This is his favorite course

This is his favorite course. It was practically invented for him. Fairways the size of Heathrow runways. There should be a sign: Driver Welcome Here. He's played three Open Championships here. In 1995, as an amateur, he finished tied for 68th. But the other two times, he won handily. The first he won by 8 shots when he was young and bulletproof. The other, five years later, he won by 5. He needs to win here. If you're hunting majors, you can't let fat, slow ones like St. Andrews get away.

More importantly, a win at St. Andrews gets the media monkey off his back. Most of the tabs and the gossip sites will figure, OK, he's over it. What's Becks up to?

But lose at St. Andrews and it feeds that monkey steroids. The question is amplified. You can see it on magazine covers already: Will Tiger Ever Be Tiger Again?

Worse, maybe he starts asking it himself.

I used to predict Tiger would end up with 25 majors. At one time, he had a three-and-a-half-year lead on Nicklaus. But now he's moving like Betty White in snowshoes. Sure, golf is fickle. Some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you. But there are days now when Tiger resembles a tabby. Quitting at Wachovia. Making a bogey on 10 at Pebble Beach with a sand wedge in his hand for his second shot on Sunday. Barely making the cut at his own tournament last week.

OK, who are you and what have you done with Tiger Woods?

"I don't know," says Mickelson. "I still think the chances are better that he will do it than he won't."

Me, too. When he's on, he's still the greatest golfer I've ever seen by a par 4.

But if he doesn't start this week, The Bear starts eating him.