Golf's biggest star is back, and expect him to be ready to shine

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Tiger Woods gets in a practice round on Tuesday before the start of the Accenture Match Play Championship.

MARANA, Ariz. -- Venturing out to the practice range before dawn peaked at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club early Tuesday morning, there was an interesting scene that played out.

The gates hadn't yet been open to the public to follow along and watch the second day of practice rounds at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, but a swelling contingent of media was swarming around the practice tee, awaiting the arrival of golf's biggest star, Tiger Woods.

As the sky warmed from pitch black to a grayish-blue with the sun rising over Dove Mountain, a caddie began walking from the clubhouse down to the range just after 7 a.m. -- a walk of about 120 yards.

Everyone began to say, "Look, it's Stev..." but the sentence was cut short once everyone realized it wasn't Stevie Williams, Tiger's caddie. Instead, it was Jim "Bones" McKay -- Phil Mickelson's caddie -- followed shortly thereafter by Lefty himself.

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Never had such a large group of people gathered at a golf course been so bummed out to see Mickelson.

For better or worse, Mickelson enters this week as the forgotten man, along with 62 of the other 64 men in the field because "The Man" is back.

Lefty had a rough start to the season, and then busted out of his slump last week to win his second consecutive Northern Trust Open. But on Tuesday, he was simply an afterthought, as Tiger returned from his eight-month leave of absence.

Mickelson is no dummy. He knew the media throngs at the practice range weren't meant for him, which is why he let everyone know, "Don't worry, he's coming."

No need to explain who "he" is.

Moments later -- and this time it wasn't a false alarm -- Tiger stoically walked to the range as if he'd never missed a day. Calm, cool and collected... just the way he left us.

Extremely focused, Tiger spent about 15 minutes hitting balls and never looked up to see the masses that surrounded him.

"I came here on a Tuesday practice round, and as I'm walking to the range I've never seen so many cameras and photographers and so forth, especially that early in the morning waiting for Tiger to get there," Mickelson said. "It's amazing to me what he has done for our sport, and for us to have the most recognizable athlete in the world playing our sport is so fortunate for all of us, and we've all been able to benefit from it and to have him back is awesome."

While everyone is delighted by Tiger's return, because let's face it, golf just hasn't been as exciting without him, there's no one more enthused than Tiger himself.

"It feels great to be back out and get in a competitive environment again, it feels really good," he said.

While rehabbing from his surgically repaired left knee, a lot has happened in Tiger's life, highlighted by the birth of his second child and first son, Charlie Axel.

It's no mystery that golf has been the center of attention for Tiger throughout his life, but his priorities are certainly shifting. Excited to be back and able to play? Sure, but that's with an emphasis on "able" because Tiger sure didn't miss being away from the game nearly as much as the game missed him.

"Being on the sidelines, it actually felt great to get away from it, to be with my daughter Sam and E (Elin) and watch [Sam] grow," Tiger said. "I would have missed a lot of that.

"It was a blessing in disguise to have an opportunity just to see Sam grow that fast and that much," he added. "As players, you travel so much that I would have missed a lot of that, so I was very lucky there. As far as my golf swing, I'm doing the same things I've been trying to do, but now I have a leg I can do it on."

And that's the part that could be scary for the rest of Tiger's competition for years to come. This week is the first test in seeing if he can play through an entire tournament pain-free.

It's OK to be fascinated by Tiger and thrilled about his return. But as far as expectations go, don't lower the bar just because he's had a long lay off.

Tiger isn't here to finish second.