Tiger Woods: How Bay Hill Resurgence Will Affect 2012 Masters Run

Tiger Woods is looking a whole lot better as a golfer, but he's nowhere near the player we once knew.

What would a three-stroke Sunday lead at the Arnold Palmer invitational mean to Woods back in his prime?

I dare say that would be small potatoes for the man that was once the best in the world and will probably still go down as the best ever. It would be just another win in the books, another tournament in which he sought the lead, took it and never looked back.

That was the Tiger we once knew.

Now, a three-stroke Sunday lead at the Arnold Palmer invitational means everything to Woods. He hasn't won on the PGA Tour in ages, and he's become more known for his off-the-course life than his play on it.

What a fall from grace.

Could a win at Bay Hill mean that Tiger is back and ready to dominate the golfing world once again? I highly doubt it.

Before we start talking about comebacks and resurgences and anything of the sort, we need to put this into perspective. Tiger will never be the golfer he once was—it's nearly impossible.

It's like asking somebody to climb Mount Everest right after they had made it to the top and tragically fell all the way down. It's an impossible task.

You know what they say: The bigger you are the harder you fall, and that saying truly comes to life when looking at the career of Tiger Woods.

We need to change our expectations of Tiger. He's never going to be great again. He'll never be able to accomplish the heights of greatness that we've grown used to.

Is he still a great great golfer? Absolutely.

But so are Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and so on.

Woods has become pedestrian. He's just one of the bunch now.

Expecting anything else would be unrealistic.