Tiger Woods' comeback is bigger than the game

The leader in the clubhouse was Phil Mickelson. The story of the day was 3,000 miles away.

Mickelson shot an eight-under-par 63 at Riviera's Northern Trust Open on Thursday. Tiger Woods, at home in Florida, typed on his website.

He's back. Eat your heart out, Michael Jordan. Your return was huge. His is gigantic.

Less than an hour after Mickelson turned Riviera into Rancho Park from the red tees, the buzz began. Tiger, out since last June 16 when he won in a playoff on the 91st hole of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and limped off to have reconstructive knee surgery, would return to play in an event next week near Tucson. That's the Accenture Match Play, which was won last year by . . .

You guessed it. A man named Eldrick.

This could be the biggest thing to hit Arizona since the taco.

Neither the return of Jordan, nor that of Woods, needed verbal flamboyancy. Jordan used two words: "I'm back." Woods prattled on for six: "I'm now ready to play again."

Poor Mickelson played for five hours, turning in some of the best golf of his life on one of the most demanding courses the pros play. Then he answered questions from the media for about 20 minutes.

And he got upstaged by six words.

It is difficult to articulate how huge Woods is.

The media doesn't just report. It drools.

The Golf Channel, which has rights to portions of the telecast of the Accenture, delivered the news with glee. It almost giggled. Tiger was back. Their meal ticket had returned. The planets were back in alignment, as well as their ratings.

"This is the comeback the world has been waiting for," intoned one expert who was interviewed.

Former star Lee Trevino analyzed for viewers what a solidly repaired knee might mean for Tiger's game, concluding that, if it is sound, "The rest of you guys out there are in more trouble."

A sports psychologist discussed the news in predictable psychobabble and there was medical conjecture that put Tiger's health at 95% when he came back.

What, not 96%?

For hours, we saw shots of Tiger swinging, Tiger fist-pumping, Tiger limping. It was All Tiger, All the Time. And it will be, for the foreseeable future.

Nor was it only TV, although it almost always wins in the race for mindless excess.

Newspapers editors now had a headline that people actually might read, website editors got the manna from heaven that justifies their existence, and clueless columnists got a clue. All was right again with the world, except for a few mortgage problems and bankers flying around in private jets.