Tiger Woods. Is he back?

It sure looks like it. In the Farmers Insurance golf tournament currently going on, Tiger went out and fired a 4-under 68 for his first round, then followed it up with a blistering 65. At eleven under par he's in the lead by 2 shots heading into the weekend.

No, this tourney didn't draw the strongest field there ever was. A lot of the top players in the world aren't participating, notably a certain Irish kid named McIlroy. Still, Tiger's looking like he's back to his old self, especially tearing up the par 5s with an eagle thrown in here and there. So far, he hasn't been hitting any of his tee shots into the next county, thrown a club, or whiffed a 2 foot putt. Nary a cuss word either. Maybe he's finally got his game back together and is about to break out of the miserable slump he's been in since the wheels came off his personal life a while back.

Of course, these are only tune-up tournaments right now. His real test will come at the Masters in April when all the big boys will be there.

Tiger seems to have cruised along rather nicely the last couple days, but wait a minute. Haven't we seen this movie before a bunch of times over the last few years? You know, where Tiger comes out on Thursday and Friday tearing up the course, then gets a chicken bone stuck in his throat when it comes to playing on the weekend and collapses like a house of cards in a hurricane?

Few would doubt Woods still possesses the skills to be a world class player, and maybe even return to dominating the tour like he once did. It could be the only thing that's been holding him back of late is what's between his ears. He needs to prove he can finish, more to himself than anybody else.

While yours truly has never been much of a Tiger groupie (hey, this is America, I can root for who I want to), it would be nice to see him go out on the weekend and put together two more solid rounds of golf to polish off the Farmers tournament in style. It would also likely give him a boost of confidence for his future. He needs a spark to get him going again.

Then again, if Tiger comes out on the weekend and slips back into crash and burn mode, who knows what kind of effect it would have on him? Not good, that's for sure.

If he wants to get back to the mountaintop, he's got to start somewhere. Might as well be right now.

We'll see how it plays out......