Were You Duped?

After the opening round of The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club, we all looked at the top of the leaderboard and saw a surprising name...Tiger Woods.

Woods shared the opening round lead for the first time this season after posting a 6-under-par 65. I bet PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem and all the other PGA TOUR officials were jumping up and down endlessly. The money man had returned. Seven birdies and only one bogey were on Woods' scorecard. He's back. Isn't he?

Not...so...fast.

Overnight, the transformation back to the Tiger we've seen all year emerged. Tiger needed 73 strokes to make his way through the second carding four bogeys with only two birdies.

Saturday could have been even worse. Woods birdied three of his last six holes to close with a 72, 1-over-par. Actually, not a bad score at all consider Tiger began with day with a triple-bogey 7 on the first hole. For the remainder of his round, he was 2-under. He began today T28 at -3, nine shots behind the leader, Martin Laird.

One thing Woods addressed his his presser after his first round bears a significant reason for his play. He fired a 31 on the front nine, 4-under-par.

“With fresh greens, everybody in our group was making putts on the front nine,” Woods said. “You had to get it today.”

Need anyone say more. He was in the first group out on the front nine. Plus, the area had received four inches of rain during the week leading up to the event. The greens were in pristine condition as no one had been on those first nine and you could aim at pins when the situation was available. The only thing that may have been a distraction was, of all things, mudballs. The TOUR officials took that into consideration and made the appropriate actions.

Granted, Woods has not been himself all year, but the media was making this single round out as being his comeback. One round? Really? Woods has played (going into today's final round) 36 rounds this season. He has manged only seven rounds in the 60's. As far as the number of strokes taken, Thursday's 65 was his best round of the year. His 6-under was equal to the 66 he posted at Pebble.

Ah, that 66 at Pebble during the U.S. Open. We've been teased before by Tiger. Remember Woods' third round at the U.S. Open? He followed that up with a final round 75.

We know he's been through a lot this year and for anyone to expect Woods to return to his former self this soon is asking way too much.

There's no doubt that the PGA TOUR needs Woods to make the cut into the next round of The PGA TOUR Playoffs. And the next and son on. The top 100 after this week will advance. Woods is in position to do that

However, no Tiger doesn't necessarily translate into bad golf. We've seen young stars emerge this year. Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day.

The issue concerning the TOUR is that no Tiger only translates into lower gates.