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Tiger Woods has won the PGA Championship four times in his career, the last of which came in 2007. 

Other than his incredible triumph at the 2008 US Open on one leg, the 2007 PGA was his last major victory and it may be the scene of his major return after sitting out this year's US Open and Open Championship.

In that time span Woods has become the target of "attacks" in the golf hierarchy, many saying he'll never be the same.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy was brilliant through three rounds at Augusta before unraveling on Sunday, bounced back to dominate the US Open with a runaway, eight-stroke win and has since been anointed as the "next Tiger Woods" by too many people.

There may never be a "next Tiger Woods", McIlroy is now nine strokes behind the current leader at Royal St. George's and it seems more and more likely that he will come into the PGA just as hungry as Tiger.

And this now sets up an interesting showdown - potentially - between the new guy and the "older" guy if Woods is to return. According to Pro Golf Talk:

Shipnuck reports Woods is rumored to play in the Greenbrier Classic at the end of July at the classic West Virginia resort. He would join a field headlined presently by Phil Mickelson. 

Shipnuck then said Woods would play his usual August two-step of the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship in consecutive weeks, making for a 3-week road trip for the former world No. 1.

Woods kept us in limbo about his availability for the Open Championship down to the wire, and it seems like there is enough time for him to come back and effectively compete for a win at the PGA in a few weeks time.

That means Woods will have one, maybe two, warm-up tournaments to fine tune his game before he steps into the tee box for his next major.

We don't know what Tiger we will see, and we're not sure what McIlroy we will see either, but what we do know is that the sport of golf could definitely use the boost from a Tiger-Rory battle. And for the sake of Tiger's career, this might be exactly what he needs too, someone to force him to elevate his game. 

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The 2011 US Open Champion has been battered and beaten up by the wind and rain at Royal St. George's today to the tune of +2 showing.

Rory McIlroy still has a few holes to go on the back nine, but he simply wants to survive if possible and live to play another day as his early hole troubles continue at the Open Championship.

The current leader, Darren Clarke, sits at -5 by himself with approximately 25 other players separating himself from Rory. 

The 22-year old Northern Irishman has simply been on tear since the 2010 Open Championship - including the collapse at Augusta - and has factored in nearly every major for the past year.

That run is danger now though, and the gloomy course at Royal St. George's is proving to be a sloppy, almost unwatchable at times, run for every golfer including the leader and McIlroy alike.

But McIlroy has proven to be resilient; anyone rebounding from a horrific collapse at The Masters only to dominate the US Open the way he did has something special about them.  

Yet, this course, in this weather, and now what is proving to be a seven shot deficit at the moment, will be too much even for Rory to overcome.

McIlroy has finished T-3,T-3, 15 (2011 Masters) and 1st in the last four majors, dominating majority of the competition around him during the run.

It isn't unthinkable to see him make a charge, but McIlroy has struggled mightily at the start of every round, particularly holes one and three, and it will be hard for him to establish any momentum at all on Sunday with another performance like that.

The real question on Sunday at St. George's will be whether or not the leader can hold on just long enough to win. Thomas Bjorn and Lucas Glover are currently two shots back of Darren Clarke, while four other players led by Dustin Johnson are currently at 2-under.

We've seen Rory dominate fields, but he's not ready to chase down a seven shot lead just yet.

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It hasn't been fun, not for the fans, the league, the players or the owners, but the NFL will come out of this lockout with everything intact for another long and prosperous run as the most popular sport in America.

Sure, fans hollered at Roger Goodell when he stood up at the podium to open the NFL Draft. Yes, fans have been exposed to a situation that could have potentially damaged everything for the long haul. James Harrison, among other players, haven't been too kind to their commissioner either, but in the long run, in a sport where players come and go while the game and it's fans endure, the NFL is better because of this lockout.

Agreements on salary cap, spending and a rookie wage scale keep the playing field as even as possible in league where, "any given Sunday" actually translates to "any given season".

New England's three Super Bowl wins in 4 years are almost a decade old now, and as incredible a feat as it was, there is no real dynasty in football these days.

And for this reason, many believe that the "any given season" mantra is what makes the league so great. The New York Giants weren't the best football team in 2007, the 18-1 Patriots were, but New York won its first Super Bowl since 1990 at their expense.

Other surprise winners in the last 13 years include the St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New England Patriots (upset over St. Louis), New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers.

The Steelers (twice) and Colts had been building toward their championships for a few years and were both superior teams to their opponents in their Super Bowls, but the aforementioned "surprise" winners could certainly have been upstaged by a superior opponent.

And thus, when the NFL returns to a full season in a few weeks - assuming all goes according to plan - the league will have lost nothing in their nearly six-month long work stoppage, in fact, they may have gained an even hungrier audience.

The biggest fear of this lockout was always the threat of missing actual football games, and while things could still completely fall apart with the deal, the smart money is on the league starting sooner than later.

What exactly did we miss anyway? A five month long free agency period? Over-excited expectations of a rookie who shined in mini-camp? The opportunity to buy a new jersey of our favorite new player? Where exactly is the fan cheated out of anything right now?

All in all this comes down to seeing football when it is supposed to be seen, and it looks like the league is coming back even stronger than before.

Teams are being forced to spend a certain amount on players that will keep the playing field level between vastly different franchises like Jacksonville and New York. And if teams don't spend the required amount, they'll be forced to pay their current players the remaining balance. This has little effect on the fans, but makes the league stronger.

Rookies will have to start earning their wages before their handed guaranteed millions, a model the NBA actually got right, and franchises won't be handicapped when they select the next JaMarcus Russell. 

It has been argument between the millionaires and the billionaires, yes, but the future of the NFL is now headed to a better place because of this lockout and us, the fans, haven't really missed anything at all.

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The NFL and the NFLPA are almost there on a deal that will bring football back to life. In what has been an ugly, but not altogether unproductive, lockout of it's athletes, the NFL stands to be a better league in the long run if all the reports are true.

First and foremost, and the most important note for the fans, is the date of July 25th.

According to John Clayton of ESPN:

Once a new CBA has been ratified and the lockout lifted, sources told Clayton free agency is likely to begin July 25. If the owners ratify a new CBA on Thursday in Atlanta and lift the lockout the next day, teams would then have a 72-hour window to try to re-sign their own free agents, sources told ESPN. After that 72-hour window, free agency would start July 25, sources said.

Yes, July 25th is a big difference from March 1st, but in the end the NFL will get into gear and teams will begin training without the stupor of offseason OTA's and other "optional", but often obligatory workouts during the spring and summer.

But aside from just the start of free agency, ESPN reports that a rookie wage scale, a salary cap of $120 million and a spending agreement on player salaries has been established:

... teams would be required to have a minimum cash payroll of $106.8 million in 2011. If they fail to reach that level by the end of the season, they would distribute the difference to the players on team at the end of the season. 

League-wide, the 32 NFL teams must spend $118.8 million per team -- $3.801 billion -- in 2011. That 89-99 formula stays in place for the first two years of a proposed new collective bargaining agreement. In the third year, the guaranteed spend of a team rises to 95 percent.

This is directed at all the smaller market clubs the likes of Jacksonville, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Tampa Bay.

Cincinnati obviously faces an intriguing decision with the Carson Palmer situation, and they will also likely cut ties with Chad Ochocinco who is owed millions of dollars in a team option if retained.

That means the Bengals will have to go out and spend some cash this season, same with Tampa Bay.

Essentially, the agreement makes sure players are the primary focus of team spending while keeping the playing field as even as possible.

As for the rookie wage scale, historically bad franchises that have selected in the top 10 multiple times in recent years - Washington, Cleveland, Buffalo, Oakland - won't be handicapped by poor decisions like JaMarcus Russell and Aaron Maybin.

Bad teams and good teams, wealthy teams and cheap teams; everyone in the NFL is affected by these decisions but they're all for the better of the game.