He's back (properly this time)

Just put a bet on Tiger winning two of four majors this year - odds weren't actually that good. Do we all agree that Tiger is back and likely to dominate again?

i think he will win a major this year. he's in contention in Abu Dabhi (if thats how you spell it) so thats a promising start

Hmm, I'd still hang fire on the definitive statement that he's back. I reckon that playing in Abu Dhabi is doing him a lot of good, he looks more relaxed than he has for the last couple of years and I think he's responding the fact that all he has to do is concentrate on his game rather than satisfying the hoards of baying yanks and blanket media coverage.  I wouldn't be suprised if he wins the tournament, but I think he's about to find out just how much the Europeans have advanced since he's been out.  

Well, hate to say I told you so, but..

His performance today was pretty poor, especially compared to the first three days.  What was it, 4 or 5 GIR's, 3 or 4 FIR's and some pretty indifferent scrambling to get swallowed up by the chasing pack.  OK, he was only two off the lead, but on the other hand he was only 2 away from scraping 8th.

The biggest thing I think was that nobody, least of all Robert Rock, appeared to be the slightest bit intimidated by Woods - in his pomp he would have ground all of the others down with his sheer presence.  So quite a way to go yet I think.

I think it would actually be better for him to do the European Tour this year, after all he doesn't need the money, rather than going back to the target practice US courses - of course it will never happen.

Like Lewis I'm not a Tiger fan as I've always thought he has done more damage to the game than any other golfer, but you can't deny his talent. I expected him to win the event in a canter but was delighted that RR proved to be his master. I'm amused by the apologies that Tiger-fans come out with - "only Tiger could stay in contention while playing that badly" indeed! Anyone else you would have said "he couldn't hack it on the day"!

When Tiger won his last major I suggested to my golf group that a great bet would be that he wouldn't win another major in his thirties - given the low odds against him for each tournament the statistical probablility of him not winning another would theoretically have been about 1000-1 (if you could have found a bookie who would take the bet). So far, so good, I wish I had had a tenner on it!

I do agree that to see him compete against a bunch of golfers who aren't scared of his reputation will show how good he really is. Incidentally, if you look at the detail behind the World Golf Rankings he is still well down the chart but only because his total points over two years are divided by the minimum 40 events, he has actually played 28. Use that as the divisor and he is already up to #7.

Darren, I agree. I didn't see any of the coverage so can't comment, but no doubt you are right. He didn't play badly when in contention in the "old" days, though. The new breed of players won't be scared of him, I'm looking forward to seeing him in contention and, if he wins against other players who are playing well, not giving up as they used to, then he deserves to take some titles. Bring it on!