Woods: looking to secure Claret Jug for a fourth time
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There were so many good things to come from last year's Open Championship at Birkdale that it is hard to know where to start.
First, of course, was Padraig Harrington winning back-to-back Open Championships, the likeable Irishman becoming the first European to successfully defend the title since 1906.
Then was the confidence Harrington took from that performance to also claim the USPGA Championship just three weeks later at Oakland Hills.
Other intriguing side plots saw 53-year-old Greg Norman hold the lead after 54 holes before slipping to a highly-creditable share of third place, while Ian Poulter's second place helped him earn a Ryder Cup debut at Valhalla, where he finished top European points scorer to fully justify receiving a wild card from captain Nick Faldo.
But almost as satisfying was the fact that Harrington's victory ended the tedious conjecture that the absence of Tiger Woods from Birkdale would "devalue" the winner.
There was never truly going to be an asterisk next to the winner's name on the Claret Jug to denote their triumph was achieved while Woods was missing, but Harrington's brilliant display thankfully confirmed the tournament was much larger than one man.
After all, Woods has won "just" three of the 13 Open Championships he has contested - two of those as an amateur - and those where he has not been in contention have certainly not lacked drama or excitement.
That being said, all but his 155 fellow competitors will be glad to see him back in action this year, when the Open returns to Turnberry for the first time since Nick Price's one-shot victory over Jesper Parnevik in 1994.
Open debut
That was the year before Woods made his Open debut as an amateur at St Andrews, where he made the cut but failed to win the silver medal awarded to the leading amateur.
England's Steve Webster took that honour in 24th, while Scot Gordon Sherry also took the princely sum of £1 from Woods thanks to a friendly bet over who would achieve the best finish (Sherry was 40th and Woods 68th).
Woods duly claimed the silver medal the following year at Lytham with a record-equalling total of 281 in finishing 22nd, and appropriately won his first Open title at St Andrews in 2000, winning by eight shots on his way to completing the "Tiger Slam" - holding all four major titles at the same time, although not in the same year.
Surprisingly it took another five years and a return to St Andrews for Woods to lift the Claret Jug for a second time, this time by a mere five shots from Colin Montgomerie, but he quickly made it three the following year at Birkdale with an imperious display before breaking into tears on the 18th green after his first major victory since the death of his father Earl.
Never a factor
A year later at Carnoustie, Woods was never really a factor from the moment he hooked the opening tee shot of his second round out of bounds, and of course last year he missed Birkdale due to the knee surgery required after his remarkable US Open win at Torrey Pines.
This month, Woods will have his first experience of an Open Championship at Turnberry, and defending champion Padraig Harrington is expecting the world number one to be back to his best.
"I actually would say that his game is in very good order," Harrington said after the US Open at Bethpage Black, where Woods finished four shots behind Lucas Glover in joint sixth.
"I think he's in better form than when he won at Bay Hill in his first victory since his knee operation.
"If everybody had played in the conditions he did during the first two rounds, then he would have been right there with the leaders. What I love about this game is the ups and the downs of it. It's fascinating.
"Look at what happened to Tiger and think about what the scenario would have been if he had been given a better starting number. He'll be looking forward to Turnberry, no question."
And so will we.
