He's Back...

No I'm not talking about Michael Jordan. I know you immediately thought of that Sports Illustrated Cover that simply said 'He's Back...' and had a picture of His Airness; the first time he came out of retirement.

But this is another great athlete who is making a return to his sport...



That's right! Tiger Woods is back at PGA Tour action. I saw that commercial on TV earlier today and it gave me an opening for another blog post.

Before I get to Tiger and other thoughts, that commercial is actually a pretty accurate interpretation of the other Nike golfers. After Tiger won the U.S. Open last year and had to take the next 8 months off due to knee surgery, the players you see in the commercial really did have success.

Is that coincidence or is that just representing a superior group of golfers who happen to be sponsored by Nike? Stewart Cink performed well, Anthony Kim was the hero in the President's or Ryder Cup last summer. Trevor Immelman and Justin Leonard won a few tournaments. So Nike's face representative in golf was out, but their company sure didn't experience any loss in any form. The remainder of the group stepped in a showed they could perform well and earned their sponsorship.

But today marked the end of the 8 month absence as Tiger teed it up at the Accenture Match-Play tournament. Tiger has had success at this tournament winning it three times and has a record of 31-6 in this tournament. Tiger won his match 3 & 2 and will face Tim Clark tomorrow.

I am a huge Tiger Woods fan, pretty much have been ever since he won the Master's Tournament back in 1997. That was about the time that I could actually comprehend and understand who was playing. And I saw this 21 year old dominating at the most recognized tournament in golfing history, The Master's at Augusta National. From that day forward I was a Tiger fan. I also liked Greg Norman at the time too, still do.

Now 14 majors later, Tiger is 33 and has started a family and now feels the best he has in years. What does that mean? Does this mean Tiger wins any tournament he plays in? Because if he won tournaments with a bad knee, now what is he capable of being healthy.

We can all speculate and think he will be great or we could say maybe he levels out and isn't as good as he was with bad knees. You can come up with anything. Here's what I see for Tiger's future. (Of course I'm not that great at making predictions, but I still do it anyways.)

So there are still four majors this PGA season starting with The Master's Easter weekend. I think Tiger will win at least one Major tournament this year, maybe even two. He always plays well at Augusta; the U.S. Open is at Bethpage Black, that monster course he dominated a few years back. Then the British and the PGA championship. So I am giving him the possibility of two majors this year.

Actually over the next 5 years I say he wins at least one Major tournament a year. I know that isn't a big reach, but I think that is a pretty accurate thought. We all know he is capable of winning all of the majors, but if not he will certainly be in the top 10 or in contention.

So Tiger is 33 and before he turns 40 I say he passes Jack Nicklaus for the most Major's ever won. He's only four behind to tie and five to pass. So seven seasons, that's 28 majors until he's forty. I think that is pretty much a lock to happen.

He is healthy, he is motivated to pass Jack and he now is the father of two. Tiger won't be around into his fifties playing for the Champion's tour. Tiger will come out year after year and accomplish his goals of winning Majors until he feels he has accomplished enough to call it an outstanding career. Will that be at 19 Majors or 25 Majors? I think only Tiger knows that answer.

He will then retire to great success and focus full time on his family and raising Charlie to follow in his father's footsteps. He will also focus on designing golf courses, which he has already started doing. He is designing three courses at the moment, the first to open will be in Dubai probably later this year. The next which was recently started is right here in the U.S. in the mountains of North Carolina. And he is also designing a course in Mexico.

Tiger Woods is well on his way to being the best golfer of all-time...

The other topic I wanted to cover was in NCAA basketball. The Pitt Panthers lost last night for the second time in their first game following being ranked number one in the country. UNC started out number one and ran for the first two months of the season, since then there has been several exchanges at the top. UCONN, Pitt, Duke have all been number one and lost quickly. Is that due to tough conferences or does that show a lack of a dominate team?

Some of us remember last year, when in the NCAA tournament all four one seeds made it to the Final Four for the first time is many years. Well I can almost guarantee you this year that will not happen at all. Remember that come tournament time and you are picking your brackets.

Last season the top four teams were clear cut better than the rest. This season that isn't the case. Everyone thought UNC would go undefeated this season, I never thought that would be the case. If I had to pick the top four teams right now, I would choose... UCONN, Pitt, UNC and Louisville.

I'm not saying they will make it to the Final Four, though it's a possibility, those are just my picks for the best teams right now. I mean Memphis has made it's way back, Oklahoma is tough, Marquette, Duke, Clemson, Michigan State... there are at least eight teams that would win the championship this season. Remember in 2006 when George Mason made it to the Final Four, well I think this year the tournament could see that happen again. There are many talented teams out there this season.

They call it March Madness, well I expect Extreme Madness this March, which is right around the corner.

That's about it for now, please leave comments and topic ideas, much appreciated.