and Billy Payne was quite transparent about that. I think it's a huge mistake for any major to give out what are essentially sponsor's exemptions. Ernie (and everyone else) can play his way into the field in any number of ways. If he doesn't, tough luck.
Rouse: I think Ryo is a huge talent, but if he didn't earn his way into the field, he shouldn't be there, no matter what he does for viewership. Same goes for Ernie.
Garrity: Johnny Miller said no to Els because there's no room for sentiment in golf. (I'm paraphrasing.) I sort of agree on principle, but I don't think Els would be a sentimental invite. He's been in contention as of late, and I could see him contending again at Augusta. He certainly has a better shot than Ishikawa and some of the other invitees.
Wei: I'm a sucker for sentiment.
Gorant: I'm okay with that as long as it means I no longer have to endure any self-righteous crap about the purity of the Masters and their self-congratulatory announcements about only having four minutes of commercials per hour. If it's about the sell, then it's about the sell. If it's about Bobby Jones's vision, then Ryo has to play his way in, too.
Bamberger: Bob's vision was simple — come on down and play in my little event.
Morfit: I'd throw Ernie an invite. I agree with Bamberger. I think Ernie could actually contend at the Masters.
Van Sickle: I don't know how you justify singling out one individual. Like Alan said, it's a sponsor's exemption and a bad precedent.
Morfit: The Masters already has exemptions, chief among them the exemption for past champions, most of whom aren't anywhere near as competitive as Els would be. If you're talking the strict meritocracy of the U.S. Open, no, I don't think Ernie or anyone else deserves an invite.
Garrity: Normally I'd agree with Gary, but historically the Masters was an invitational. I liked that. I liked the idea that Bobby Jones or his ghost was penning the invitation letters. And I'm sure Bobby would have invited Ernie.
Bamberger: It's an invitational. It's a club event. It's not meant to be democratic. It's about the fans and who they want to see play and contend. That's why I'd have Ernie there this year, when he's playing well.
Shipnuck: The Seminole Pro-Member is an invitational. The Masters is life and death.
Bamberger: I don't agree. I think the whole point of the Masters is that it's not life-and-death.
Wei: A resounding yes! Ernie represents today's modern world golfer. He's done enough for the game to deserve a special invite from the green coats. He's played in every Masters since 1994. It wouldn't be the same without Ernie, and he's played his heart out the past few weeks. Last week he told me at Innisbrook that he didn't want to get an invite and then go and play poorly because he'd be disappointed. Yesterday he said he finally feels like his game has come around, and it's where it needs to be for the first time in 18 months.
Shipnuck: Have you guys seen Els putt lately? The last place Ernie is going to find his old putting stroke is at Augusta National.
Bamberger: You can contend without putting great, as Fred, Davis, Tiger and others have shown.
Herre: The Masters has given out exemptions forever. Let Ernie Play!
Van Sickle: They made Tom Kite sit at home one year and cut wood when he was more deserving than Ernie is now. Ernie has had ample chances.
Lipsey: It's entertainment.
Van Sickle: Invite Michelle Wie then. And Michael Jordan. That's entertainment.
Morfit: The Masters got away from pure meritocracy a long time ago, as Jim said. They invite who they invite. That's just the way the tournament is.
Van Sickle: On the contrary, the Masters is far more of a meritocracy now than ever before by going all the way to 50 in the World Ranking. It used to be much, much more of an "invitational."
Tell us what you think in the all-new readers' live Confidential or in the comments section below: Should Augusta extend an invitation to Els?
YANI WINS AGAIN
Shipnuck: It's poetic that Yani had a dominating victory on the same day that Tiger did. This week we have the Kraft Nabisco, the first of the four LPGA majors. Does Tseng win the Grand Slam this year, before we go to five majors with the Evian Masters in 2013? And if so, does anybody besides us notice?
Lipsey: Yani wins a lot more than Tiger, that's for sure, but the Grand Slam? Probably not. It's just too hard.
Gorant: With the roll she's on right now, it sure seems like she will.
Van Sickle: Alan, are you absolutely certain that we'll notice?
Bamberger: Lexi should prevent that from happening, along with a half-dozen others.
Shipnuck: I think she's going to do it. Yani has found a way to peak every time she tees it up. And she is already defining her career by the majors.
Rouse: With the LPGA going to five majors next year, this is certainly Yani's best chance. I think she can do it, but unfortunately no one will really notice. Lexi winning a no-name tournament would garner more media attention.
Bamberger: It's actually pathetic, this formal declaration of majors by the LPGA and the Champions tour. It shows such a tin ear and such a lack of understanding about how majors became majors in the first place. Where's Furman Bisher when we need him!
Wei: If anyone is going to win the Grand Slam this year, it will be Yani, but only a small percentage of cult LPGA fans would notice. She's won two in a row, and I'm betting she barely gets a mention on Golf Central tonight.
Tell us what you think in the all-new readers' live Confidential or in the comments section below: Will Yani win the Grand Slam this year?
 

Much has changed since Tiger Woods last won an official event on the PGA Tour in September of 2009, but the former No. 1 player in the world began to restore order with a stress-free, five-stroke victory over Graeme McDowell at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill on Sunday.
The victory, Woods's seventh at this course and the 72nd of his career, was the first since his life was blown to bits when a slew of tabloid-ready infidelities were revealed in late 2009. It's also his first win since he and swing coach Sean Foley began working together in the summer of 2010, and it should ease concerns over Woods's often brittle body. At 36, his list of ailments includes a surgically repaired left knee and tender left and right Achilles tendons.
"It was just pure joy," Woods said. "You know, it was tough today. It was tough conditions out there, man. Wind was whipping out there. It was changing directions and intensities. Arnold did a hell of a job of getting these greens fast, and they were baked out and some of the hardest pins I've ever seen here."
Woods began the final round a shot ahead of McDowell, and three ahead of Ernie Els and Ian Poulter, and no contenders made a move or even broke 70. The field averaged just over 74 in the final round.
McDowell doubled-bogeyed the par-4 first hole to give Woods a three-stroke lead, draining some of the drama out of the final round almost before it started. McDowell made a few dramatic long putts, but in the end it wasn't enough to catch a steady Woods, who made four birdies and two bogeys for a 70.
"I let him get ahead of me early," said McDowell, who also finished second at Bay Hill in 2005, "and he was very tough to get close to after that." Bay Hill marked Woods's last start before the Masters at Augusta National, where Woods hasn't finished worse than a tie for sixth since 2004. He hasn't won there since 2005, but after Bay Hill he may be installed as a co-favorite with Rory McIlroy and possibly Phil Mickelson when the season's first major begins on April 5. Such was the power of Woods's long-awaited return to the winner's circle in Orlando.
"Well, I mean, he's always a force to be reckoned with [even] when he's not playing his best golf," said Ian Poulter, who shot 74 to finish third, "and obviously he's playing a lot of good golf right now."
On the few occasions when Woods misfired Sunday, he made up for it with the putter. After losing his tee shots right and into fairway bunkers on the 10th and 15th holes, Woods saved pars with a long two-putt and a par putt from about 15 feet.
With Els and Poulter falling back, the tournament came down to just two men, and McDowell (74) could never mount a serious charge. He eagled the par-5 sixth hole to make up for his terrible start, but he laid up into a bunker and made bogey on the par-5 12th hole, failing to put pressure on the leader. Woods, who had missed his drive well left, made par. Woods brought a four-stroke lead to the 15th tee.
Bay Hill has been a get-well tournament for Woods, so it was only fitting that he broke his career-long, two-and-a-half-year dry spell here. When he rolled in a long birdie putt to beat Sean O'Hair at Palmer's place in 2009, Woods proved he could still get it done after undergoing season-ending surgery on his left knee the previous summer. Sunday's victory, though, was perhaps more impressive, coming as it did after personal turmoil, recurring injuries and the third swing overhaul of his pro career.
While Woods has tried to put his life and his game back together since his Thanksgiving car accident in 2009, there have been many reminders that he no longer rules the game as he did in his prime, circa 2000. McDowell provided one of them at the 2010 Chevron Challenge, an unofficial event just north of Los Angeles, where he rolled in two big putts to force and win a playoff with third-round leader Woods. (Woods won the 2011 Chevron, an 18-player event that doesn't count as an official PGA Tour win.)
Woods held the 54-hole lead again at the HSBC Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi in late January of this year, but again he lost, this time to Robert Rock.
Although he got into contention again at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, Woods was badly outplayed by Mickelson, who won with a 64. The whispers were growing louder that Woods was not the same player who had racked up 14 major championship victories, and hadn't been for a while. Jack Nicklaus's 18 major championship victories appeared untouchable again.
Woods was once a lock when leading through the first three rounds, but everything began to change in 2009, when Y.E. Yang overcame him in the final round of the PGA Championship. Then the Woods scandal broke three months later, and his wife left him shortly afterward. In the past two years, Woods has also changed instructors and caddies and watched his world ranking plunge as low as 52nd. If all that weren't enough to turn his life upside down, he hurt himself again while hitting a shot from a bed of pine straw at the Masters last year and missed much of the rest of the season. And he recently moved from his longtime home in at Orlando's gated Isleworth community into a huge, Jupiter Island estate.
"It's by far the injuries," Woods said when asked about the most difficult part of his comeback, "because you can't practice. I haven't been able to put in the time. Can't make a swing change and make all of the adaptations we need to make unless I can practice. I had not been able to do that. So being on the sideline most of last year was tough."
By the time he came into Sunday's final-round duel with McDowell, Woods was still a very good 48-4 when holding at least a share of the lead after 54 holes in official PGA Tour events. But in his last five attempts to close out a 54-hole lead, both on and off the PGA Tour, he lost three times, including his losses to McDowell at the Chevron and to Rock in Abu Dhabi. His aura appeared to be all but gone. Of even greater concern was his failing body. Just a week after he shot a thrilling, final-round 62 at the Honda Classic, nearly stealing the tournament from golf's new, new thing, Rory McIlroy, Woods complained of a sore Achilles tendon and withdrew from the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral.
That was only two weeks ago, but Woods returned to action to play the two-day Tavistock Cup exhibition before teeing it up at Bay Hill, where he showed no ill effects from his injuries. Just over two years after his 12-minute mea culpa press conference in front of the blue curtains, Woods donned the winner's blue blazer at Bay Hill yet again. (Palmer, 82, was not at the awards ceremony but at the hospital to monitor his blood pressure. A spokesman said he was in no discomfort but would remain hospitalized overnight.)
"Great to have a front row seat watching maybe the greatest of all time doing what he does best," McDowell said of Woods, "winning golf tournaments."
Suddenly Nicklaus's record was back in play, and for Woods, and much of the rest of golf, all was right with the world again.
 

All of those wins, all of those closing statistics and all of those 14 major championships don't matter tomorrow.
They tell you everything about the player that Tiger Woods was, but nothing about the player he is now.
That's why Sunday's final round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill will be one of the biggest rounds in Tiger's storied career. This may be the day when we get the answer to the question, Is Tiger Woods back?
The answer for the first three rounds at Bay Hill was decidedly, Yes. And that question is all the more exciting because we're on the doorstep of the year's first major championship, the Masters, barely more than a week away. Woods shot 69 in the opening round, a sizzling 65 in the second round and temporarily put some room between himself and the rest of the field Saturday, opening a four-shot edge at one point. He shot 71, one under par, and led former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell by one stroke at the end of the day.
"I played better than 71, certainly," Woods said after the round. "I played well today. I hit one bad shot at 14 and had a three-putt. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. It's going to be fun."
It's been more than two years since Tiger last won a real PGA Tour event. Now he's got the lead going into Sunday at one of his favorite courses. There is a lot at stake.
"He loves Bay Hill, winning here six times," analyst Johnny Miller said during NBC's telecast Saturday. "There's a lot of pressure on him. If he were to happen to stumble tomorrow and somebody shoots a low round and beats him, it would set him back. He needs a win. He needs a win to get that confidence going into Augusta."
A win by Woods will intensify the spotlight at Augusta, which already looks like one of the more exciting majors in recent memory due to recent events — Phil Mickelson revived his game and looked to be in prime form with his win at Pebble Beach; Rory McIlroy briefly attained the No. 1 ranking when he outdueled Tiger to win the Honda Classic; Luke Donald reclaimed that No. 1 spot with a playoff victory at Innisbrook; Ernie Els appears to be coming out of a two-year putting funk; and we've seen assorted impressive performances by Hunter Mahan, Kyle Stanley and Justin Rose, among others.
They're all on a collision course, it seems, for a showdown at the Masters. Add Tiger Woods to the mix, and you've got a recipe for hysteria.
Woods looked fully in control during the third round until midway through the back nine. He snuck a birdie putt in the right side at 13 to give himself a three-shot lead. Then Woods, apparently distracted by a woman's shout from a nearby concession stand, hit a drop-kicked, hooking 3-wood shot way left at 15, into a Bay Hill resident's yard and out of bounds. He re-teed and put his next shot just into the left rough. From there, he played a superb iron shot pin-high left and narrowly missed a putt that would have salvaged bogey. He made a double bogey, cutting his lead to one stroke, but still looked like he was in control.
Woods said later that he was told the woman shouted when a youngster fainted.
When NBC's blimp showed an overhead shot of where Tiger's errant shot ended up, there was a brief silence. "Speechless," said analyst Peter Jacobsen.
Shots like that are why Tiger's round Sunday will be so big. Just when he's looked like the Tiger of old, something happens to cast doubt on his game. "It's a process" has been Tiger's stock non-answer for the last year about the status of his game. But look back at his progress, and he's been exactly right. He has been progressing, and he has been looking especially good since last year's Presidents Cup in Australia.
"My bad days aren't as bad as they used to be," Woods said after Bay Hill's second round.
After Australia, Woods regained a little confidence by winning the unofficial tournament he hosts every December in suburban Los Angeles, the Chevron World Challenge. It was only an 18-man field, but Woods did finish birdie-birdie to win. It was a start.
In a European tour event in Abu Dhabi, Woods had the 54-hole lead but had a lackluster final round and slipped back to third behind Robert Rock. Woods played well at the Australian Open until a poor third round. At Pebble Beach, he put together three good rounds but looked baffled on the greens on Sunday and was no match for a charging Mickelson. Finally, Woods answered a lot of questions at the Honda Classic when he closed with a 62 and nearly stole the title from McIlroy. Then came Doral, when he was last seen driving away from the course after withdrawing mid-round on Sunday with an Achilles injury.
This week, Tiger has looked healthy, and his ballstriking has looked familiar. He hit 19 consecutive greens in regulation at one point. On Saturday, he used an old favorite off the tee, a low stinger iron shot, to find fairways on the back nine, and it was very effective.
At the par-5 sixth hole, he narrowly missed a 96-foot eagle putt and settled for a tap-in birdie.
He birdied the par-5 16th hole from a fairway bunker, then found a deep greenside bunker at the par-3 17th and played a beautiful explosion shot to three feet and saved par. At 18, Woods settled for par after his short second putt rattled around a bit before finding the bottom of the cup.
Woods's stats are almost humorous. He has won 33 of 41 times when leading after 36 holes. He has won 47 of 51 times on the PGA Tour when holding the 54-hole lead, but he lost the last two times, at Abu Dhabi and the 2010 Chevron World Challenge. At Bay Hill, where he has won six times, he has been close to unbeatable.
But this isn't the Same Old Tiger. This is a Brand New Tiger, and we don't have a read on him yet. Is he back, and if so, is he all the way back? Can McDowell or maybe Ernie Els or anyone else catch him? Inquiring minds want to know.
"We're in for a good ride tomorrow," Miller noted on-air.
No argument there, Johnny. Buckle up, people. This should be fun.

(All times Eastern.)
8:10 am
Vegas, Jhonattan
 
8:14 am
McGirt, William
Gillis, Tom
8:23 am
Snedeker, Brandt
Reavie, Chez
8:32 am
Hurley III, Billy
Knost, Colt
8:41 am
Gates, Bobby
Stallings, Scott
8:50 am
Watney, Nick
Huh, John
8:59 am
Romero, Andres
Holmes, J.B.
9:08 am
Kendall, Skip
Jacobson, Fredrik
9:17 am
Pride, Dicky
Flores, Martin
9:26 am
Allenby, Robert
Hoffman, Charley
9:35 am
Pampling, Rod
Leonard, Justin
9:45 am
Thompson, Michael
McNeill, George
9:55 am
Ishikawa, Ryo
Weekley, Boo
10:05 am
Walker, Jimmy
Wilson, Mark
10:15 am
Every, Matt
Haas, Bill
10:25 am
Harman, Brian
Janzen, Lee
10:35 am
Villegas, Camilo
Love III, Davis
10:45 am
Mahan, Hunter
Blanks, Kris
10:55 am
Trahan, D.J.
Gay, Brian
11:05 am
Summerhays, Daniel
Campbell, Chad
11:15 am
Kim, Anthony
Chappell, Kevin
11:25 am
Overton, Jeff
Mickelson, Phil
11:35 am
Singh, Vijay
Stenson, Henrik
11:45 am
Laird, Martin
Garcia, Sergio
11:55 am
Furyk, Jim
Rollins, John
12:05 pm
Owen, Greg
Teater, Josh
12:15 pm
Choi, K.J.
Leishman, Marc
12:25 pm
Immelman, Trevor
Moore, Ryan
12:35 pm
Davis, Brian
Woodland, Gary
12:45 pm
Noh, Seung-Yul
Herron, Tim
12:55 pm
Rose, Justin
Dufner, Jason
1:05 pm
Watson, Bubba
Simpson, Webb
1:15 pm
Johnson, Zach
Stroud, Chris
1:25 pm
Cauley, Bud
O'Hair, Sean
1:35 pm
Na, Kevin
Wi, Charlie
1:45 pm
Howell III, Charles
Wagner, Johnson
1:55 pm
Els, Ernie
Poulter, Ian
2:05 pm
Woods, Tiger
McDowell, Graeme

ORLANDO — As long spring shadows crawled across Bay Hill Club and Lodge on Friday, Tiger Woods retreated to the driving range for some overtime.
He dropped a bucket of balls on the tattered ground and began striking iron shots into the dusk. Like most of his swings on Friday, they were beautiful. Still, Woods felt he had more work to do.
Woods hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since September of 2009, and for a golfer who treats winning like the rest of us treat oxygen, that is a lifetime.
He has had nearly three years of close calls and blowout losses, improvements and backward steps, good health and injury.
And now, two weeks before the Masters, he is in the running again. He needs to finish the race.
“I want to win, yes, absolutely,” Woods said when asked if he felt like he needed to win. “We’ve got a long way to go. It’s not like it’s over right now. We’ve got 36 holes to go.”
After a seven-under-par 65 in which he hit 17 greens and used his putter for birdie attempts on every hole, Woods vaulted to the top of the leader board with Charlie Wi to take a one-shot lead over Graeme McDowell and Jason Dufner.
Few courses give Woods the comfort that Bay Hill does. He’s won six times here. He’s shot 64 three times here. He’s turned four 36-hole leads into three wins here.
While Woods insisted he struck the ball better during his first-round 69, his 65 on Friday was mostly stress-free. Woods made four birdies in a row between the fourth and seventh holes. When he got in trouble with pulled tee shots on No. 10 and No. 12, he still made par and birdie. Woods’s drive on the par-5 12th hole was so far left that he had no option for going for the green in two. When he found his tee shot in the rough, he walked to the ball, took 15 paces toward the fairway and then walked back to his ball.
“Give me the number to that fairway bunker, front,” Woods asked his caddie, Joe LaCava.
“Eight-five,” LaCava answered, indicating 185 yards.
Woods lofted an iron back to the fairway, struck a wedge to 8 feet and walked in the birdie.
“I just felt that even though my stuff wasn’t as good as it was yesterday, it wasn’t that bad, either,” Woods said. “And that’s the neat thing about what I’m working on with Sean [Foley], is that my bad days are not as bad as they used to be.”
For all of his improvement — his stats and his strut indicate that it’s real — Woods has yet to put four rounds together, the marathon by which a golfer is judged.
For most of his career, nobody ran the race better or closed with a more fierce finishing kick.
These days, something seems to go wrong somewhere along the way. A round with too many missed putts or one too many mistimed swings.
“I saw him on television at Doral, and he didn’t look good there,” Ernie Els said. “Today, he was on. Today, was the same as I saw him at the Honda — very on.”
Els said he’s seen enough of Woods lately to place him among three favorites to win the Masters (he did not name the other two). He cited Woods’s experience and the height of his approach shots.
“He’s maybe not as long as he was back in the day, but he’s still plenty long enough, and he’s got the most trajectory for the second shots,” Els said.
The Masters will be here soon, but there is work to do this week first. On so many past weekends here, Woods weaved magic at Bay Hill, with Arnold Palmer standing on a hill and the sun going down.
That is why Woods went to the range early Friday evening, a golfer spending an hour in the half-light, a golfer searching for his way home.

(All times Eastern)
7:55 am
Knost, Colt
 
7:59 am
Allenby, Robert
Campbell, Chad
8:08 am
Huh, John
Wilson, Mark
8:17 am
Ishikawa, Ryo
Hoffman, Charley
8:26 am
Reavie, Chez
Owen, Greg
8:35 am
McGirt, William
Hurley III, Billy
8:44 am
Teater, Josh
Jacobson, Fredrik
8:53 am
Pride, Dicky
Romero, Andres
9:02 am
Vegas, Jhonattan
Gates, Bobby
9:11 am
Noh, Seung-Yul
Stallings, Scott
9:20 am
Flores, Martin
Harman, Brian
9:30 am
Stenson, Henrik
Holmes, J.B.
9:40 am
Snedeker, Brandt
Weekley, Boo
9:50 am
Janzen, Lee
Thompson, Michael
10:00 am
Trahan, D.J.
Overton, Jeff
10:10 am
McNeill, George
Gay, Brian
10:20 am
Pampling, Rod
Mahan, Hunter
10:30 am
Every, Matt
Gillis, Tom
10:40 am
Leonard, Justin
Herron, Tim
10:50 am
Kendall, Skip
Haas, Bill
11:00 am
Furyk, Jim
Mickelson, Phil
11:10 am
Kim, Anthony
Davis, Brian
11:20 am
Rollins, John
Cauley, Bud
11:30 am
Blanks, Kris
Woodland, Gary
11:40 am
Chappell, Kevin
Summerhays, Daniel
11:50 am
Immelman, Trevor
Villegas, Camilo
12:00 pm
Moore, Ryan
Love III, Davis
12:10 pm
Choi, K.J.
O'Hair, Sean
12:20 pm
Els, Ernie
Watney, Nick
12:30 pm
Howell III, Charles
Walker, Jimmy
12:40 pm
Leishman, Marc
Na, Kevin
12:50 pm
Wagner, Johnson
Laird, Martin
1:00 pm
Johnson, Zach
Poulter, Ian
1:10 pm
Stroud, Chris
Simpson, Webb
1:20 pm
Garcia, Sergio
Singh, Vijay
1:30 pm
Rose, Justin
Watson, Bubba
1:40 pm
Dufner, Jason
McDowell, Graeme
1:50 pm
Woods, Tiger
Wi, Charlie

ORLANDO, Fla. — On a bright weekday afternoon, Arnold Palmer, flanked by television cameras, slowly shuffled from the driving range to the practice green at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. Escorted by a single representative, Palmer moved deliberately not only because of his age, although, at 82, he could be forgiven if that was it, but also because of the deep lines of autograph-seekers he was attempting to satisfy. Palmer didn't tee it up on this day, pro-am day, and while his preference may be to keep his game out of the public eye, he's still a scratch player when it comes to being a golf ambassador and an American sports icon.
"Thank you, Mr. Palmer," said a happy middle-aged woman after getting Palmer's famous signature on a Masters flag.
"Really appreciate this, Mr. Palmer," said a forty-something man as Palmer signed a golf ball for the man's son, a school-aged boy who stood by wide-eyed and silent.
"When you first hear of golf, who do you think of? Jack and Arnie," Doug Bredewold, 54, told a reporter after getting Arnie's signature on his golf cap. "He's a gentleman."
So it goes in the life of a legend. Palmer has been this tournament's host since 1979 (he put his name on it in 2007), and things here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational are going strong, as evidenced by MasterCard extending its title sponsorship for four more years, through 2016. It looks like Arnie's going to be dishing out signatures all over Bay Hill for quite some time, and the King has no problem with that. The event has helped build and continuously improve two of his big pet projects: the Arnold Palmer Hospital For Children and the Winnie Palmer Hospital For Children & Babies. He puts a lot into all of this.
"I think the players realize that we are working hard to make this golf tournament one that will get everyone's eye and attention," Palmer said at his press conference this week. "And through the years, we will continue to do the things that we are doing to make the golf course better, and to make the players come here and enjoy this competition."
Palmer went on that day to take a little jab at Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy, the world's first- and second-ranked players, calling the Euros' decision to skip his event this week "disappointing." It wasn't exactly incendiary stuff, but the comments created a few pre-tournament headlines and generated some buzz among the players — including Tiger Woods, who wandered over to his publicist, Glenn Greenspan, in the middle of his practice round and said with a smile, "I hear A.P. went off."
A.P. may not be pleased with who's not here, but the pros in the field this week — particularly Woods and Phil Mickelson, who have drawn the largest galleries to the surprise of no one — all but ensure that Palmer's tournament will not only be relevant, but also a premier early-season stop during the run-up to the Masters, which starts in two weeks.
"I think the ambassador that Arnold Palmer has been in the game is second to none," said Webb Simpson, who received a sponsor's exemption from Palmer early in his career and, like Palmer, attended Wake Forest.
"I want to give special thanks to Mr. Palmer," said Ryo Ishikawa, who received an exemption to play this week. "I met him [Tuesday], and this week I want to show Mr. Palmer I can play well, and maybe Sunday afternoon shake his hand again."
With the tournament underway, Palmer spent much of his time Thursday and Friday around the course, shaking hands, signing autographs, posing for photos and following his grandson, Sam Saunders, who was in the field on a (very) special exemption but missed the cut. On Friday, Palmer took the wheel of a golf cart and buzzed around with his wife, Kathleen. They watched Saunders grind along, and Palmer frequently parked outside the ropes to greet fans.
"It's very nice of him to stop and take the time to do that. He's the man, you know?" said Toby Rowell, a 67-year-old minister from Augusta, moments after Palmer dropped a signature onto his golf cap. "He's always had the demeanor about him as a man of the people. Tiger's not the man. Arnie's the highlight."
Woods, of course, is trying to shake off a recent Achilles injury and get himself locked in for Augusta. When he hit the autograph line between the range and the putting green a day after Palmer lit it up, Woods dished out a couple of signatures while continuing to press forward. Hey, no player is under more scrutiny this week, or most weeks, than Tiger. And so far Woods is playing well. This week at Bay Hill, he is certainly the star.
But when you ask around, only one guy out here is The Man.