Tiger Cruises to Victory in 1st Round

It's almost like he never left. After an eight-month layoff, Tiger Woods showed up in Marana, AZ for the Accenture Match Play Championship and picked up just about where he left off back in June of last year. Except this time, he has two good knees and a much tighter golf swing. And after he knocks off the cobwebs, that's bad news for the rest of the tour. But we already knew that.

Aussie Brendan Jones, who plays professionally in Japan, was unfortunate enough to be the 64th-ranked player in the world. Which meant that he would face the new and improved Woods in Wednesday's first round. And it went about how you might expect: Jones looked nervous for most of the afternoon, seemingly distracted by the enormity of it all, and when he finally cobbled together a few good shots, it was too late. Woods leisurely pulled out the victory, 3 and 2, and he was so moved by it all that he could only muster a post-round "business as usual." Um, okay.

Virtually everybody figured Tiger would be a lock to win his first-round match, even if he was a little rusty in the process. And I think it's fair to say he was just that. Of course, "Tiger rusty" and "any other mortal rusty" are entirely two different propositions, as Jones found out first hand.

Next up for Woods: Tim Clark.