Tiger Woods -- Not That Popular In Canada

Following a front page photo of Woods in the National Post on December 5 readers across the country wasted no time responding negatively.

"Tiger Woods on the front page of a decent newspaper?" asked John Rogers. "Disgraceful!"

"Why would a purveyor of world, national and local 'news' give front-page space to a person who egregiously and so publicly spat on his family and sport?" added Marvin Sharpe. "There is so much going on in this world that needs to be reported, so to see front-page reporting on this individual is very disturbing. I wonder what young people who aspire to become professional golfers think about this man's personal idea of what is right."

"I have been a subscriber for many years and I was absolutely gobsmacked that the best paper in Canada by a long shot could not find something, almost anything else, for the front page," agreed Gary Galvin.

The final note of dismay about this image goes to a reader with a different complaint.

"Monday's Post devoted 81 column inches to American Tiger Woods," wrote John Atkins. "By contrast, the same edition devoted 13 column inches to two excellent achievements for Canadian's Christine Nesbitt [long track speed skater] and Tara Whitten [track racing cyclist]. The Post's coverage of our female athletes in favour of an underachieving malcontent golfer (athlete would be a stretch) is palpable. Your patronizing contempt of female athletes is appalling."

Doug Ferguson of Associated Press, a member of the U.S. media who perhaps knows Woods as well or better than most, wrote two items about Tiger after his victory at Thousasnd Oaks, California.

Tiger Woods ends two-year title drought with Chevron win

Tiger Woods' career comes full circle after Chevron victory

However, the most compelling and insightful story about Tiger Woods, the golfing chameleon, was penned this past week by Vancouver Sun sport columnist Cam Cole of Postmedia News and is definitely worthy of your attention.

Tiger Isn't Exactly Back

The game is better with him as a plausible threat.

Who would dispute that - give or take those viewers grown sick (though not so sick that they don't watch) of television airing his every smile, scowl, club-slam and spit-gob en route to a 74 while the actual tournament leaders get scant coverage by comparison?

And even for them, we dare say, it was a good thing seeing Tiger Woods hole that eightfooter to win the Chevron World Challenge on Sunday, his first victory anywhere in 749 days. Good to see that right-hook, that fist-pump, that scream of emotional release that looked so much like Sidney Crosby's "F---, yeah!" reaction to the goal in his first game back after a wholly different kind of stay in purgatory.

But the operative word is "plausible."

It doesn't mean Tiger is back, kicking butt and taking names like the old days. Finishing atop a hand-picked, 18-man field in a tournament benefiting his own foundation at what might as well be his home course, with a lot of top-ranked stars playing in other parts of the world, isn't any kind of barometer of his ability to dominate as he once did.

In fact, it is far more likely that his time as the be-all and end-all of golf is over, everywhere but in the spheres of his own, and the PGA Tour's, finances.

Too many of the demi-stars - the Luke Donalds, the Lee Westwoods, the Matt Kuchars and Dustin Johnsons - who were lurking at the fringes of greatness before he crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant in November of 2009 have, in his absence, walked into the spotlight and found it to their liking.

Too many talented kids - the Rory McIlroys, Martin Kaymers, Keegan Bradleys, Webb Simpsons, Jason Days - have grown up without fear in the meantime, without him providing the dents in their psyches that always made Tiger's generation of quasi-challengers, such as Ernie Els and Davis Love and Phil Mickelson and even fussy old Colin Montgomerie, quiver in his presence.

We all understand why the golf commentators Sunday were wetting themselves at the prospect of Woods finally closing the deal with the sort of birdie-birdie, make-the-putt finish that used to be his hallmark.

We understand, because his is still the name at the top of the marquee (if not the world rankings). His face in a tournament field can still drive ratings like no other, sell ads, pull viewers away from the NFL on a Sunday afternoon, even for a meaningless event in golf's Silly Season.

But the truth is, Tiger jumping 31 places in the Official World Golf Ranking, to No. 21, by beating 17 other players in a December hit-and-giggle is a joke, and a new OWGR edict discounting the number of world-ranking points awarded for short-field events ought to be applied retroactively.

His win was no more meaningful than that of Westwood, prevailing in a 12-man money grab in South Africa, the Nedbank Challenge, or of McIlroy beating a full but talent-shy field in the Hong Kong Open on the same day. Westwood and Woods at least had stiff competition among their limited opponents, but this time of year, it's more like watching Shell's Wonderful World of Golf than a real tournament.

Could Woods use Sunday's victory, however insignificant in the big picture, to relaunch his career? Possibly. He still has immense talent, even if the old control of his irons isn't quite the same, and his putting is prone to deserting him at odd times. He was always wild off the tee, so that hasn't changed. The mental component, confidence, even cockiness as he stands over putts, has been as large a missing piece of the puzzle as anything physical, these last two years, and maybe some of that comes back now.

Let's face it: No one would be very surprised to see him win his fifth Masters in April, placing him behind only Jack Nicklaus's record of six green jackets. And time is still not too short, in theory, to scale Mount Nicklaus.

Tiger will be 36 on Dec. 30, needing four more majors to tie, and five to beat, Nicklaus's record of 18. The Golden Bear didn't win his 15th major, the 1978 Open Championship at St. Andrews, until age 38, his 16th and 17th until age 40, his last one until he was 46.

The lesson, perhaps, is never to say never when it concerns someone who has been, by miles, the best of his time. Tiger Woods was more than that. And for the generation that ended in 2008, he will always remain so, a colossus, an awe-inspiring figure who could make opponents wilt under his glare, even when his golf game was a little bit off, even on one leg.

Chances are, it won't happen often enough to get him past Jack's record. All things considered, as nice as it is to see Tiger back in the "winner's enclosure" - Westwood's term for it Sunday - that probably would be for the best.