Tiger on the prowl, Everton make me scowl

At his age Tiger Woods's comeback from severe injury is already one of the greatest in the history of sport. While the story now rolls on to the Ryder Cup we are left with the tantalising thought for 2019 - could he win another Major? If his near miss at Carnoustie in July wasn't enough, his convincing win, front running like the Tiger of old at the PGA Tour Championship confirmed that the answer is yes, he could. Will he? It's going to be fascinating finding out.

While being an admirer of Woods's enormous talents as a golfer I was never an admirer of Woods as a person. But the new version of Tiger is easier to warm to. Two slow-mo replays from the weekend caught my eye. On the first tee Woods greeted Rory McIlroy with a firm but warm handshake, a smile and - unlike the old days - an exchange of pleasantries. (I do mean pleasantries, that's not a euphemism). But as the camera lingered, the smile faded and the stare went icier as Woods thought about the task at hand. And, just like days of yore, he proceeded to strangle the life out of a competitor who seemed to shrink from the opportunity of beating the master in his intimidating bright red shirt, which he traditionally wears on the final day of a competition. Except, while doing it, there were some smiles and conversation between the two rivals, at least once the round came towards its conclusion, with McIlroy no longer a threat.

The second replay was of Justin Rose, beaming ear to ear as he lifted the FedEx Cup, seized from Woods's grasp by Rose's birdie on the last hole. I should just point out to those who don't follow golf closely that the Tour Championship is a one off event at the end of the US PGA season but is also part of the FedEx Cup series. So Woods won the Tour Championship but Rose pipped him - by one shot gained on the very last hole - to the Fed Ex Cup. Of course Rose was beaming - the FedEx comes with a first prize of $10 million. But what's this? Just behind the oversize trophy one could see Woods was also smiling broadly. Probably not how the mark one Tiger would have reacted.

Whether Woods has really had a Damascene conversion as a human being is difficult to tell. But there does seem to have been a huge impact from the fact that he can now not only play golf again but compete at the highest level after he would have settled just to be free of pain from his injuries. We are all, in many ways, the sum of our experiences.

Now there's even talk of pairing him with his new best buddy Phil Mickelson, despite the fact that it was a complete train wreck last time it was done by an American Ryder Cup captain in 2004.  Mickelson has said that this was because the players weren't given much notice that they would be playing together. For the foursome (or "alternate shot" as the Amercians call it) the two players use the same ball and take turns to play it. So they have to agree on a ball to use. Tiger uses a low spin ball, Phil a high spin ball. Mickelson's pre-tournament practice was therefore entirely dedicated to familiarising with Tiger's choice of ball.

I'm sure that's true but, as all the world knew Woods was wont to refer to Mickelson as "phony Phil", I'm sure it wasn't remotely the half of it. Woods seemed to take exception to Mickelson's reputation as a "good guy", which was perhaps due in part to the fact that he would spend generous amounts of time signing autographs for fans after his rounds. Whereas Woods, who some years later confessed to being a sex addict, obviously had reasons not to hang around, playing the field instead of the crowd presumably.

The new found Woods and Mickelson friendship may be taken a step further in Paris before they contest a winner takes all $9 million exhibition match in Las Vegas in November. Have they, like any normal folk might, agreed behind the scenes to share the dosh with maybe 30% going to the loser? I'd bet not. Tiger might have smiled at Rose picking up the FedEx but it clearly still hurt a bit that he'd missed out on the $10M jackpot. I'll be giving that piece of tacky theatre a miss in favour of waiting for the first major of 2019, the US Masters in April.

Tiger might not be scowling as much these days but Everton are bringing a frown to my brow. After an opening fixture list that was, until last weekend's away match at Arsenal, considered easy they have only 6 points from 6 Premier League games - which is relegation form.  They actually played well against Arsenal: they pressed high, played with energy and made more chances than the home team. They were caught twice in 3 minutes just before the hour mark but the second Arsenal goal was clearly offside and would have been disallowed if VAR had been in use. And Arsenal were arguably fortunate not to play the entire second half with ten men as midfielder Lucas, already on a yellow card, clearly caught Everton's Digne late in the closing stages of the first half. Jon Moss may be one of the Premier League's better refs but it's no coincidence that there were no British referees at the summer's World Cup. So unlucky maybe, but teams at the bottom of the league often seem to be "unlucky".

Meanwhile one footballer catching the eye in the Premier League makes me wonder "what if"? Joao Moutinho is getting rave reviews for Wolves and scored at Old Trafford at the weekend. Moutinho joined Wolves in the summer. The reason for the "what if?" is that Everton made a bid for Moutinho in 2008 when he was 22. He was a player David Moyes (remember him?) identified as being one who could take Everton to the mythical "next level".  Everton had a pretty decent squad at the time, with skilful midfielders Arteta, Osman and Pienaar to supply a potent strike force of Tim Cahill and Yakubu. Moutinho's club wouldn't do business and Everton finished fifth for the second season in a row. Moyes was on to something. I'm not sure about Marco Silva. I hope he earns the five years Moyes had already had at Everton by the time he put that 2007-9 Everton team together. Watching Silva's team may be an improvement on the lastvtwo seasons but he needs to start getting some wins.