Phil Mickelson, with his white belt, hits his tee shot on No. 3 in his third-round loss to Stewart Cink.

A back nine of thoughts after a week at the Accenture Match Play Championship:

1. Geoff Ogilvy is a quiet assassin.

When Ogilvy broke through for his first PGA Tour win in 2005 – right here at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson – he was still being confused with Joe Ogilvie and wasn’t considered a hot, young player like Kevin Na, who was 21 at the time.

Ogilvy defeated Na and veteran Mark Calcavecchia in a playoff, helping launch a career that is still sneaking up on most of us.

By winning the Match Play championship for a second time – to go along with his 2006 U.S. Open title – Ogilvy, a bit sheepish about how he stacks up to the rest of the golf world, has earned the right to do a bit of bragging.

It’s Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington . . . and then Ogilvy. That’s what the official rankings now say, even if many less-than-casual fans would have trouble picking him out of a golfing lineup.

“Geoff is a quiet guy. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves,” said Paul Casey, who lost to Ogilvy 4 and 3 in Sunday’s final.

“What’s tough about playing Geoff is that he doesn’t change. His demeanor doesn’t waver.”

Ogilvy, a 31-year-old Australian, talked Sunday about how there will never be another Greg Norman in his country, if only because of Norman’s excess of charisma.

“You either have it or you don’t,” Ogilvy said.

Ogilvy might not have it, but he’s got plenty of game.

2. Tiger is fine.

He was booted in the second round by otherwise forgettable Tim Clark, but Woods said he was pleased with how he hit the ball in his comeback from knee surgery.

“Just didn’t make enough birdies,” he said.

When Tiger re-emerges again, we’ll find out how his reconstructed left knee reacted to his two rounds here, but there didn’t seem to be any fundamental problem that will prevent Woods from earnestly renewing his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships.

3. Rory McIlroy is the real deal.

The 19-year-old sensation is from Northern Ireland, not northern California, which explains why he doesn’t already have his own Nike commercials here in the States.

The baby-faced McIlroy, who is the youngest player to ever be ranked in the world top 20, made his professional U.S. debut at match play, reaching the quarterfinals with a combination of pure swing and cool demeanor.

“Everyone needs to remember his name,” Ogilvy said.

Could McIlroy be The One to some day unseat Tiger as the top-ranked player in the world?

“Tiger is Tiger and even after the operation he is going to come back great,” McIlroy said. “He has been the best in the world for the last 10 years and I see no reason he won’t be for another few years.”

Just another few years?

4. Phil Mickelson has no career in the fashion business.

Mickelson’s outfit on Friday included a 1970s-style white belt with a blue shirt, black pants and black shoes, the contrast only serving to emphasize his – how to be polite? – thick midsection.

His wife lets him out of the mansion like this?

Mickelson has insisted on wearing the white belt this season, prompting fellow pro Scott McCarron to say last month, “I mean, somebody please give him a citation.”

Mickelson needs to leave the white belt to the wiry 20-somethings with the bling-bling belt buckles. They can, mostly, pull it off . . . at least with matching white shoes.

5. Jack Nicklaus knew what he was doing.

The word “undulating” has been getting a workout this week.

Nicklaus, in designing the Ritz-Carlton layout at Dove Mountain, created huge greens with huge slopes. The upshot of it all meant that players had to think, be creative around the greens and execute precise shots . . . or else face the penalty of curling putts with hard-to-calculate speed.

Camilo Villegas was asked early in the week if he has ever seen anything like it. “No,” he said.

Ogilvy grew more comfortable with the course, but when asked Wednesday about his thoughts, he responded, “Do I have to answer that question?”

Said Jim Furyk: “I can’t say that I have ever played a golf course with greens that have this much slope and undulation and movement. . . . I think it’s an interesting golf course to say the least. It definitely lends itself to match play.”

Bingo. The greens are not only a signature but it gives match play the risk-and-reward element that makes the format intriguing.

6. My dream match-play event for Tiger.

If the top 64 golfers in the world had to do it all over again next week, I would like to see Woods navigate this six-round path (never mind that it could never happen because of seeding):

McIlroy, Anthony Kim, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Ogilvy and Mickelson.

“He’s the best match player in the last 15 years,” Ogilvy said of Woods.

“It would be fun.”

7. The Match Play final should be 18 holes, not 36.

Match play finals are traditionally 36 holes — and the length better identifies the superior player – but nothing is added to the drama.

If anything, the sense of urgency is missing with a 36-hole final. And when you get a rout, such as Ogilvy over Casey on Sunday, the match is a downright snoozefest.

If nothing else, the 36-hole final gives paying fans longer time on the course on the weekend. Without Tiger this year, though, Sunday attendance was down from 7,500 to 6,270.

8. It’s time to stay humble, U.S. golf fans.

The 64-player tournament started with 17 Americans. When this event debuted 10 years ago, there were 36 U.S. golfers in the field.

None of the top three teenagers with the most buzz – McIlroy, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa and Danny Lee (the U.S. Amateur champion by way of New Zealand) – are Americans.

McIlroy – like Harrington, the defending British Open and PGA Championship winner – has no plans on making the PGA Tour his main venue.

9. There are going to be major treats.

Just the presence of Woods for all four majors makes things way more interesting. Beyond that:

Harrington will be going for his third consecutive major at The Masters.

The U.S. Open returns to the fabulous Bethpage Black course in New York, where Woods won in 2002.

The British Open will be held at Turnberry, which has featured three memorable Opens – Tom Watson outdueling Nicklaus in 1977, Norman winning in 1986 and Nick Price draining a 50-feet eagle on No. 17 on Sunday en route to the 1994 championship.

The PGA Championship will be at Hazeltine in Chaska, Minn., another celebrated venue on which Payne Stewart beat Scott Simpson in a playoff to win the 1991 U.S. Open.

Woods, great courses and a bevy of young lions chasing the world’s No. 1 . . . sounds like fun.

Just don’t count out the quiet man, Ogilvy, from winning one.

CHAMPIONSHIP SCORECARD

How Geoff Ogilvy of Australia defeated Paul Casey of England for the Accenture Match Play title Sunday at the par-72, 7,849-yard Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain in Marana:

FIRST 18

Hole (par) Ogilvy Casey Score

No. 1 (4) 3 4 Ogilvy 1 up

No. 2 (5) 5 5

No. 3 (3) 3 3

No. 4 (4) 4 4

No. 5 (4) 4 4

No. 6 (3) 3 4 Ogilvy 2 up

No. 7 (4) 4 4

No. 8 (5) 4 5 Ogilvy 3 up

No. 9 (4) 3 4 Ogilvy 4 up

No. 10 (4) 3 2 Ogilvy 3 up

No. 11 (5) 5 6 Ogilvy 4 up

No. 12 (3) 3 3

No. 13 (5) 5 4 Ogilvy 3 up

No. 14 (4) 4 4

No. 15 (4) 4 4

No. 16 (3) 2 3 Ogilvy 4 up

No. 17 (4) 3 3

No. 18 (4) 4 3 Ogilvy 3 up

SECOND 18

Hole (par) Ogilvy Casey Score

No. 1 (4) 3 4 Ogilvy 4 up

No. 2 (5) 5 4 Ogilvy 3 up

No. 3 (3) 3 3

No. 4 (4) 3 3

No. 5 (4) 4 4

No. 6 (3) 3 3

No. 7 (4) 3 4 Ogilvy 4 up

No. 8 (5) 3 4 Ogilvy 5 up

No. 9 (4) 4 5 Ogilvy 6 up

No. 10 (4) 4 4

No. 11 (5) - C Ogilvy 5 up

No. 12 (3) 3 3

No. 13 (5) 5 4 Ogilvy 4 up

No. 14 (4) 4 4

No. 15 (4) 3 3

Ogilvy wins 4 and 3

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Hicks

Television announcers are identified and critiqued by the sparsest of words, the lines they utter when what we have seen mostly defies description.

“Do you believe in miracles?”

“I can’t believe what I just saw!”

“The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”

NBC’s Dan Hicks, a Sabino High School and University of Arizona graduate who will be in the booth for the weekend coverage of the Accenture Match Play Championship, had his own signature moment last summer at the U.S. Open.

When Tiger Woods curled in a birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the championship to force a playoff against Rocco Mediate, Hicks watched the ensuing fist pump and simply reacted.

“I’ve never tried to come up with anything beforehand, anticipating a moment,” Hicks said Friday.

“I was just looking at the whole scene, and when the putt went in, it was just the first thing that popped into my mind.”

What popped into his mind, and then popped out of his mouth, with appropriate gusto, was this: “Expect anything different?”

Even recently, that call was dissected – and not necessarily favorably – on various sports blogs. He laughs when asked about it.

“Did you like it?” he said.

Actually, I watched a replay of it a couple of weeks ago, and thought it fit the moment just fine.

“It’s taken on a little bit of a life of its own,” Hicks said of the call.

“I like it. When I look back on it, I like it. It was fun.”

What Hicks will be doing this weekend for eight hours of coverage is the opposite of sound bites. He will be, more than is required for a regular Tour event, in storyteller mode.

By the time NBC executive producer Tommy Roy – a Salpointe Catholic graduate – gets the telecast rolling at noon Saturday, the Match Play tournament will be down to four players.

There will be lots of time to fill in between shots from the four golfers, not one of whom will be named Tiger.

NBC lost a ratings rocket when Tiger Woods fell in Thursday’s second round, the end of his much-celebrated first tournament after knee surgery.

“When we all found out Tiger was going to play in Tucson, it was celebration time,” Hicks said. “Now, there’s different feel and atmosphere. No doubt about it.”

Hicks, like any journalist, is rooting for the best story, and the best story on the course this weekend is Rory McIlroy, a 19-year-old from Northern Ireland who is playing in his first professional event in the United States.

There have been dozens of “The Next Tiger” in the past decade, and Hicks is looking forward to the possibility of presenting this TNT to a new audience.

“He’s a great story,” Hicks said of McIlroy, who won the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this month over a strong European field.

“It’s great any time you can infuse youth into the situation. I’m excited to introduce his story to the American public. He’s a good kid. Young, but mature beyond his years. Maybe we can give people an idea about what Rory McIlroy is about. That is my job.”

I’m partial to NBC’s golf coverage over that on CBS, mostly because I’ve been listening to Hicks do his job for more than two decades. I appreciate the guy analyst Johnny Miller calls “Mr. Smooth.”

Hicks, 46, got his start in Tucson in the 1980s. He was the public address announcer for various University of Arizona sports. He read the news for a local radio station. He moved up to host a local radio show – “Dan Hicks’ Sports Fix” and worked as a sports reporter for KVOA Channel 4.

He landed a gig at CNN in 1989, moving on to NBC in 1992. He said he recently signed a new deal that will keep him at NBC through 2012.

Hicks admits he just about has the best job in the business.

Two months after witnessing Woods’ magic at the U.S. Open, Hicks was behind the mic for Michael Phelps’ eight swimming gold medals at the Olympics. Hicks delivered another good line there, comparing the star athletes by saying Phelps was “Tiger Woods in a Speedo.”

“It was a phenomenal year. All that could have fallen into somebody else’s lap,” Hicks said. “We just happened to be there for two of the most memorable sports events of the year.”

It further became a good year because his wife, Hannah Storm, became one of the anchors for the morning SportsCenter on ESPN. Storm previously worked on the Early Show on CBS.

“I always watched ESPN, of course, but now I’m hearing the SportsCenter jingle in my sleep,” Hicks said.

Hicks knows he’s leading an absurdly charmed life.

“In this day and age, and in this economic climate, I appreciate what I do even more because of what I did in 2008,” Hicks said. “I’m absolutely blessed.”

Sounds like he found the right words again.

There are great golfers and then there are golf stars, and the Accenture Match Play Championship is running short of the latter.

So, who do you want to see in Sunday’s final now?

Phil Mickelson vs. Jim Furyk?

I suppose a 36-hole match between two venerable Americans would work just fine – especially around these parts, given the Arizona State vs. Arizona subplot – but NBC might want to have tape of last year’s final ready just in case.

And that’s the best-case scenario.

With three more rounds to go before the final, and Tiger Woods sent home to the wife and kids Thursday by the precision of Tim Clark, there are, regrettably, increasing chances for many of us to get yard work done this weekend rather than watch golf.

Clark vs. Peter Hanson in the final? Could happen.

Cue the Tiger replays from his championship last year!

Clark’s 4 and 2 victory was thoroughly deserved, no flukes about it. But his defeat of Mr. Nike Swoosh created a big whoosh – the sound of the excitement being sucked from the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain.

This is a truly international event, with 19 countries represented at the start of the 64-player tournament, but Woods has been the worldwide lead from Japan to Europe to Australia since he stepped out with the sun for a practice round Tuesday morning.

About 150 of the 525 media credentials issued for the event were handed out after Woods announced last Thursday he would make this his comeback event from last summer’s knee surgery.

With Tiger, the Golf Channel had record-breaking ratings Wednesday for a first-round Tour event.

Without Tiger, does everybody head back to the airport at the same time?

Instead of the Golf Channel beginning its noon coverage with the start of Woods’ round, it will go with Ian Poulter vs. Sean O’Hair. Oh, joy.

It’s like tuning in for Oklahoma-Texas football and getting Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Arkansas State.

In the fickleness of match play, you get what you get.

Some years you get Tiger in the final. Some years you get Kevin Sutherland.

Where’s Keifer Sutherland when you need him to save something?

What we don’t have after two rounds are any of the tournament’s four No. 1 seeds.

Woods, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh. Gone, gone, gone, gone.

Only two No. 2 seeds remain – Mickelson and Geoff Ogilvy.

Only one No. 3 seed – Camilo Villegas – is still standing.

Twenty-one of the top 30 players have the weekend off. Just because golf has parity doesn’t mean we have to like it.

Mickelson is now the big draw, but he’s as reliable in match play as the stock market in a recession. He has played this event nine previous times, navigating his personal roller coaster to the quarterfinals just once.

The right side of the 64-player bracket – just like an NCAA Tournament – is a disaster.

Only one of the top 10 players in that half of the draw is still playing. That would be Furyk. Steady, good-guy, major-winning Furyk. The TV-viewing public might suggest he’s as bland as bran.

That said, he’d be a rock star compared with the status of Englishman Oliver Wilson, who, unless you’re a true golf-o-phile, you’ve never heard of.

I’m now rooting for Rory McIlroy, who looks every bit as young as his 19 years. The teenager from Northern Ireland beat a star-filled field earlier this month at the Dubai Desert Classic for his first pro title.

In what would have been the match of the day, McIlroy could have faced Woods in the third round, throwing down his bid to be the new, true challenger to the throne.

Instead, McIlroy gets Clark, a South African who lives in Scottsdale.

“I’ll be the first to say if I stood on the first tee with Tiger I would be intimidated because he has been a hero of mine for the past I don’t know how many years,” McIlroy said.

“It would have been great to play him, but maybe another time.”

Let’s make it a date for next year. It can’t come soon enough.

Accenture Match Play Championship second round

Tiger Woods lost to Tim Clark at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain Thursday afternoon. Woods lost in the second round of competition. Woods was competing in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana.

All four number one seeds have been eliminated. Phil Michelson and Geoff Ogilvy, who are both number two seeds, are still in the tournament.

Producer: VAL CANEZ/Tucson Citizen

Slide 1 of 18.
Tiger Woods leaves the No. 16 hole after losing to Tim Clark at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain Thursday afternoon. Woods lost in the second round of competition. Woods was competing in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 2 of 18.
Tiger Woods (right) shakes hands with Tim Clark after losing to Clark on the No. 16 hole.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 3 of 18.
Tiger Woods tees off on the No. 16 hole at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain Thursday afternoon.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 4 of 18.
Tiger Woods removes his cap at the No. 16 hole after losing to Tim Clark.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 5 of 18.
The crowd reacts after Tiger Woods hits a birdie at the No. 14 hole Thursday afternoon.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 6 of 18.
Tiger Woods plans his shot on the No. 13 green.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 7 of 18.
Tiger Woods tees off on the No. 12 hole.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 8 of 18.
Phil Mickelson putts on the No. 18 green at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain Thursday afternoon. Mickelson advanced to the third round of competition on Friday.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 9 of 18.
Phil Mickelson walks to the No. 18 green.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 10 of 18.
Tiger Woods plans his shot on the ninth green.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 11 of 18.
Tim Clark tees off on the No. 12 green Thursday afternoon. Clark defeated Tiger Woods in the second round of competition.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 12 of 18.
Tim Clark putts on the No. 12 green.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 13 of 18.
Tiger Woods takes a shot on the No. 14 fairway Thursday afternoon.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 14 of 18.
Tiger Woods reacts after missing a birdie on the ninth green.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 15 of 18.
Tiger Woods (center) walks with Tim Clark (left) on the tenth hole Thursday afternoon.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 16 of 18.
Tiger Woods takes a shot on the 11th hole.
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Tiger Woods takes a shot on the 11th hole.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson CitizenSlide 18 of 18.
Golf fans wait for Tiger Woods to arrive on the 16th green.
Source: VAL CANEZ/Tucson Citizen

———

MATCH PLAY INFO

When: Through Sunday

Where: Marana’s Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain

Tickets: $45. Available at Welcome Center (take bus from parking lot) at Tangerine Road and I-10

Purse: $8.5 million (winner gets $1.35 million)

MORE MATCH PLAY, 5C

Cool, concentrated Mr. Game Face pases test

Tiger plans - and plans - his first shot.

It was just another day, another round, another tournament, another win.

As Tiger Woods came into view, approaching the first tee in advance of the golf shot heard ’round the world, he was finishing a banana, oblivious to the increasing cheers, the standing ovation.

“I was just in my own little world,” Woods said.

Without changing expression, he touched his white cap – adorned with his own TW logo, of course – to fleetingly acknowledge the crowd.

And then Mr. Game Face, having mentally calculated the wind, the angles of the hole, the spin he wished to put on the ball, took out a 3-wood and lasered a shot down the right side of the fairway.

There were shout-outs. But, amazingly, not one person in the crowd yelled loud enough for everyone to hear, “You da maaaaaaaaaan!” Not even a “Get in the hole!”

Much more of that came later.

In any case, the PKS part of Woods’ career had begun. Post Knee Surgery.

Woods, with a few club twirls of happiness, a couple of waist bends of despair, one semi-fist pump and several naughty words after errant shots, beat Brendan Jones 3 and 2 in the first round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship on Wednesday.

It was a fairly uneventful first-round (mis-)match – uneventful if not for the fact that everyone wanted to see what would happen in Woods’ re-entry into competitive golf after 253 days away from the game.

He birdied the first hole. Jones conceded an eagle putt to Tiger on the par-5 second hole.

How’s that for an answer?

Overflow crowds followed Woods, accompanied by a merry band of media members, including one who was live blogging from his Blackberry for ESPN.com.

“As I walked off the first hole, it was just mayhem because media, everyone, was just running, and I was walking amongst everybody,” Jones said.

“When I heard one of the media say, ‘All right, another nine holes to go for a 10 and 8 (victory), I gave him a bit of a spray. And then he eagled the second, and I thought, ‘Well, maybe he’s right.’ ”

Other than an eagle on the backside, the rest of Woods’ round wasn’t spectacular, not that it needed to be. He and the rest of the field spent the day wrestling with unfamiliar calculations on the greens.

They are more undulating and slower than any on any major tour – so said several golfers – and if there is one thing that makes golfers edgy, it’s something different.

But those greens are the same for everyone, and everyone had to find a way to survive, which is the order of the day in match play. Woods didn’t mess up, and he didn’t hit it far enough off course into the desert where he might have to tussle with the plentiful jumping cholla.

Woods, with his usual robotic efficiency, won on a day in which fellow No. 1 seeds Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia lost.

No. 2 seeds Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson, the 2007 champion, also made a long overseas trip to the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain for almost nothing – if you consider a $45,000 consolation prize almost nothing.

Two more No. 2 seeds – Geoff Ogilvy and Phil Mickelson – needed an extra hole to stave off upsets.

Good knees or bad knees, rusty or rested, it’s just hard to win when the top 64 golfers in the world mix it up in match play.

Except that Tiger usually does win.

He is 32-6 in this event. He has more than twice as many victories as everyone else, except David Toms (23) and Davis Love III (19).

“Well, it felt like nothing had changed,” Woods said of being back on the course. “I thought I would be more nervous on that first tee.”

It was awfully fun to build Woods’ return into a major dramatic act – and, hey, its not every day that an athlete comes back accompanied by a new TV ad campaign – but this is a good time to borrow the words of NBC announcer Dan Hicks.

“Expect anything different?”

Hicks used that call when Woods birdied the 18th hole on Sunday of last summer’s U.S. Open, forcing a playoff with Rocco Mediate. Woods won the next day . . . and that was the last time he had been seen playing competitive golf until Wednesday.

New knee, long layoff . . . nothing has changed with Tiger.

No, we didn’t really expect anything different.

TEEN COULD FACE TIGER

A victory Thursday each by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy would put the 19-year-old into the quarterfinal slot vs. Woods and be a dream come true for the Irish sensation. McIlroy plays Hunter Mahan on Thursday. “All I can do is concentrate on (Mahan),” McIlroy said. “And then . . . Tiger has to get through his second-round match as well. And obviously he seems to be playing pretty well. (Friday) is a long way off for the minute.”

VAL CAÑEZ/Tucson Citizen

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Tiger Woods follows through on a swing on the first hole at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain on Wednesday afternoon during the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana. Woods defeated Brendan Jones 3 and 2.

Fans gather to watch Tiger Woods on the second green at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain on Wednesday afternoon.

———

TIGER’S FIRST DAY BACK

Eagles: 1 (No. 13)

Birdies: 3 (Nos.. 1, 8, 15)

Pars: 8

Bogeys: 3 (Nos. 3, 5, 7)

Conceded by Jones: 1 (No. 2)

Injury rehab let Woods strengthen family ties; knee’s ‘great; he’s ready

Hundreds of people watch Tiger Woods tee off on the 10th hole at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Dove Mountain during the second day of practice on Tuesday.

There are seven words to get about 200 golf journalists to jump at the same time, and they aren’t “Lunch is available in the dining tent.”

They are “Tiger Woods is in the interview room.”

Every breath he takes, every move he makes, inspires scramble-to-be-first blog posts and an endless cacophony of camera shutters, including a couple of no-no clicks while he’s still in his backswing, as sure to draw his ire in a practice round, as happened Tuesday, as they would in real competition.

And that real competition is about to start.

Woods, in front of a standing-room-only crowd and live on TV’s Golf Channel, answered questions for about 25 minutes in advance of Wednesday’s opening round of the Accenture Match Play Championship.

By comparison, Sergio Garcia, who is ranked second in the world behind Woods, sat at the same table later in the day and spoke to a smattering of about two dozen reporters.

“Maybe,” Garcia answered when asked if he ever felt overshadowed.

“But it doesn’t matter. We know who we’re up against – probably the greatest player to ever play the game.”

Some things about Woods never change: He came here to win.

Some things we needed to know: His reconstructed left knee, which has kept him out of competitive golf for eight months, feels “great.”

“To have it feel this healthy and this solid and secure, man, it’s a great feeling,” Woods said.

And some things were just kind of nice to hear. Tiger the Family Man.

He’s gone without tournament golf since last summer’s U.S. Open, which has meant more time at home in Orlando, with his wife, Elin, and their daughter, Sam, who will turn 2 in June. Then, the couple welcomed a son, Charlie, on Feb. 8.

Charlie’s birth and good health helped clear the schedule for Woods to make his return to competition this week at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain.

“I didn’t realize how much I loved being home and being around Sam and E and now Charlie,” Woods said.

“I mean, I’ll tell you what, that’s something that is just so important to me. I knew family would be, and it has been, but I didn’t know it would be to this degree, the closeness that I feel.

“It was a blessing in disguise to be away from the game and have an opportunity to be a part of Sam’s growth and development and watch it. We’ve had so much fun, so many great times, and I would have missed some of those things.”

We’ll never hit a golf ball like Woods, but many of us can at least share in that sentiment.

Tiger is still young. He’s 33. But he’s past the young-gun phase of his career, settling nicely, apparently, into the fatherhood stage of his life.

He referred Wednesday to a generation of players that is no longer his own.

Rory McIlroy, a 19-year-old Irishman, is one of the hottest things in golf. He could meet Woods in the third round.

Ryo Ishikawa, 17, has won twice on the Japan Tour and just missed qualifying for the Match Play tournament. Last week, Danny Lee, an 18-year-old amateur, because the youngest golfer to win on the European Tour.

Plenty of others, such as Anthony Kim, 23 and Martin Kaymer, 24, are aiming fast to be The Next Tiger.

“We need that youthfulness in our sport,” Woods said. “It’s just a matter of them getting the experience and playing well.” And, now, it will be a matter of them winning big events in which Tiger is back in the field.

In the past couple of weeks, Tiger said he would sharpen his game for his return while Charlie napped, sometimes quitting the practice session early.

“Elin will call me, tell me he’s awake, and I’ll come back in,” Woods said. “That’s one of the beauties of living on a golf course.”

Woods, certainly, hasn’t lost his focus, excitedly talking about the rush of nerves he’ll feel on the first tee. Mostly, it sounds like he has balance between golf and life, which will only make him more dangerous as he tries to add to his 14 career major titles.

“It just couldn’t be any better,” he said.

Tiger Woods is surrounded by fans as he finishes the No. 9 hole at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain during the second day of practice on Tuesday.

———

MATCH PLAY

When: Wednesday-Sunday (matches)

Where: Marana’s Ritz-Carlton Golf Course, Dove Mountain

Tickets: 571-0400, or www.worldgolfchampionships.com

Purse: $8.5 million (winner gets $1.35 million)

Tiger Woods sinks an eagle putt at No. 17 to put him 1-up and into the lead for the first time on his way to beating J.B. Holmes in a first-round match last year.

It’s more than four miles from the nearest intersection all the way up to the new Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain. Just wondering: Where exactly do you get a red carpet that long?

Perhaps the PGA Tour, the Golf Channel, NBC, Accenture, Tucson, Marana and Pima County can all chip in.

Tiger Woods’ return to golf is that big, that Hollywood-esque.

With these words Thursday on his Web site – “I’m now ready to play again” – Tiger turned next week’s World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship from a good golf story to the No. 1 topic in all of sports, no matter where you span the globe.

Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times writes, “This could be the biggest thing to hit Arizona since the taco.”

A tourney just isn’t a tourney unless Tiger makes the journey.

He’s golf’s one-man stimulus plan.

The Golf Channel, which has coverage of the event Wednesday through Friday, quickly and breathlessly touted Tiger on ads amid soaring, inspirational music.

“Watch his triumphant return,” the announcer says.

Coverage begins Wednesday at noon.

Here’s a guess: Tiger’s tee time, as yet unannounced, will be about 12:05 p.m.

Woods hasn’t played competitively since last June’s U.S. Open, when he hobbled around Torrey Pines and defeated lovable underdog Rocco Mediate in a 19-hole playoff. Woods, playing against doctors’ advice, limped to the finish on an ailing left leg. He had two stress fractures in his left tibia, and he underwent surgery eight days later to reconstruct his left knee.

He said in a media teleconference Friday that it’s been “years” since he’s been able to attack a golf ball without feeling pain.

Is there any doubt the post-surgery Tiger is going to be better than the pre-surgery Tiger?

That doesn’t mean he will stay around all week at the new Jack Nicklaus-designed Ritz-Carlton course at Dove Mountain in Marana. Woods, at full health and without rust, has lost in the first round of this capricious format before, in 2002 to Peter O’Malley.

“Getting out there and competing again and feeling the adrenaline and feeling the rush of competing . . . I haven’t done that in a while,” Woods said. “Hopefully, I can get into the flow of the round very quickly.

“I don’t know how this thing’s going to behave in a competitive environment and how the recovery is going to be day-to-day. That’s one of the things I’m looking forward to testing.”

Even if it’s for a day – and more likely for at least a few – Tiger’s return is what golf needs.

When Tiger plays, we watch.

When Tiger sits, we don’t.

Phil Mickelson was asked at a news conference at last year’s PGA Championship if there is a noticeable difference to a major tournament when Tiger is not in the field.

“Well, I noticed it when I walked in; there’s a lot of empty seats,” Mickelson said about the press tent. “Usually when he’s in the event, that doesn’t happen.”

The other golfers might get weary of Woods winning – he’s won nine of his past 12 tournaments, dating to August 2007 – answering questions about him, and otherwise being dwarfed by him.

Deal with it. Tiger makes them all money with better Tour sponsorships and ratings and purses.

Television ratings sunk like a Titleist in a lake after Woods’ surgery. The final round of the British Open dropped 11 percent over the previous year. The PGA Championship was off 55 percent.

Hardly anyone cared about the FedEx Cup events. Ratings for those four late-season tournaments slipped by 50 percent.

NBC’s weekend coverage of last year’s Match Play tournament was up 42.9 percent as Tiger took home the trophy. The previous year, Henrik Stenson – excellent, not exciting – was the champ.

You can’t make too much of Tiger at an event.

Get that red carpet ready.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail:
agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Wade Dunagan is the executive director of the Accenture World Match Play Championship.

Having Tucsonan Wade Dunagan as the executive director of the Accenture World Match Play Championship is something of poetic justice.

If Dunagan can match the way he puts the hammer down on the golf course when circumstances demand, then Tucson’s big event will grow.

There was the time in the Southern Chapter, Southwest Section PGA Championship at San Ignacio in Green Valley that Dunagan charged from “two mediocre rounds” as he calls them, to catch the leaders with a course-record 61.

To show he still had it in him, this past summer, he surged with a 64 in the last round, unfortunately falling just short.

As for being the Match Play honcho, after two years of having the event in Tucson, he’s ahead of the game. The tournament has brought significant dollars to the community, raised more than $2 million for charity and played on TV around the world.

Some local spectators have carped about some aspects of the first two years, but Dunagan plans to put the complaining to rest.

“I know where to look for the problems,” said Dunagan, who is overseeing the Match Play move from The Gallery Golf Club a driver shot west to the new Jack Nicklaus-designed Ritz-Carlton Go course for 2009.

The new 18 hole-layout is a stunningly beautiful and pro-ready venue and – most important – fan-embracing.

One of the reasons Dunagan was chosen to succeed Michael Garten as executive director was the fact he has experience with a number of PGA Tour events, including several Tucson Opens and Players Championships at the TPC Sawgrass course in Florida.

“I have always been very hands-on,” said the former University of Arizona golfer who started out as a cart boy at Starr Pass.

“. . . When I joined The Gallery, a year prior to opening (2000), Ed Francese, my boss, told me when we were building the course: ‘You can be in on the ground floor or part of it, depending on how quickly I could move.’ ”

“Hands-on” includes what matters most to the people who will pay – prices are lower this year – to brush shoulders with the world’s best players and to have the conveniences of their own backyard.

The two big questions now are:

• How will the new course be improved over The Gallery, which was not really made for spectators and for match play?

• Will defending champ Tiger Woods be back after rehab following knee surgery?

“Tiger has strong ties with Accenture, was instrumental in establishing the World Golf Championships, likes Tucson and is our defending champion,” Dunagan said, taking that inquiry a little bit out of limbo. “If he is able to play, I think he will. But it’s still too early to tell.”

Regarding possible improvements for fans and for match play, the new course has been built with the fans in mind, which means less walking.

“There is a central point on the course, a ‘hub,’ if you will, where spectators will have just a short walk to get to four segments or loops of holes on both the front and back nines,” Dunagan said.

“It’s a golf tournament, and there will be some walking, but the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain should provide a much more fan-friendly experience.

“More golf with less walking, better parking and this unique match play event means spectators can get very close to the players.”

A preliminary preview of match play of this grand sort this fall came in the Ryder Cup. Virtually all involved plus FedEx Cup champion Vijay Singh are sure to be here if they’re in the top 64 in world rankings in January.

All of the top 64 came to Tucson last year.

“The final piece of the puzzle is the Tucson Conquistadores,” Dunagan said of the group that has acted as the sales partner and staffed Tucson Opens and the Accenture the last two years.

“The Conquistadores have raised more than $20 million for various local charities and youth sports over the years, and this world-class event wouldn’t be able to happen without their dedicated efforts.”

Several years before the Accenture Match Play was moved here from southern California, Dunagan was among the organizing personnel.

It was one of those twisting quirks of fate that brought the southern California native to such intimacy with Tucson. In 1984, he missed qualifying for the PGA Tour school finals by a single stroke.

“I decided to take a different course,” he said. “There were a lot of very good players out there and I was pretty sure that I wasn’t one of them.”

———

ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY

When: Feb. 23-March 1

Where: Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain, Marana

Practice rounds: Feb. 23, $25; Feb. 24, $25; two-day package, $45

Competitive rounds: Feb. 25, $45; Feb. 26, $45; Feb. 27, $45; Feb. 25-27 package, $120; Monday-Sunday package, $175

Notable: Other hospitality packages are also still available; for tickets or hospitality information, contact the Tucson Conquistadores at 571-0400 or go to www.worldgolfchampionships.com

Lorena Ochoa of Guadalajara, Mexico, a former University of Arizona star and one of the top female golfers in the world, described the policy as "a little drastic" and submitted that golfers should be judged only by their ability on the course.

Money talks. And it’s not choosy about what language it uses to get its point across. Capitalism has the uncanny ability to help the misguided find their way.

The latest beneficiary is the Ladies Professional Golf Association, which – in response to pressure from corporate sponsors – has taken a mulligan after a poorly conceived English-only policy that sounded like gibberish.

Last month, the LPGA – under the stewardship of Commissioner Carolyn Bivens – announced that starting next year, it would require all players to speak English during pro-am competitions, trophy presentations and interviews with the news media.

There would even be a test of English-speaking ability. Those who failed would be fined, possibly even suspended.

Sportswriters, television commentators and newspaper editorial pages blasted the idea. A headline in The Boston Globe declared, “LPGA way out of bounds.” An editorial in The New York Times called the policy “discriminatory” and “self-destructive.”

Stars of the game also chimed in. Lorena Ochoa of Guadalajara, Mexico, a former University of Arizona star and one of the top female golfers in the world, described the policy as “a little drastic” and submitted that golfers should be judged only by their ability on the course.

She also suggested that many international players were already making an effort to learn English to communicate with other players, and they didn’t need to be coerced.

Speaking of coercion, those who support so-called “official English” laws – requiring that, for instance, state and local government documents be printed in English – claim there’s a difference between what they advocate and more punitive English-only policies like the one the LPGA tried to implement.

If so, it’s a semantic one. The concepts blend together when someone defies an “official English” policy or statute and they’re punished for it.

But what the LPGA had in mind was not just an extension of the English-only debate in the United States. That’s a domestic argument about what language Americans should speak.

The LPGA wanted to extend that argument to foreigners. Its policy was obviously aimed at the association’s 121 international players who come from 26 different countries. After all, one imagines that the American players currently on the LPGA tour speak English just fine.

Usually, “English-only” has become synonymous with “anti-Spanish,” singling out Hispanics. Yet those who follow golf suggested that the LPGA was cracking down on another minority: Asians.

More than a third of the international players are from South Korea, and some of them are among the best in the game.

That got me thinking that maybe the LPGA policy was in response to the grumblings of U.S. players who tend to finish way down the leader board. If Koreans can’t be intimidated on the golf course, maybe they can be intimidated off.

The policy wasn’t cultural or personal, Bivens assured her critics. It was just business, an acknowledgment that fluency in English is crucial to golf’s promotion and marketing efforts.

So now playing golf isn’t just about putting a little white ball into a cup on the green. It’s about helping to make greenbacks for the sport.

I’m all for that. But, with more international players in the game these days, and more opportunities to promote and market American sports and athletes overseas, perhaps this is not the best time for an English-only policy. Making money is one thing; leaving money on the table is another.

Besides, while some who supported the policy tried to suggest that the idea had come from corporate sponsors, recent events suggest otherwise.

Corporations that bankroll golf tournaments were not shy about communicating their displeasure over the English-only policy, perhaps fearing that some of the fallout would damage their brands around the world.

A spokesman for State Farm Insurance confessed to being “dumbfounded” by the policy and said the company was re-evaluating its sponsorship. Other companies sent similar signals.

That’s all it took. The LPGA recently announced it was backing off. Bivens said that the association would issue a revised policy by the end of the year, one that won’t include suspensions but might still include fines.

That’s not much of an improvement. Let me say it in plain English: Either Bivens gets rid of the English-only policy, every last bit of it, or the LPGA should get rid of her.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a columnist and editorial board member of The San Diego Union-Tribune. E-mail: ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com

Rosen

The pain sears up the leg and back. Every cell seems to shriek as Matt Rosen, on the exercise ball at the gym, hears physical trainer Bobby Kelly yell, “One more!”

It’s the price Rosen pays as he tries to climb golf’s professional ladder.

A St. Gregory High School graduate, Rosen has had the dream of being on the PGA Tour since age 4 when he first went out with his father at Tucson Country Club. He’d take to the putting green and go 72 holes, the imaginary crowd crazy as he approached the last hole with the TV cameras on him.

“Every little kid’s dream,” he said, recalling of the fantasy reel in his mind.

That’s the reason now, at 23 and in his second year as a pro, that he waits for the ultimate vision to actually happen.

He battled a spring slump and has missed the last two cuts on the Phoenix-based Gateway Desert Tour.

But he refuses to be dismayed. Too many years have been put into the effort.

The valleys, which include a hard-core physical fitness program, are things to be learned. His golf mentor since Rosen was 6, Michael Haywood, is convinced Rosen has the right stuff and that his goals of reaching the highest level are realistic.

“Matt comes from a core of good players I have coached,” says Haywood, “and he has three things in his favor: love of the game, he addresses the issues and he acts on them.”

Rosen rises each off-tournament day at 4 a.m., and is at The Gallery Golf Club, his adopted course – “I can be alone and not constantly meet people I know” – and is swinging and practicing as soon as the dew leaves the ground. He goes until dark if he can.

Or he treks to Phoenix and works out under Kelly, who has been his fitness mentor for two years.

“Every day is full-bore,” Rosen said. “I can’t make a living on the Gateway. You learn from missing cuts, whether you’re an amateur or pro. I had my game once, and I’ll get it back.”

Zack Johnson, who won the 2007 Masters, helped convince Rosen to stay patient.

“He told me he wasn’t even the best player on his college team his senior year,” Rosen said. “But he kept doing the same thing for six years. It got him onto the Nationwide Tour, then two more years the PGA Tour, and then he won the Masters.

“He said to have the complete package – chipping, putting, the mental game, the way the body feels – you have it five times a year . . . not weeks, but days.

“What you do on those days sets you up. In the meantime, you’re learning.”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is the old saying Rosen had to learn. He messed with things when he was playing well last summer and paid the price. His Scottsdale Community College coach, Jon Levy, helped him “get back to normal.”

“Back to his roots,” Levy said. “There are different ways to go for different people, but for Matt it was this. He was very consistent with his swing in college. The only problem now is he sometimes his hips are too active.”

Rosen returned to drills like putting a towel under his armpits when swinging and hitting low so he wouldn’t spin out.

Rosen would accompany his father, attorney Dennis Rosen, to the Tucson Country Club and before high school was holding his own with the club’s most consistent adults.

When Haywood started his caddie/player program, Matt Rosen was a charter member.

Rosen had earlier dreams of playing baseball or hockey, but injuries shelved those ambitions.

Golf became his life after he saw Tiger Woods play when Woods was a freshman at Stanford. The way the ball sounded, the sweet explosion, was unlike any golf sound he has heard then or since.

St. Gregory, with its emphasis on excellence and full-person growth, was a place for him to play in high school. He was runner-up in the state Class 2A tournament three times, the last on an opponent’s eagle.

The character tests were coming and after Rosen sat out a year at North Carolina-Charlotte, Levy attracted him to Scottsdale. Then, a year after winning the Arizona Stroke Play Championship, administrative mistakes shelved him for the rest of a forgettable college scene.

Through it all, Rosen learned to stay within himself. Now, he claims his confidence is back and he is not leaving anything to chance.

“Mind over matter, use 100 percent of the body,” Rosen chants to himself.

He likes to think of his mindset in 2005 when he won the state stroke play as his guide to the future.

“I told (Levy) I was going to win,” he said. “Nobody could hit as good as me. I knew something big was going to happen.”

———

MATT ROSEN FILE

Age: 23

Born: Tucson

Height: 5-6

Weight:150

2008 Gateway Tour stats: Has played in four events and made two cuts, with earnings of $2,225 (48th). His best finish is 33rd.

Tiger Woods holds his daughter, Sam Alexis, after winning the U.S. Open championship in a sudden death hole against Rocco Mediate on Monday.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – They hugged when it was over. A hug the likes of which golf has rarely seen, because how common is it, what we just saw at the U.S. Open?

“Great fight,” Tiger Woods said to Rocco Mediate.

He meant it, too, which is why those two words should stay with Mediate the rest of his life.

This is not the pinnacle for Woods, of course. There will be other dramatic victories, other moments that will never die.

Because he never runs out of masterpieces. His knack for the extraordinary appears to be bottomless. “When I talk about golf,” Mediate said, “he doesn’t count. He’s not normal.”

Woods won his 14th major Monday, but this is the first one that came with a limp after a two-month layoff.

He won his third U.S. Open, but this is the first one that took 91 holes, with double bogeys on four of them.

Woods remains without peer, but two days in a row had to save himself with birdie putts on No. 18, to hold back a middle-aged upstart who . . . would . . . not . . . go . . . away.

Woods is a father now, and the U.S. Open finally ended with his baby girl in his arms. “I understand now,” he said later, “how (my father) felt.”

He is a champion again, but he mentioned Monday how the doctors had warned him that playing in this Open might further injure his surgically repaired knee. Did it?

“Maybe.”

Put all that together and where does this rank among 14 memorable titles?

“I think,” Woods said, “this is the best.”

No matter how vast his horizons and huge his appetite for victory, this one must be savored.

It should be savored because this championship sometimes came with grimaces on the tee, even on drives that went straight and true. Pain from his knee, not frustration.

It should be savored because of the thousands who poured onto Torrey Pines Golf Course Monday to see two men in an epic struggle. They were beginning to fill up the stands at No. 18 by 7 a.m., willing to wait six hours to watch a couple of approach shots and a few putts.

“The atmosphere kept me going,” Woods said. “I could never have quit in front of these people.”

Most of all, it should be favored because of the man he had to beat.

This is Tiger’s homeland and Tiger’s game. But it was more a Rocco crowd Monday, and there was nothing wrong with that.

How many Woods victories have there been, when the rest of the leader board blew away at crunch time, too meek to mount a threat?

Not this tournament. Not this man.

“I didn’t want it to be a walk in the park. It could have been,” Mediate said afterward. “He’s got me by 14 years. He’s got me by a thousand yards off the tee. And I kept hanging in there.”

Mediate did not look 45 years old, or like a man who has not won on the PGA Tour in six years, when he put together three birdies to charge from three shots back to one ahead going into No. 18, pushing the world’s top golfer to the absolute brink, where only Woods’ refusal to lose could save him.

“I threw everything I had, the kitchen sink, right at him,” Mediate said. “I scared him.”

Woods knew the risk he was taking with his knee to play this Open. He understood the reward, too. What he could not have expected is the resolve of the man in his way.

Mediate had played 128 holes, counting qualifying, for a chance to get this close to winning the U.S. Open. It took sudden death to get rid of him. He had to be dragged from the fight with his teeth marks on the green. I hope he had the time of his life.

“I never had more fun,” Mediate said afterward, adding that he had always wanted one chance in his career to play against Woods with something big on the line.

“I got my wish,” he said, “but I want to do it again.”

If Monday turns out to be the last chance, he should relish it forever. Someone started a question to Mediate afterward, “Everyone has their favorite Tiger story . . . ”

Interrupted the underdog who nearly took down the king, “They don’t have this one.”

———

14 AND COUNTING

Tiger Woods trails Jack Nicklaus by four in career major titles:

Woods Nicklaus

Masters 4 6

U.S. Open 3 4

British Open 3 3

PGA Championship 4 5

Total 14 18

———

TIGER’S MAJORS

Masters (4): 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005

U.S. Open (3): 2000, 2002, 2008

British Open (3): 2000, 2005-06

PGA Championship (4): 1999-00, 2006-07

Confident Woods knows Grand Slam within reach

Tiger Woods has the look of a winner during a trophy ceremony on Sunday at the Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain. Woods beat Stewart Cink, 8 and 7 in the Match Play final.

Real interview questions and statements directed toward guys who lost to Tiger Woods this week at the Accenture Match Play Championship:

• You can’t be too disappointed because you took him down to the wire.

• Do you feel badly that you let one slip away or feel good about the fact that you punched the guy in the nose a bunch of times?

• A valiant effort . . .

• Congratulations, you hung tough.

Yeah, congratulations.

Looking through the lens of Tiger’s Sunday winning red colors, the entire golf discussion gets so distorted that losers – losers! – are congratulated merely if they come reasonably close. It’s as if this is pee-wee football rather than professional golf with millions of dollars at stake every week.

Nice job, Billy, now go run along and get a Sno-Cone.

Flip the conversation 180 degrees and it gets more ridiculous.

After Woods won Sunday, the post-match chatter, done with perfectly straight faces, wasn’t so much that Tiger could win all four majors this season. It was if he could win – wait for it – every single, solitary event he enters this year.

Woods could run screaming down the fairway from such impulsive expectations. But he wouldn’t be Tiger if he did.

It was Woods who said on his Web site that a Grand Slam – winning all four majors in a calendar year – was “easily within reason.”

It was Woods, when asked Tuesday how he focuses when people expect him to win every time, who answered, “So do I.”

It was Woods, when asked if it was also reasonable to think he could win every time out this year, who said:

“That’s my intent. That’s why you play. If you don’t believe you can win an event, don’t show up.”

These are Tiger’s results in his past seven official PGA Tour events: first, first, tied for second, first, first, first and first.

He also won the unofficial Target World Challenge in December and the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this month.

That’s eight victories in his past nine events worldwide.

And a tie for second.

Slacker.

“This is the best stretch I’ve ever played,” Woods said.

He’s relentless. He never trailed in his final 54 holes at match play in this World Golf Championships event at The Gallery Club in Marana.

He drained the drama out of Sunday with an 8-and-7 victory over Stewart Cink – his third Match Play title.

He rolled in clutch putt after clutch putt to rally from 3-down after 13 holes in Wednesday’s first-round match against J.B. Holmes.

“I think he just has such a strong sense of belief in himself that he’s never out of it,” Cink said.

“He’s never going to mess up. He’s always in control. He never loses his composure. He gets mad; that’s not what I’m referring to. He always stays very poised, and he doesn’t very often throw away a shot.

“He’s a lot better now than he has ever been at that.”

When it was suggested to Cink that he was making Woods sound like a machine, he added with a laugh:

“I think maybe we ought to slice him open to see what’s inside there. Maybe nuts and bolts.”

A lot of heart, too.

Woods says this is the toughest event to win because of the unpredictable nature of match play.

He didn’t have it easy this week. He earned it.

He beat Holmes, who won the FBR Open in Scottsdale this month. He beat Aaron Baddeley, one of the would-be young guns to challenge Tiger.

He beat K.J. Choi, who had won three times in his previous 15 tournaments.

He beat defending champ Henrik Stenson, who had won 10 consecutive matches in this tournament.

He beat Cink, who had mostly dominated his competition this week.

Tiger is better now than he was during the stretch when he completed the Tiger Slam – four consecutive majors over the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

His grip on golf is such that the only higher expectations there could be would be to win every tournament by 10 shots.

“I just have a better understanding of how to play the game, how to fix my game, and I have a lot more shots than I ever had,” Woods said.

British bookmakers established Woods’ chances of winning the Grand Slam at 21-1.

It’s still a long shot.

But would you want to bet against him?

2008 ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY

> Championship: Tiger Woods def. Stewart Cink, 8 and 7. > Third-place: Henrik Stenson def. Justin Leonard, 3 and 2. > Prize: Woods won $1.35 million, Cink $800,000.

> Did you know? Tiger is 31-6 in Match Play events, winning three. > Key stat: Woods made 14 birdies in 29 holes of the final match – and 51 in 117 total holes.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

———

PGA TOUR CAREER WINS
1. Sam Snead 82

2. Jack Nicklaus 73

3. Ben Hogan 64

4. Tiger Woods 63

5. Arnold Palmer 62

6. Byron Nelson 52

7. Billy Casper 51

8. Walter Hagen 45

9. Cary Middlecoff 40

10. Gene Sarazen 39

(tie) Tom Watson 39

ABOVE: Aaron Baddeley of Australia can't believe he missed a putt on the 19th hole in a third-round match against Tiger Woods in the Accenture Match Play Championship on Friday at The Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana. TOP LEFT: Woods hugs his caddie Steve Williams after winning the match on the 20th hole.

Tiger Woods was reaching for his cap before his final putt rolled into the cup, already walking to shake Aaron Baddeley’s hand.

Hats off to Tiger, too.

No golf tournament is complete without Woods on the weekend, and after ducking and dodging potential winning putts from Baddeley on Friday, the world’s best player slammed the door with a 13-foot birdie on the second playoff hole.

That was the cue for everybody associated with the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship to do a little dance.

I’m pretty sure the sun will be shining brighter Saturday, the grass will be greener, the concession food will smell better and everything at the souvenir stand will be half-price. Well, maybe not that last part.

But it’s all because of Tiger.

Woods makes an event an event.

Whew. He almost didn’t make it.

Hey, you get what you get in match play. The field starts with 32 matches, most of which can best be predicted by a coin flip.

Last year, we don’t get Tiger. This year, we do. Fifty-fifty. A coin flip.

This year, we actually did better than 50-50.

You never get all of the crowd favorites – Mickelson, Garcia, Els and Montgomerie have packed up and flown home – but the weekend will begin with possibly the best collection of quarterfinal matchups in the 10-year history of the event.

Last year, these were the names: O’Hern, Stenson, Rose, Immelman, Campbell, Ames, Casey, Ogilvy.

Fine players. No question. Fine players to take a Saturday afternoon nap to.

This year, the names are Woods (12 majors), Singh (three majors), Leonard (one major), Cabrera (reigning U.S. Open champ), Austin (Presidents Cup hero), Choi, Cink and Stenson, the defending Match Play champ.

Add up their seedings for this year’s tournament and it’s a total of 156, not much better than last year’s 171.

But it’s not about the numbers. Not to be shallow about it, but it’s all about the names.

Mostly, it’s about that one name.

How much difference does Tiger make? Television ratings last year were 111 percent higher on Sunday when he was in contention.

For a while Friday, it looked as if he was going to leave early, burdened with an 0-for-2 funk at The Gallery Golf Club, the site of the past two match play events.

Baddeley had chances. A 17-foot eagle putt on No. 17. A delicate, bending 10-foot putt on 18. A 12-footer on the first playoff hole. Any could have done the trick.

By the second playoff hole, having settled for par, the only thing Baddeley could do was stand at the top of the green, arms crossed, while Woods nailed the 13-footer for victory.

It was at this very same green that Woods lost in the third round to Nick O’Hern last year. On that day, he muttered a few naughty words as he departed the green, declining a TV interview.

Friday, he did three on-green interviews with a gleaming smile, marveling at the match he had just won.

Woods made 12 birdies in 20 holes. Baddeley made nine.

Poor Baddeley. He probably would have beaten every golfer in the world Friday.

Except one.

“I played great, you know?” Baddeley said. “I made him have to win it.”

The two combined, at one stretch, to make 11 birdies in a stretch of seven holes.

“Just quality shot after quality shot,” Woods said.

“A match like that is fun to be a part of. You had to make birdies. He was 8- or 9-under-par and he’s going home. That’s the vagaries of match play right there.”

If I had a million bucks for every time Woods has said “that’s the vagaries of match play” this week, well, I’d still be about $980 million behind him. Golf Digest estimates that by 2010, Woods’ combined income from all his ventures will top $1 billion.

The vast majority is from stuff other than prize money. He’s able to push products by the force of his popularity and singular dominance.

You might need an advanced mathematics degree to understand the ins and outs of the World Golf Rankings – the vagaries, if you will – but the decimal points begin to make sense when you compare Woods to No. 2 Phil Mickelson.

Woods has an average of 19.71 points. Mickelson has 10.18.

That’s a difference of 9.53 points.

Think of it this way: The disparity between No. 1 and No. 2 is the same as the gap between No. 2 and No. 257.

That’s why hardly anybody else matters.

That might not be good for golf, but that’s not our concern today.

We still have Tiger.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

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2008 ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY: ELITE EIGHT

> Tiger Woods (1) vs. K.J. Choi (3) > Henrik Stenson (4) vs. Woody Austin (10) > Justin Leonard (13) vs. Vijay Singh (3) > Angel Cabrera (4) vs. Stewart Cink (6)

Saturday TV: Quarterfinals, 8 a.m. (GOLF); semifinals, noon (NBC) Sunday TV: Championship, 8 a.m. (GOLF), noon (NBC) > Updates: tucsoncitizen.com

UA alum Tommy Roy's office is a television production truck.

Tiger Woods is charging, Phil Mickelson is fading, and somewhere north of the course, in a dark television truck on a dirt lot, Tommy Roy pops out of his chair.

“We have to replay that with the roar!” yells Roy, a University of Arizona and Salpointe Catholic High School alum who is the longtime golf producer for NBC Sports.

Woods had just drained a 21-foot putt on No. 16, complete with a fist pump and a holler, to tie his Wednesday first-round match against J.B. Holmes.

“Who had the tight shot? Who had the reaction? We have to get that!”

Roy, by this time hyped on his sixth Pepsi during his sixth hour in the truck, is pointing to any number of the 21 screens in front of him. This is pure adrenaline, an endless improv of wipes, dissolves, cuts, replays, decisions, decisions, decisions.

Dismayed that he has to take a commercial break of 3 minutes, 30 seconds amid the furious action, he asks if the break can be shortened. Somebody makes a call. It can’t.

It’s a race against the clock to get back live for Mickelson’s attempt for a birdie. The network is still 15 seconds away from returning when Phil makes the putt on No. 16. Cue the replay.

Roy could pass it off as live, but that’s not his style. With a flick of his index finger, he flips a switch to talk to his announcers, setting up the shot.

“A moment ago . . . ,” Roy says off-air.

“A moment ago . . . ,” Gary Koch says on-air.

“Sometimes,” Roy says later of the use of replays, “other networks fake it.”

The telecast runs about a half-hour over, ending when Mickelson closes out his match on 18 with a par for a 1-up victory over Pat Perez.

The post-match interview goes awry when the truck loses its video feed, having to switch to an overhead shot pushed in closer from behind. Ah, well. Nothing’s perfect. That’s a wrap.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,” Roy tells the crew, spinning around the truck. “That was great.”

Roy, working with the Golf Channel crew during the weekdays, calls the jam-packed first day of the Accenture Match Play Championship one of cable’s two best golf days. The other is Friday Ryder Cup matches.

The last hour of the telecast from The Gallery Golf Club was pure gold. Woods came back to win after being 3 down after 13 holes. Mickelson survived after squandering a 2-up lead after 13.

Golf Channel announcer Nick Faldo, in a sprightly mood, bounces past Roy outside the truck as he unwinds afterward.

Roy: “That was fun, huh?”

Faldo: “What time tomorrow, boss?”

Geez, they pay these guys to do this?

“I’d do it for free,” Roy said.

So would millions of others, if not for one nagging problem.

“There are only a few select people who can do what Tommy does,” said NBC announcer Dan Hicks, “and I think he’s the best.”

Roy will work this weekend with his NBC golf hosts – Hicks and Johnny Miller – as the field is trimmed to the semifinals Saturday afternoon and the 36-hole final Sunday.

Roy and Hicks, a graduate of UA and Sabino High School, can annoy their co-workers with UA talk, sometimes through everyone’s earpieces when off the air.

“If we’re going to Jim Furyk on 17, Tommy might say to me, ‘Wildcat,’” Hicks said. “I might say back, ‘Bear down.’”

The best news for NBC is that a Stanford alum, Woods, is alive in the tournament. A victory Friday over Aaron Baddeley, and Woods makes it to the weekend. Ratings bonanza!

“Not publicly,” Roy said when asked if he roots for Woods.

Sounds like a yes.

Who can blame him? Match play is a TV challenge. Woods generates his own interest. But with only four people on the course on Sunday – including a third-place consolation match that is solely a TV device – NBC has to fill the time while guys are walking to their golf balls.

If anybody can do match play, it’s NBC. The network also has the U.S. Amateur, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.

Roy also leans on his Olympic experience – he produces the swimming coverage and has already been to Beijing to scope out camera locations – to do the up-close-and-personal stuff that plugs gaps. It’s all about preparation, always about preparation.

NBC used several man hours Monday to take the tourney’s trophy – the Walter Hagen Cup – to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The network wanted a shot of a rattlesnake curling around the Wedgewood cup.

“I hear this rattler was really angry. He was not happy to be there,” Roy said.

All for a shot that will last fewer than 10 seconds.

“Yeah,” Roy said, “but it will get on a couple of times.”

Anything for good TV.

To borrow Miller’s signature line: Good stuff.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail:

agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

D.J. Gregory doesn't let cerebral palsy stop him from following his favorite golfers around the course.

Light clouds, a chill in the air, a soft breeze. A nice day for a walk. For D.J. Gregory, every day, through hot and cold, rain and wind, up and down, is a great day for a walk – and it’s getting better all the time.

The man who will see more professional golf in person this year than anybody else on the planet was back on the course Wednesday, sticking his black cane into the dirt path outside the first tee box and, in the best way he can describe it, starting to “wobble” down the course, knees locked with every step.

Never mind the back nine thrills by Tiger Woods, Gregory, born with cerebral palsy and an independent streak, might be the best story at this week’s World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

He hasn’t missed a round on the PGA Tour this season and doesn’t intend to through the 38-week schedule, including the Ryder Cup.

That will be close to 2,800 holes – and this week’s stop at The Gallery Golf Club will be one of the most strenuous tests of the year. The five-day format calls for morning and afternoon matches on Saturday and a 36-hole final on Sunday. Instead of a regular 72 tournament holes, Gregory will walk 126.

“It never gets boring,” said Gregory, 30. “I love being out here.”

It started out as one man’s dream. It’s beginning to turn into an inspiration.

• • •

Gregory was 12 years old when his father, Don, took him to his first PGA Tour event, the Greater Greensboro Open in North Carolina. D.J. had become a golf fan, beginning to play one-handed when he was 9.

He wanted to go to the driving range to collect autographs. He knew the announcers, too, and tried to call out to Ken Venturi, who was in a cart.

“In a very faint tone of voice, I tried to get his attention, but it didn’t work,” Gregory said.

Fans behind D.J. called out on his behalf, and Venturi drove over to sign an autograph. Five minutes later he was back.

“Want to get in?” Venturi asked.

“Sure,” D.J. said.

Venturi drove across the driving range, allowing D.J. to gather autographs from all the players there. He then took D.J. to the first tee, set him up in the players’ tent and instructed the volunteers to make sure every player gave the boy an autograph.

“What are you guys doing at 3:45?” Venturi asked.

D.J. and his dad had planned to head home.

“You want to watch the live broadcast from the 18th tower?”

Don answered, “If I have to carry him up to the tower, he’ll be there.”

D.J. was definitely hooked. He still has all his souvenirs from that day. A glove signed by Payne Stewart sits in a glass box on his dresser at home in Savannah, Ga.

Home. Gregory hasn’t been there since the PGA Tour season began Jan. 3 in Maui. That’s more than 145 walking miles ago.

• • •

Gregory, who has a master’s degree in sports management from Springfield (Mass.) College, huffed and puffed as he continued his 18-hole walk Wednesday, almost always moving to keep up with the pace of play.

“It’s like he takes two steps for every one step someone else would take,” his father said. “As part of his cerebral palsy, his toes overlap in his shoes. It’s like they’re squeezed in there. He wears eight to 10 Band-Aids every day to minimize the blisters. He never talks about that.

“The walking is even tougher than what it looks like.”

His father was with him the first seven weeks of the season, but Gregory’s friends, many from college, will tag along now. Dana Rieger, an executive assistant to the UConn athletic director, is walking with Gregory this week.

“Some days are better than others,” he said of the physical toll. “After a round, obviously my feet are tired. As we get further along into this, my body is getting used to the grind of walking. I think I’m getting stronger.”

The PGA Tour assigns him to a different golfer each week. Using his unique access before and after rounds, and a tournament’s worth of observation, he then writes about the player and his week’s experiences at a blog on PGATour.com.

Gregory keeps tracks, among other things, of his miles, his beverage intake and his falls, which reached 10 last week. None on Wednesday. He will put everything together at the end of the year for a still-untitled book, although “A Long Walk” is one of the good suggestions.

He is following Aaron Baddeley this week. If Baddeley is eliminated, Gregory will walk with someone else – almost always outside the ropes so he’s not a distraction.

“The greatest story in golf is the march of D.J. Gregory around every single tour event,” Jim Nantz, the lead golf announcer for CBS, told The Arizona Republic.

Nantz had something to do with it.

• • •

When D.J. was 2, doctors wanted to put him in a wheelchair.

“He was army-crawling,” Don said. “His legs were scissored so tight you had to really pry his legs apart to change his diapers.”

D.J.’s parents looked for other options than a lifetime in the wheelchair. They agreed to have doctors cut his abductor muscles and his femurs and twist his legs so that his feet, which had pointed straight out, were headed in the right direction.

“As parents, you go, ‘Whoa, what are we doing?’ ” his father said. “Of course, now he complains that one foot was turned too much.”

D.J. made his way through all the walking devices, eventually needing only a cane when he was about 10. By the time he went to college, he turned down his dad’s offer of a cart to get around campus and declined the school’s proposal to have all his classes on the ground floor.

Just give me enough time, he said, I’ll get there.

• • •

Through Venturi, Gregory met Nantz and they became friends.

Gregory, a few years ago, came up with the dream of walking every tournament. He routinely went to several events a year. Last year, Nantz suggested Gregory pitch the idea to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. Nantz delivered the proposal in person.

The PGA Tour tested the idea in consecutive late-season events to see how Gregory did and then gave him a green light.

Along the way this season, he has picked up sponsors that take care of air travel, lodging, apparel and some dining.

“I’m just grateful for this experience,” he said. “The PGA Tour has been absolutely fantastic to work with. Anything I need, it’s done. The players are fabulous. Each one has told me, anything you need, it’s done.”

Through his blog and media coverage, Gregory is fast becoming a celebrity. The Golf Channel is working on a two-part special.

“At Pebble Beach a couple of weeks ago on Sunday, it seemed like every five minutes somebody would stop me and say hi or tell me I’m an inspiration or tell me they really like what I’m doing,” he said.

When he started it was just D.J. and his dad walking the course at Kapalua in the first week of the season. In the second week, the Golf Channel showed him on the course during tournament coverage, telling his story.

“The very next day we had a man chase us down and shake our hands and tell D.J. he was an inspiration,” the father said. “He said he told his son that if that man can come out here and walk, then I’m getting my butt out and walk out there, too.”

D.J. recalls one e-mail in particular from a woman whose best friend’s daughter, suffering from cerebral palsy, is ready to go to college. The woman wondered how to talk to her friend about being able to let go.

“These are kind of e-mails he is getting,” Don said.

Clearly, D.J. isn’t just out for a stroll anymore.

This didn’t start as a fundraising walkathon, but Wednesday a link was added to Gregory’s PGA Tour blog to donate to United Cerebral Palsy, either on a one-time basis or based on how many holes he walks.

“This is bigger than I thought it would be,” Gregory said. “But if I can be an inspiration to people or help them out in any way, that is great. That is absolutely great.”

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Here are the three things I need to watch golf on television, in order of importance:

Major stakes.

Major stars.

A mad scramble on Sunday.

What the Accenture Match Play championship has, no matter what, are the major stakes.

It’s not one of the four majors, but it’s close. The 64-man field is second to none, its mano-a-mano format is mas macho, and the winning payday of $1.35 million is a pretty good kick in the wallet.

As for the rest of it . . .

The problem – ahem, potential problem – with match play is that it works in inverse proportion to a regular stroke play tournament.

The best day in this match play event is the first, when the best 64 players (or close enough) in the world are all on the course. Half are eliminated. The worst day can be the last when there are only two players left, greatly reducing the probability of major stars and basically eliminating a mad scramble.

You know, it’s hard to have a mad scramble, with the television coverage bouncing to several holes, with just two guys on the course (we’re not counting this tournament’s irrelevant consolation match on Sunday).

Last year’s final between Henrik Stenson and Geoff Ogilvy might have been good, close golf between two top-10-esque players, but it didn’t exactly move the needle in terms of compelling drama or marquee names.

“The format has been talked about, but the discussion has never been loud enough to cause change,” said tournament executive director Michael Garten. “The truth of it is, the biggest reason it has not changed is the players. They like the match play format and they recognize the significant competitive feature of win or you’re done.”

Paraphrasing Stewart Cink, Garten said, “The fundamental difference between stroke play and match play is that in match play you don’t miss the cut; you lose.”

While the format is attractive to the players for one tournament a year, the end can be clunky for viewers. Tiger Woods has been in the final match three times in eight appearances.

In a major, how often would he be in contention on the final day? Seven of eight?

Last season, when Woods finished in the top five, TV ratings were 111 percent higher than for tournaments in which he has not contended or did not play.

“The network (currently NBC) has been very supportive as well,” Garten said. “It’s not like we’ve had complete nonmarquee players.

“I think they recognize there is a little bit of the luck of the draw.

“Some years you are going to get Kevin Sutherland and Scott McCarron. The next year you might get Tiger Woods and David Toms.”

Borrowing from the U.S. Amateur model, the Match Play event could hold two rounds of medal play (adding another full day of everybody on the course) and then seed the final 16 golfers.

That would guarantee nothing in terms of having Woods and Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els and such on the weekend. But it’s all about increasing the odds.

Two rounds of stroke play gives the very best players more time to rise to the top while eliminating, for a while, the vagaries of 18-hole matches where good play isn’t always rewarded.

“I think this is always probably going to be a little more difficult to win,” Woods said of match play. “It’s not about the long race of four rounds to position yourself for winning a golf tournament. It’s a sprint. You’ve got to get it done in 18 holes.

“You can go out there and shoot 6- or 7-under par and you’re going home,” Woods added, also remembering a previous Accenture Match Play event when a pro shot an 80 and advanced. “It’s just the way it is.”

Steve Stricker was asked Monday if he was home watching on television and not playing on a weekend, would he rather see stroke play or match play.

“Good question,” he responded.

“I think I’d rather watch match play since we’re here this week,” he continued with a laugh. “I’m trying to dodge this question. (Match play) is something different, and I think that’s what’s refreshing for me, or for anybody, to watch.”

But without the major stars and the mad scramble at the end, is there any reason to watch?

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com