Seeing Tiger Woods playing like a top level golfer again is a welcome sight for golf.
He’s still the biggest name in the sport and finishing second in a PGA Tour event, as he did last weekend, is better than many thought he would get back to.
His swing looks more controlled than when he was suffering with back problems and the disintegration of his short game seems to have been exaggerated.
He also looks happier in the role of the underdog than I thought he would.
I’m still treating the Tiger comeback with caution, though.
It’s one thing being competitive in a tour event, and even winning one. It’s a whole different ball game winning a Major.
There are two factors.
The first is his own game. It has yet to be tested in one of the big events on a Sunday afternoon.
But the most significant one is the opposition.
In the grand scheme of things, the likes of Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnston and Rory McIlroy aren’t really that bothered how they get on at this stage of the season.
Yes, they want to win whenever they tee it up, but it’s all about peaking for the Masters in a few weeks.
The bookmakers have got him as second favourite at Augusta, I gather. I think that’s more to do with being scared of the money that will go on him than a true measure of where he is in the pecking order.
I see him as a middle of the pack golfer who will have a chance if things go wrong for the big guns but I don’t expect him to add to his tally of 14 Majors – either next month at The Masters or beyond.
* We don’t have another tournament until Perth in a couple of weeks so it’s been nice to get a break from curling for a while.
Not a total break, mind you, because I’ve been doing some TV work in London for the Paralympics.
The British curlers train at Stirling, where we are based, and I know they’ll be gutted to not make the play-offs.
They won a bronze four years ago and would have been expecting to medal again.
It’s a mixed women’s and men’s event and like the Olympics, there has been a strong Asian presence in the curling.
Korea and Japan are both in the medal play-offs.
There’s no doubt that is where the sport is growing fastest and to give you an idea of the level of interest in the curling out there, apparently in the Korea v Japan semi-final of the women’s, 45% of the Korean population watched the match!
* Most of the Six Nations passed us by.
We lost our bronze medal match before the England game so you’ll understand why I didn’t stay up through the night to watch it!
I know that Scotland didn’t beat Ireland but you could see why people are saying we’re getting close to being a top nation.
A bit more composure and experience would have made the difference.
Italy are the weakest team in the tournament but Scotland need to give them their full focus otherwise a seven out of 10 Six Nations will go down as a four or five.
