Tiger Woods is back, and Ernie Els won't go away . . . which means that, finally, world golf has a potential duel on its hands.
Although separated by 16 time zones, and coming some time after Els's success in Perth, Woods's win in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines - on his first outing of the year and his first after knee surgery - put down a marker, as if we really needed one, that the world's number one doesn't intend to hand over his reign to anyone. The fight, most definitely, is on.
"He looked like he'd been playing for weeks in a row," playing partner Brad Faxon remarked, after Woods shot a final round 68 for a 16-under-par total of 272 and a four-stroke victory over Sweden's Carl Pettersen. "Every part of his game was on. It is hard to imagine someone playing better," added Faxon.
While Woods was gingerly taking steps after surgery - which took place on December 12th - and then confined to work-outs in the gym rather than on the golf course, Els was stamping his authority on the early season by winning everywhere and climbing to the number one positions in the moneylists on both the US Tour and the European Tour. What Els was achieving didn't go unnoticed by Woods, either. "Ernie's been pretty impressive," admitted Woods. "He is putting up some great scores, great numbers. Everybody is making a great deal of how far he's hitting it, but you can't just hit it 400 yards . . . you've got to make putts (too).
"He's making every single putt inside 12 feet, and that's what you've got to do to win tournaments, (and) he's hitting his irons - I wouldn't say stiff on every hole - but he's hitting them close enough."
While acknowledging what Els has been achieving, the ominous news for everyone else in the game is that Woods is more intent on what he does himself.
After his win, he said: "I couldn't have asked for a better start to the year. One, to have played 72 holes without being sore, which is a big positive, and two, to have won the tournament.
"When you're cooped up on the couch at home, you miss competing. I've missed getting out there and competing with the guys. That's my rush, going out there and having to hit a shot that really matters."
On his way to his latest win - his 35th on the US Tour and his 11th by at least four shots - Woods got into situations which proved to him that the decision to undergo surgery was the right one.
Woods plans to play in this week's Nissan Open at the Riviera Club in Los Angeles - where Darren Clarke, who was disqualified for signing for a wrong score at the Buick Invitational, and Colin Montgomerie, making his seasonal debut, are also competing - before playing in next week's World Matchplay in La Costa and, then, the following week's Dubai Desert Classic.
There was a time when Des Smyth would have been looking towards Dubai to start his European Tour season, but not any longer. These days, Smyth's golfing career focuses around the Champions Tour - formerly the US Seniors Tour - and he made an impressive debut at the weekend by finishing second to Argentina's Vicente Fernandez in the ACE Group Classic in Florida.
Smyth earned $128,000 for sharing second place with Tom Watson and jumped to eighth place on the moneylist.
Smyth continues his American campaign in this week's $1.6 million Verizon Classic at Tampa Bay, where Christy O'Connor Junior is also competing. Eamonn Darcy, though, is only fifth alternate.
