By Ron Sirak

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The suspended third round of the Players was a glimpse at what could have been. Just imagine if Sergio Garcia had held up his end of the bargain and become a real rival for Tiger Woods.

We could have had nearly 15 years of the kind of tension, intrigue and compelling golf we had Saturday. And hopefully, we will get more of it on Sunday. Man, this could have been a "Big Break" episode.

Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods on the 11th tee during the third round three of The Players Championship. Photo: Richard Heathcote

The fact that Woods and Garcia are not the best of friends was clear even to those unfamiliar with the strained relationship between the two that goes back to at least 2000, when Tiger thought Sergio over-celebrated after defeating him in a made-for-TV exhibition match.

And that was part of the reason the atmosphere on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass was electric Saturday, virtually vibrating with buzz from a crowd so large it was announced the night before there were no more parking passes available. Officials said 45,281 were on hand for the third round.

Related: Winners & Losers from Round Three

To say there was no chit-chat during their round would be like saying the Hatfields and the McCoys rarely played Words With Friends together. There

hadn't been this much tension at the home course of the PGA Tour since, well Wednesday, when Vijay Singh sued the tour.

While frosty from the beginning, the chemistry between Woods and Garcia took a quick turn toward absolute zero on No. 2 when Garcia hit his second shot just as the crowd erupted in cheers as Woods pulled out a wood to go for the green on the par 5 from off the pine straw.

Sergio missed wide right, looked in Woods' direction in disgust, made bogey on the very birdie-able hole and complained about it later.

"It was my shot to hit," Garcia said on NBC during the weather delay that halted play with the two on the seventh hole. "He moved all the crowd that he needed to move, and I waited for that. I want to say that he didn't see that I was ready. But you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit. Right as I was on top of the backswing . . . everybody started screaming, so that didn't help very much. It was unfortunate."

After the round was halted a second time, this for darkness, with Woods and Garcia playing the 15th hole, Tiger was asked if he had heard about Sergio's comments and for his version of events.

Related: How Tiger's swing has changed

"Well, the marshals, they told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot, and then I hear his comments afterwards and [it's] not real surprising that he's complaining about something," Woods said. Asked if they discussed the matter, Woods said: "We didn't do a lot of talking."

And when Garcia heard Woods' reaction he said: "It's fine. At least I'm true to myself."

Holy Snedekers, Bat Man, can't wait until the boys to get back at it at 7:10 a.m. for the completion of round three. What a weird day it was.

On No. 4, Woods asked for -- and received -- a free drop in the rough near a fairway bunker -- perhaps from a sprinkler head -- conjuring up memories of Drop-Gate at the Masters last month. Quick, anyone, get me David Eger's phone number.

On No. 7, after Garcia put his second shot on the green and Woods was preparing to play, the horn sounded at 4:09, driving the players from the course because of dangerous weather conditions.

When played resumed at 5:57, Sergio didn't wait for Tiger to get to the seventh green before he putted, most likely playing his stroke out of turn, which in

stroke play is a courtesy and not a rule. There was little courtesy in this twosome. When they walked off the eighth tee, the two were 20 yards apart.

Related: Win the Players, win a great parking spot!

On No. 8 green, when it was time for Woods to putt, Garcia stood an appropriate distance away, but straight across from Woods where he was likely in Tiger's vision before he looked down to focus on the ball. Seve Ballesteros would have been proud -- and then uncrossed his legs.

When play was finally halted for the day by darkness after the horn sounded at 7:47, David Lingmerth had the lead at 12 under par through 17 holes with Woods and Garcia both at 10 under, tied for second with Henrik Stenson, who had finished 16 holes.

This is the match-up we thought we'd get a lot back in 1999 when the 19-year-old El Nino gave all Tiger could handle on Medinah in the PGA Championship. Who thought then that 14 year later, Garcia would yet to have won a major championship?

For the most part, it has been the putter that has hampered Garcia, who has used the long putter and now employs the modified claw, although some would say the five inches between his ears needs to be anchored better.

Remember, this is the guy who said after the third round of last year's Masters that he didn't have what it takes to win a major, then said that wasn't what he meant.

I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm rooting for the scoreboard to end the third round exactly as it was when play was stopped Saturday night, which would put Woods and Garcia in the same group again for the final round. The rivalry never developed, but at least we can enjoy what might have been for one more day. Bring it on, Tiger and El Nino! Talk to us!

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Tiger Woods' only misstep on Thursday at the Players was a bogey on the 18th hole. Photo by Getty Images

• His misses off the tee are much better than they have been in years.
• The controlled "stinger" drive with a fairway wood or a long iron is as beautifully-reliable as it once was.
• His distance control with his irons -- especially from inside 150 yards -- is much better than it has been during the three-year process of learning the Sean Foley swing.
• And, oh yeah, he is No. 1 in strokes gained/putting again. The putter has always been the great eraser for Tiger's mistakes and when he has the confidence that he can make up-and-downs to save par, he can really attack pins.

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By Ron Sirak

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- On the day after he sued the PGA Tour for allegedly damaging his reputation in the Great Deer Antler Spray Saga, Vijay Singh returned to competition with little interest from fans and even less from his fellow players.

Related: Vijay Singh's choice to sue is curious

Singh warmed up for Thursday's first round of the Players on the secluded back end of the practice range at TPC Sawgrass. When he walked from the range to the practice green, it was to sparse applause and not even a nod from other pros.

As he putted, Singh spoke only to his caddie, his coach, or on his cell phone. No player made the trek across the green to bring him greetings. His playing partners Robert Garrigus and J.J. Henry said hello on the first tee and not much more.

Several fans shouted Singh's name as he walked to the first tee, where he was greeted by a middle-aged man sitting in the second row wearing a deer-antler hat. The only real heckling came on No. 3 where a man yelled, "Stay away from the spray."

The Singh lawsuit seems to be resonating very little with fans -- although, truth be told, golf fans are not of the heckling ilk. And in a lawsuit pitting a multimillionaire player against his even richer employer, few seem to be finding a side to root for.

The clearer reaction seems to be from players who, for now at least, are sort of making Singh feel like the island green at No. 17 -- not totally cut off from land, but connected only by the narrowest strip. If no man is an island, this one seems to be at least an isthmus.

Related: Who is Roberto Castro and why is he leading the Players?

While none of the players were talking on the record, the underlying sentiment was that suing the PGA Tour, where 99 players won at least $1 million last year, was a bad idea.

The 50-year-old Singh, meanwhile, was making even less of an impact as a player, playing the front nine in 39 strokes and finishing with a 74 on a day when Roberto Castro tied the course record at 63.

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By Ron Sirak

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- This much we know about Rory McIlroy: When he has his A-game everyone else in the field becomes a B-list celebrity. Winning the 2011 U.S. Open and last year's PGA Championship by eight strokes each proves that.

What the 24-year-old lad from Northern Ireland has yet to demonstrate is whether or not he has the resolve to win when he is not playing his best. And the way he's started this Players, we may not find out this week.

McIlroy watches his second shot on the 14th hole during the first round of The Players Championship. Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

McIlroy appears to be on his game. He also seems to have figured out how to play the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, so he's got that going for him.

"I don't hit any drivers on the front nine," McIlroy said after opening with a bogey-free six-under-par 66. "I mean, I hit driver on 11 and 16 on the back nine, and one more, 14, so I only hit three drivers around this place. Now I see why I don't. . . . There is no point hitting driver off either (par 5) for me, because I'm still going to reach the green with a 3⿿wood off the tee, if I want to."

Remarkably, it took Rory McIlroy seven trips around the Stadium Course before he was able to break par. Now, he pretty much just needs not to lose a sleeve of golf balls in Friday's second round to make it to the weekend for the first time in four tries.

Before posting his 66 on Thursday in what may become the Vijay Singh Invitational if the 50-year-old Fijian wins his lawsuit against the PGA Tour, McIlroy's scores at Sawgrass resembled the summertime highs in San Diego -- 74, 77, 73, 72, 72 and 76.

Related: Why The Players Championship is so unpredictable.

His ball-striking was so precise on this day -- especially his iron play -- that the length of his six made birdie putts combined barely added up to one reasonable putt: 29 feet total as he turned in 31, playing the back nine first.

That was followed by a cruise-control 35 on the front side, finishing off his best career round here by six strokes in the tour's flagship event.

"It's just these [Pete Dye-designed] courses and this especially is just about getting your ball in play," McIlroy said. "Once you do that, you can . . . the way I feel like I'm hitting my irons, I can take advantage of that."

There is an axiom about the Stadium Course that long hitters don't fare well here. That's mostly true, except when a bomber is hitting a lot of fairways. Rory seems to have found a middle ground -- forget about the driver. While he missed a few fairways, he never missed badly and his iron play had the kind of precision Dye had in mind when he designed this course more than 30 years ago.

McIlroy, who came into the year as the No. 1 player in the world but started the season slowly and lost the top spot to Tiger Woods when Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, appears to be reclaiming his form.

Related: Hole-by-hole tour of TPC Sawgrass.

So far, his best effort of the year was a second-place finish at the Valero Texas Open when he closed with a 66 only to be bested by two strokes when Martin Laird closed with a 63.

The year started miserably for him when he missed the cut in Abu Dhabi, was knocked out in the first round of the Accenture Match Play and when walked of the course at the Honda Classic while in the process of shooting a million.

"I'm definitely a lot more relaxed coming in here this year," McIlroy says about flying somewhat under a radar screen jammed with Tiger and the Vijay lawsuit. " I guess in a way whatever I do this week is what I felt coming in, I'll do better than I ever have before, because I've played well and I am playing well. I feel like I've got the game to contend. I came in here with not much pressure, and just wanted to go out and play well, and that's what I've done so far."

There have been just enough hiccups in McIlroy's career to give you pause -- five lackluster major championship performances after he won the 2011 U.S. Open and three consecutive years with one nine in the 40s at the Masters -- but the obvious talent makes you think the hiccups will be cured.

And then there is this: On a week when a World Golf Hall of Fame member who has won $67.5 million on the PGA Tour and likely has more than $20 million coming in his deferred income plan sues the tour, the apparent niceness of McIlroy shines even brighter.

There is something about McIlroy that makes you feel as if the kid who cuts your grass on Saturday afternoon went out and won the U.S. Open or the PGA Championship on Sunday.

And for the first time at the Players, it appears as if Rory will survive to see Sunday. The young man appears to have reclaimed his A-game from the pawnshop and he's learned that out-thinking a golf course can be as dominating as overpowering it. It will be fun to watch him put that skill and knowledge to use the rest of the week.

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By Ron Sirak

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Almost exactly a decade ago, Vijay Singh stepped into a public relations hornet's nest when he said he hoped Annika Sorenstam would miss the cut at the 2003 Bank of America Colonial on the PGA Tour.

Singh still doesn't talk to the writer who published that quote. That cone of silence may expand now -- on all sides. Suing the PGA Tour on the eve of its flagship event is not a way to win friends and influence people.

Lawyers for Singh said Wednesday they are suing the PGA Tour to "reclaim his reputation and hold the PGA TOUR responsible for its unwarranted effort to suspend Singh for his use of deer antler spray." The tour, not surprisingly, has no comment at this time.

By suing the tour, Singh is not only biting that hand that has fed him very well -- he has $67.5 million in career earnings, third all-time behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson -- he is sort of suing the other players who benefit from the tour and its events.

And there are many among those players who were not happy when the World Anti-Doping Agency rescinded its ban on deer antler spray, leading to the tour dropping its 90-day suspension of Singh, which was under appeal at the time.

Related: What makes the Players golf's biggest toss-up?

Singh freely admitted to using deer antler spray in a magazine interview while it was on the PGA Tour's banned substance list. That was changed when WADA concluded there was not enough human growth hormone in the spray to make it a performance-enhancing drug.

"I am proud of my achievements, my work ethic, and the way I live my life," Singh says in a news release by Peter R. Ginsberg Law, LLC, in New York City. "The PGA TOUR not only treated me unfairly, but displayed a lack of professionalism that should concern every professional golfer and fan of the game."

The timing of the suit is sure to annoy many players almost as much as it irks officials in PGA Tour headquarters here. That's about as in-your-face as it gets and is somewhat reminiscent of when three LPGA executives quit on the eve of the 2006 LPGA Championship, saying they had lost confidence in then commissioner Caroline Bivens.

At the time the suit was filed, Singh was still listed as having a 2 p.m. tee time in Thursday's first round of The Players. It's a pretty safe guess that the media room is rooting for a 64 by Vijay in the first round - and a trip to the interview room.

Related: The PGA Tour drops doping case against Singh

One of the risks in filing the suit is that the move likely means that anything in his file at the PGA Tour headquarters - and Singh has been controversial enough that a file certainly exists - is now fair game for public release, as it was in the case of John Daly when he sued a newspaper for libel.

The PGA Tour has a policy of not making public any fines or suspensions levied against players. The extent of the disciplinary actions against Daly were not known until he sued.

If there has ever been any actions against Singh, or even complaints, those would now become public knowledge. In fact, his 90-day suspension for deer antler spray was only made public when it was detailed in the suit Singh filed.

It's also probably safe to assume the PGA Tour will have crack investigators thoroughly probe every aspect of Singh's medical history.

The other risk for Singh is the elephant in the room throughout his career - a suspension for allegedly cheating, an allegation he denies, in the 1980s, would resurface larger than ever.

The accusation was that Singh changed a scorecard in the 1985 Indonesian Open in order to make a cut. The South East Asia Golf Federation suspended him indefinitely and he was not a member of any tour until resurfacing on the European Tour in 1989.

The only way this suit makes sense -- and the greatest risk to the PGA Tour is going to court rather than reaching a negotiated settlement -- is if Singh knows something. Have there been other drug penalties -- either performance enhancing or recreational -- the tour has issued to prominent players that Singh knows about but the public does not? If that is the case, then is the motive purely vindictiveness?

According to the the lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York:

"Singh seeks damages for the PGA TOUR's reckless administration and implementation of its Anti-Doping Program. After exposing Singh, one of the PGA TOUR's most respected and hardest working golfers, to public humiliation and ridicule for months, and forcing Singh to perform the type of scientific analyses and review that the PGA TOUR was responsible for performing, the PGA TOUR finally admitted that the grounds on which it sought to impose discipline were specious and unsupportable."

As for what Vijay want, the suit asks for:

"WHEREFORE, Singh respectfully requests that this Court enter judgment in Singh's favor, granting the following relief: 1. damages in an amount to be determined at trial; 2. punitive damages and attorney's fees; 3. and such other relief as the Court finds just and proper."

Singh withdrew last week at the Wells Fargo Championship pretty much as soon as the PGA Tour announced it was dropping its case against him in light of the WADA reversal on deer antler spray.

He last played at the RBC Heritage, where he missed the cut, and according to the lawsuit the tour had held more than $99,000 of his winnings in escrow pending his appeal of the suspension.

Related: Who will win the Players?

When Singh made his inflammatory comments about Sorenstam, he went out and won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship that week and then withdrew from Colonial, thus escaping further media scrutiny. It's not clear he has an easy road out this time, other than fully extending his cone of silence.

It could very well be that the next words we hear from Singh on this matter will be in court, where the questions are certain to be far more reaching than he ever gets in the interview room - and where the answers will have far greater consequences.

A matter that seemed as if it would quietly be forgotten now has the potential to not only drag on in a very public manner but also could drift into areas Singh has for decades avoided.

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By Ron Sirak

AUGUSTA, GA. -- This is where it all started for Tiger Woods, the place where he first took over the No. 1 spot in the golf world, winning the 1997 Masters by a record 12 strokes at the age of 21.

A man of color wearing the champion's green jacket a mere half-dozen years after Augusta National GC first opened its doors to a non-white member made Woods more than a golfer and more than a sports star.

He became an instant international cultural phenomena.

What Woods accomplished here that week was about far more than golf, yet it also cannot be viewed solely as a cultural event. It was as if Jackie Robinson had integrated baseball in 1947 AND broken Babe Ruth's home run record in the same year.

This is also where Woods chose to restart his career after the scandal that rocked his life and ended his marriage. His first tournament after the Thanksgiving 2009 car crash was the 2010 Masters, and remarkably a rusty Woods finished T-4.

And he was hoping that it would be here, this week, that he would get his quest to break the record of 18 professional major held by Jack Nicklaus back on track.

But the drought continues. I thought coming into this Masters that it was the most important major championship Woods had yet to play in his career. A fifth green jacket would have placed Tiger within four majors of passing Jack and make it all seem doable.

To come away empty-handed from a course where he has had such great success in the first half of his career -- four wins in his first nine Masters as a pro -- is a huge setback for Woods.

Related: The winners and losers from Sunday

The mountain got higher for Woods and now the questions will get harder after finishing T-4 at five-under-par 283, four strokes out of the playoffs between Angel Cabrera,Adam Scott and Steve Williams, the seriously disgruntled former caddie for Woods.

Now, Woods goes into the U.S. Open at Merion in June exactly five years removed from his last major -- the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines -- and winless in his last nine Masters.

Woods was never really in contention on Sunday, starting the day four back and never getting closer than three, although in his mind -- the mind of a guy with 77 PGA Tour wins and 14 major championships -- Tiger always thinks he had a chance to win.

"For the first eight holes, I think I left every putt short," Woods said after his two-under-par 70 played mostly in what ranged from a steady drizzle to a flat-our rain. "I thought 65 would win it outright today," Tiger said, and it turns out he was correct.

A 65 and Woods finishes at 10-under-par and wins by a stroke. But that triple-bogey 8 on the par-5 15th hole Friday -- a birdie or eagle hole -- was the real killer. First he had the bad luck of hitting the flagstick with his third shot and having it carom into the water.

Then he was hit with a two-stroke penalty the next morning after rules officials, who initially deemed his drop to be legal, were informed of Woods' comments to the media that he had dropped his ball two yards behind the original spot he hit from in order to get a better yardage into the green.

"Well, we could do that in every tournament we lose and we lose more tournaments than we win out here on tour, so that's just part of the process," Woods said when asked if he has replayed the incident on No. 15 in his mind.

Asked about photos in a local newspaper that appeared to show that he hit both shots from about the same spot and thus should not have been penalized, Woods was adamant.

"No, I saw the photos," Woods said. "I was behind it."

Woods who won four of his first nine Masters as a professional and 14 of his first 46 major championships, has now gone 0-for-9 in the Masters and has not won in his last 15 majors, dating back to the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

The truly disturbing number in all this is that in those 15 winless majors, Woods has finished in the top-six eight times. A couple of those were like Sunday -- backdoor chargeswhen he really wasn't in contention -- but he's also had a chance to win a half-dozen times and has been unable to get it done.

Related: Tiger's long road back to No. 1

"I played well," Woods said of this Masters. "I certainly missed my share of putts today, actually this week. Mentally, I'm hungry," he said. "I always give you that hunger, but seriously, I'm like hungry. I certainly had a chance," Woods said.

"If I had posted a number today, I was right there," Woods said with the determined regret of a champion.

He wasn't thinking of the hit flagstick or the belated penalty. He was thinking of the things he could control -- the missed putts and a few wayward drives.

The next major, the next chance for Tiger to gain on Jack, comes at Merion, the place where Ben Hogan restarted his career after the 1949 car crash almost took his life. Hogan won the 1950 U.S. Open there -- and six of the next nine majors he played.

Maybe Merion is where the magic will start again for Woods. Maybe not. In either case, he remains what he became that day at Augusta 16 years ago -- one of the most watched athletes in all of sports.

That Woods leaves the Masters empty-handed only increases anticipation for the U.S Open. The first chapter of this remarkable story was written at the 1997 Masters. The ending is a longways away.

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By Ron Sirak

AUGUSTA, GA. -- So do you think the green jacket will come with an asterisk if Tiger Woods wins this Masters?

Maybe, maybe not. But what about the poor guy not named Woods who cozies up next to Jim Nantz in front of the fireplace in Butler Cabin Sunday evening? Will he be remembered as the 21st century Bob Goalby?

Related: The Tiger rules fiasco explained

If Tiger falls one stroke short of winning his first Masters in eight years and first major in five, how huge will that two-stroke penalty issued Saturday morning for a bad drop on Friday's second round loom?

Brandt Snedeker is one of the many players with a major chance on Sunday.

Just like that the controversy will change from, "Woods should have been disqualified" to "Wow, if not for that penalty called in off TV, Tiger wins his fifth Masters."

The Roberto de Vicenzo lament, "What a stupid I am," after he signed an incorrect scorecard in the 1968 Masters, handing the title to Goalby and avoiding an 18-hole Monday playoff, would become, "What a lucky I am," for whoever wins this year.

And the contenders going into Sunday have a lot on the line. For Jason Day, Adam Scott, Brandt Snedeker, Marc Leishman, Matt Kuchar and Tim Clark, it would be major championship No. 1. That means more than the $1.44 million first prize. It means millions more in endorsement dollars.

For Angel Cabrera, it would be his second Masters and third major, which trails only the four by Phil Mickleson as the most in the Tiger Woods Era by a guy not named Woods. That raises Angel's status in the game to a whole new level.

Related: Golf's all-time most costly rules mistakes

And 53-year-old Fred Couples would become the oldest player to win a major by five years, breaking the record set by 48-year-old Julius Boros in the 1968 PGA Championship. Making history is, well as Freddy might say, historical.

But anyone who wins here Sunday, if it is not Tiger, will be remembered forever and always as the guy who won the Masters in the year Woods was penalized. Just ask Goalby what that is like. His gift Masters was his only major title -- and a lot of people never let him forget that.

"I shot 66 in the final round, but you never heard about that," Goalby told the Augusta Chronicle last year. "I made a 4-footer on 18 for par that I thought was to tie. I was walking to the clubhouse when Cary Middlecoff, who was doing television back then, came out of the tower and spotted me. He said, 'Hey Bob, you won the tournament. Roberto (de Vicenzo) screwed up his card.'" The normal celebratory scene after a victory of such magnitude was instead a muted lament in which in which no one really knew how to behave. It was like being at a funeral for a friend and not knowing what to say to the grieving relatives you don't know all that well.

"I walked into the TV room, and Roberto was in there talking, so I had to kneel on the ground," Goalby remembered. "It was just confusing after it ended, but I won, and I was thankful that I did. All I read about afterward was that I became champion on a score keeping error. I've got no ill feelings toward anybody. But I did get 500 of the worst letters you've ever seen after that win."

Related: Augusta National's scariest shots

Quite likely, the winner of the Non-Woods division of this Masters will be skewered in 50,000 angry, bitter tweets, many of which are misspelled and miss the target of accuracy, if such a lofty goal was ever intended.

And it may well be that the only way that winner can validate this championship is to win another major title, something Goalby was not able to accomplish. So do we get Tiger Woods, when all is said and done Sunday at Augusta National, or do we get another Bob Goalby? Seems like no matter what the outcome, this Masters will long be remembered for what happened long before the back nine on Sunday.

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By Ron Sirak

AUGUSTA, GA. - Sometimes it's easy to forget how far Tiger Woods had fallen. Not just from perennial No. 1 to No. 58 in the world ranking, but also from revered icon to ridiculed punch line.

That he has climbed all the way back to the top of golf is a testament to what has always been his strongest attribute -- an overwhelming burning desire to be the best.

That Tiger has won back the majority of the fans -- even those who aren't sure they like him are sure they love watching the magical golf he is capable of playing -- is a testimony to his determined toughness.

That Woods is once again the best player in the world is beyond dispute. The question before the court is how close he is to being his former self. And the jury is still out on that.

Related: Tiger's long road back to No. 1

For the ninth time since he last slipped on a green jacket, Tiger teed it up on Thursday at Augusta National. And for the first time since the 2009 Masters -- the Masters before his world unraveled -- Woods began play with a relative sense of normalcy surrounding his life.

Not only was his mother, Kultida, in his gallery, escorted arm-in-arm by Nike founder Phil Knight, who remained a loyal Tiger supporter throughout the scandal, but he was also watched by skier Lindsey Vonn, his new love interest, and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Vonn, who sported a brace after ripping up her right knee in competition, was not able to walk all of the steeply contoured Augusta National course. But she walked the first few holes, popped out to see Tiger again at No. 9 and was there at No. 18 when he finished off a 70.

Woods played an unspectacular but highly efficient round of golf. He hit a solid nine of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens, taking 30 putts -- which is not great -- but avoided the dreaded three-putt.

Three of the four times Woods has won here, he opened with a 70. And the Woods roadmap to a major victory has always been to position himself nicely the first two days, go low to take the lead in round three then protect that lead on Sunday.

"It's a good start," Woods said. " Some years some guys shot 65 starting out here. But right now I'm only four back and I'm right there."

Related: How Tiger's swing has changed

Asked if it was important to begin the tournament with an under-par round, Woods said: "Absolutely, it was benign. Especially starting out. The wind picked up in the middle part of the round. Got a little bit swirly there at Amen Corner, as usual. But overall I think the biggest challenge today was just the speed of the greens. They just weren't quite there. They looked it, but just weren't quite putting it."

On Tuesday, Woods used the word "balance" to describe how his life is different now than it was in the days, months and years after the Nov. 27, 2009 car crash that began his startling decline.

That seems to be true by every measuring stick. He is both physically and emotionally much more balanced. His swing is more fluid, absent now of that going-for-another-gear grunt move that led to wild shots.

And he also seems to have his emotions under greater control. After appearing impatient and at times angry on the golf course, he now goes with the flow better, although he will never be Mr. Roger's when he has a golf club in his hand.

When it comes to the fans, my observation is that about one-third have forgiven him or never had a problem with what he did to begin with; about one-third will never forgive him or never liked him to begin with; and one-third don't necessarily embrace the man but they love to see great golf and will cheer his successes.

That all puts him in a much better place and makes that feeling of being in balance easier to achieve. While galleries were wary when Woods first returned after the scandal, now he has the majority of them on his side -- especially when he is playing well.

The question everyone wants to know is whether or not Woods can get the five major championships he needs to break the all-time record of 18 held by Jack Nicklaus. This Masters is an important step on that road.

Related: Augusta National's unwritten rules

A victory here and the conversation changes, with the pursuit of the Nicklaus record seemingly once again within reach. Another empty trip to the well not only makes the hill high but also the questions harder.

Since winning 14 of his first 46 majors as a professional, Woods has gone 0-for-14. But the more troubling number for Woods is that in seven of those 14 winless majors, Woods has finished in the top six.

Simply put: Woods has given himself an opportunity to win on many occasions over the last five years, but he has not been able to close out the deal. And that's startling from one of the best finishers the game has even known.

Once again, Woods has done was he needs to do on Thursday in a major championship. We've seen that before during this major drought. Now he needs to show us he can close the deal on the weekend. That's when the long road back will be complete.

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By Ron Sirak

ORLANDO, FLA. -- Toward the end of our chat in the offices of Arnold Palmer Design, an aide to Palmer brought in an iPhone cover with the multicolored umbrella logo and handed it to Kate Upton, who erupted with the kind of enthusiastic "Yes!" you'd expect from someone just a year removed from being a teenager.

Clearly, the week Upton had spent at the Bay Hill Resort & Lodge during the Arnold Palmer Invitational led her to appreciate the brilliant job Palmer and his agent at International Management Group, Alastair Johnston, have done building the Palmer brand.

Related: Arnold Palmer's timeless golf tips

Just as clearly, even a brief chat with Upton reveals her as a sharp woman with a keen sense of humor and with designs to be more than just another pretty face.

"He is so down to earth, so nice," Upton said about Palmer on Friday at the Bay Hill. "He is able to sit in any situation and talk with anyone. I hope to be like that. I've always wanted to meet Arnold. He's a legend in more than golf."

The meeting came about in part because Upton's agent at IMG is Lisa Benson, a native of Punxsutawney, Pa., which is right in the Western Pennsylvania wheelhouse of Arnie's Army. Benson also played college golf for two-and-a-half years at Penn State.

"She wants to be more than just a model," Benson said about Upton. "The other day she said, 'I want a soap with an umbrella on it,'" referring to the distinctive Palmer logo. At the rate she is going, an Upton logo might not be too far in the future.

"There couldn't be two more different people," said Johnston, the vice chairman of IMG who has been handling Palmer's business affairs for decades. "A 20-year-old supermodel and an 83-year-old icon," He said, smiling as he shook his head. "But they hit it off."

And Palmer could not have been more impressed with Upton, who does take you back in the way she shatters any stereotype you might have about models with her insight and sharp wit.

"She's a very astute young lady," Palmer said. "She's with it. She's interested in the hospital. She has a great grasp of what she wants to do with her career. I enjoyed talking with her about many different things. She's very sharp."

Upton's visit to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies affected her as much as her time with Palmer affected her.

"It is an absolutely amazing place," Upton said. "It's odd to say a hospital is a beautiful place, but it truly is. And they are doing such great work there."

Part of what Upton discussed with Palmer was how to build a brand and how to extend it. No one has done that better than Palmer.

While Palmer is rightly credited for putting the British Open back on the map when he played there in 1960, perhaps the under appreciated aspect of that trip was that Mark McCormack, founder of IMG, realized playing there would extend Palmer's brand globally.

"The international language is sport," Johnston said. "Mark identified that at an early time. That's the legacy he has."

At one point, as Johnston described how impressed Palmer was with Upton during a dinner conversation, hanging on every word, Kate interrupted and said: "What, you weren't interested in what I was saying?"

Johnston shook his head and said, 'That's the way she's been all week." That's the way she was during our chat -- funny and one step ahead of the conversation.

Now that Upton has met the King are golf lessons next? "I grew up in a family that loved golf," the Melbourne, Fla., native said. "Maybe one of these days I'll play."

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In the meantime, she's gotten some marketing messages from Palmer, who's always been the King in the business world as much as he has been on the golf course. That's an area where Palmer is the true supermodel.

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By Ryan Herrington

As the PGA Tour closes out the West Coast portion of its season at Dove Mountain outside Tucson with the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, it gives us at Golf World a natural chance to break down what's happened thus far in 2013. In this week's edition of the Inside Golf World podcast, senior writer Tim Rosaforte and executive editor Ron Sirak debate the various storylines that have stood out to date--most notably victories by top talents Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and the continued emergence of Brandt Snedeker after claiming last year's FedEx Cup title--and discuss what they potentially mean as the tour heads east with four stops in Florida during the next month. As the run-up to the Masters begins in earnest, Rosaforte and Sirak also offer their early faves to succeed at Augusta.

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