T.J.'s Take: Enough about 'the knee'... for now, anyway

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In his first stroke-play round since June of 2008, Tiger Woods shot a 1-under 71 at Doral on Thursday.

DORAL, Fla. -- If you didn't know better, you might think Tiger Woods was just back from a short break.

Heck, that's what caddie Stevie Williams was thinking. He told his boss, "It's like we just took three or four weeks off and here we are again."

In a way, it has been a short break. After all, it was only two weeks ago that Tiger teed it up in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, where he lost in the second round to Tim Clark.

Tiger's stats

Through 18 holes

Stats Rd. 1 Total Rank Eagles -- 0 N/A Birdies 3 3 T43 Pars 13 13 T13 Bogeys 2 2 T34 Double bogeys -- 0 N/A Other -- 0 N/A Driving accuracy 50 50.0 T38 Driving distance 299.0 299.0 T14 Putts per round 28 28.0 T41 Putts per GIR 1.818 1.818 T56 Greens in Reg 61 61.1 T41 Sand saves -- 0.0 T64

Also, Thursday's opening-round, 1-under 71 at Doral in the World Golf Championships-CA Championship that featured three birdies and two bogeys was rather ho-hum for the world's No. 1 player. At day's end, Tiger was tied for 40th, trailing a foursome of leaders -- Jeev Milkha Singh, Retief Goosen, Prayad Marksaeng and Phil Mickelson -- by six shots.

"It was a little bit frustrating on those greens today," said a nonchalant Woods, who used a total of 28 putts in Round 1. "I hit so many putts that looked good. I thought I hit my lines and thought I had the right speed, but they just didn't go in."

On to the larger point: This week marks Tiger's first start in a stroke-play event on the PGA TOUR in nine months, or -- for you purists out there -- since one of the greatest wins in major championship history in a 91-hole battle in the U.S. Open with Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines.

From last June until two weeks ago in Tucson, Tiger was sidelined, recovering from a surgically repaired left knee... in case you hadn't heard.

After 50 competitive holes -- 32 in two rounds at the Accenture Match Play Championship and 18 here at Doral -- it appears that the knee shouldn't be a concern. Surely everyone will keep a keen eye on it, but with none of those painful grimaces making their way onto Tiger's face, which is typically reserved for the multi-million-dollar smile that cashes more checks than a bank, it appears to be business as usual.

That's what Tiger's calling it, too.

"It's nice to just play the golf course, too, that helps," Woods said. "Getting in a better environment was good at Tucson, but here, you're just playing the golf course, which is nice, and just focus on my own game and just kind of plod my way along."

Mike Weir spent his early Wednesday morning playing a practice round with Tiger and the two are paired together for the first 36 holes here, along with Sweden's Robert Karlsson.

According to Weir, who plays more golf with Tiger than most, everything looks normal.

"His swing looks good. He's got some good rhythm going, to me," said Weir, who like Tiger and Karlsson turned in a 1-under 71. "He burned the edge on a lot of putts, but he looked good to me. It looked solid and he was hitting the ball solidly. There weren't any mis-hits, really. It looked very solid and he looked good."

Karlsson, the lanky Swede who hits the ball forever, said he thought Tiger looked a little rusty, a criticism he had to dig deep for.

"He hit a few indifferent shots that he doesn't usually hit," Karlsson said, "but he also hit a number of really impressive looking drives that I haven't seen him hit in that way before, so if he puts it all together, he is definitely not any worse than he was before and, as I said, he has shots that I haven't really seen him hit before.

"It's now up to him to put all that together in terms of scoring, but he has definitely not lost anything since the injury."

And, if you listen to Tiger, the scoring isn't far off.

"If you go over the round, the putts I lipped out; those putts lip in, that's 4 or 5 under par right there, no problem," Woods said. "So I was very close to shooting that number; to only be two or three back. So it was not like I was playing poorly and shot 71. I played well and just didn't make the putts."

The crowds were thinner than you might expect with Tiger -- a five-time winner at Doral and six-time winner of the CA Championship -- continuing his much-anticipated return and that wasn't lost on Karlsson.

"I don't think I have ever played with him when there has been so little interest in terms of crowd numbers and stuff like that," Karlsson said. "It is a Thursday morning, remember, and the last time I played with Tiger was on the Saturday of the U.S. Open, or in the Ryder Cup. I have never been drawn with him on the first couple of rounds of a tournament so that was a little different for me, but it was great as usual. He is great to play with. I enjoyed it."

Everyone else seems to be enjoying it too -- the fact that we're paying a little more attention to Tiger's game now and a little less attention to that left knee...

...Until tomorrow, that is.