Woods on the mend?

Tiger Woods hasnt looked this good on the golf course in back-to-back weeks since he left Australia two years ago with his 82nd title and the indisputable No. 1 ranking

Tiger Woods hasnt looked this good on the golf course in back-to-back weeks since he left Australia two years ago with his 82nd title and the indisputable No. 1 ranking. OK,its a small sample. The Australian Open and the Presidents Cup marked only the sixth time since the end of 2009 that Woods has even competed in consecutive weeks.

He finished third in Sydney and played just as well at Royal Melbourne,even if his record will show him contributing only two points. Still to be determined is whether the last two weeks represent another tease or substantial progress that Woods really is on his way back. Nine rounds of solid play mostly in windy conditions would suggest the latter. It was a small coincidence that the decisive point in another American win in the Presidents Cup came down to Woods. Woods closed out Aaron Baddeley on the 15th hole with his sixth birdie.

Nothing irritates Woods more than people who either doubt or criticise him,and that list included International captain Greg Norman the Shark said he would not have picked Woods for the Presidents Cup.

Couples not only used a captains pick on Woods,he announced before his team was decided. Im thankful that he picked me, Woods said. Greg is probably not happy about it after I closed out the cup today.

The Presidents Cup was a big step for Woods,and it ended with a small dig at Norman. Woods has spent a career wanting to prove the skeptics wrong. He was questioned for overhauling his swing under Butch Harmon after his win at the 1997 Masters,but when he was finished,Woods had won 28 times in a three-year span,and had a stretch of winning seven out of 11 majors.

Then came another change under Hank Haney. Woods won a fourth green jacket at the Masters in 2005,was runner-up in the US Open at Pinehurst,then captured another British Open that showed he was back on top of his game. There are differences this time around. Woods is 35,and five of the top 10 players in the world are in their 20s. That includes US Open champion Rory McIlroy,Martin Kaymer and Dustin Johnson,the most talented American still in his 20s.

He had surgery for the fourth time on his left knee after winning the 2008 US Open,his 14th and last major to date. He injured the left knee again at the Masters this year,and hobbled off the TPC Sawgrass a month later and did not return to competition for three months. When he came back,he looked ordinary at Firestone and missed the cut at the PGA Championship.