Tiger on Cruise Control

Any questions? Looked like the same old Tiger Woods on Wednesday who knocked off Brendan Jones 3 & 2 in the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona. In his first competitive round since recovering from ACL surgery, Woods turned in a solid performance with moments of brilliance. He won the first two holes of the match after hitting irons close to the flag for an easy birdie and conceded eagle (after a 235-yard 4-iron to four feet) respectively. He bogeyed three of his next five holes and watched his lead slip to 1-up but then birdied No. 8 and didn’t allow Jones to get closer. He hit eight of 12 fairways and nine of 16 greens. The Golf Channel did a nice job of dialing up slow motion videos of his swings prior to last summer’s U.S. Open, during the Open at Torrey Pines, and during his Wednesday round. I’m no doctor or swing coach, but Tiger looked better than ever. He had a few misplayed shots along the way but for the most part looked pretty sharp. After the round, Woods told reporters, “It felt like nothing changed. Walking down the fairway, and it felt like business as usual. Go out there, I thought I would be more nervous on that first tee, but when it comes right down to it. … it just came back down to just playing the game again, and that felt good." Woods will play Tim Clark of South Africa on Thursday.

Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Mark Hensby.