TW v TWAM

-'Tiger Woods' was the paragon athlete of this decade; 'After Mistress' Woods is a jive sleazy cat who errybody knows doesn't use rubbers and cheats on his pregnant wife. if nothing else, its gonna FEEL different when you see him again, thus its gonna feel different to TWAM. if he can out-focus the funny-vibe he's gonna get his next go-'round on the tour (every stop, every 1st tee, every gallery, every public appearance), i'll be amazed.

-if he doesn't win his first tourney back, he's got to deal with tab journalists trailing at every tournament until he settles back into the 'normal' pattern of winning every other-other tournament.

-you can't tell me his most serious competitors didn't take note of the panic vibe voice msg & car crash (and disastrous PR campaign) that has never been associated with TW. until he proves o'wise, all the pressure in the world is on TWAM the next time he's in contention going into the final round.

-where before there was none, there'll be incredible scrutiny of his future off-course activities; just substitute 'Tiger & Elin' for jon & kate or any other tab fave that is stalked ad nauseum. yeah he got a lot of pub & attention before, but his old steez is done; he's gonna have to create a underground clone farm if he wants to get back to discreet shenanigans...

-if he is indeed trying to save his marriage, that's prolly the biggest lingering obstacle to a speedy return to dominance. IMO, his quickest road to a golf-recovery is to turn heel like a wrestler- get a divorce, announce that you got wild issues (sex/drug addict), resume prior fornication... at least then he'd be controlling the message rather than trying to get back to being 'TW' in the people's eyes (which ain't gonna happen)

in summary: golf is a game of miniscule margins even for Tiger- it wouldn't be surprising to see some of his dominance reduced by the stress of the extra scrutiny, extra photogs, extra yahoos yellin' 'UCHITEL!' instead of 'GET IN THE HOLE', etc.

BUT
-if he overcomes alllll that and wins at Augusta this year he is the absolute GOAT competitor of all time, bar none. in fact, he will transcend the term GOAT- save that for mortals, he is BTI Harmon (and there can only be 1...)