Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson Restore Order to Golfing World

In a matter of just a few hours on Thursday, order was once again restored to the golf universe.

After three weeks of abysmal play, Phil Mickelson finally found his game at Riviera where he fired an opening round score of 63.

Just a few hours after Mickelson walked off the course out in California, Tiger Woods, sitting at home in Windermere, Fla., officially decided to make his return to the PGA Tour next week. Woods made the announcement on his Web site.

When Woods told the golf world last June that he would be undergoing season-ending reconstructive knee surgery, many believed Mickelson would have been the guy to step up and take on the role of “leader” on the PGA Tour.

However, at the exact time Woods went down with his knee injury, Mickelson was also going through one of the worst cold stretches of his career.

Throughout the past 10 years the PGA Tour’s popularity has increased tenfold.

Golf has become more of a mainstream sport, which is a good thing of course. However, for better or for worse, a very large number of these newfound golf fans were 'Tiger Woods fans' and not really true fans of the game.

The millions upon millions of 'Tiger Woods’ fans' only tune in when Woods is playing, and millions more only tune in when Woods is in the hunt on Sunday.

When Woods went down with his knee injury, all of his fans went down with him, thus presenting the tour with a major problem in terms of attendance and television ratings.

No matter what, golf would have lost many fans in Woods' absence. However, the one thing that might have at least softened the blow would have been if Mickelson were able to step in as the game’s new dominating force in Woods’ absence.

But, as we all know, that did not happen last year.

As we moved into the 2009 season fans once again thought Phil Mickelson, after some offseason work, would finally emerge as a true force on the tour.

Again, Mickelson was anything but a force to be reckoned with during his first three events of the 2009 season. This resulted in the PGA Tour remaining in somewhat of a lull throughout the start of the ‘09 season.

Tiger had been gone for eight months, Mickelson was struggling so much that fans were beginning to question whether he had begun his ultimate decline, and the likes of Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas have not done too much thus far in 2009 and they are now off playing on the European Tour this week.

Then, in a matter of just a few hours, Mickelson was back on the top of the leaderboard, Woods’ name will appear in next week’s pairing sheets, and the golf world once again appears to be in order.

The two biggest names in the golf are back. With the country’s economic situation, and the sudden loss in popularity the tour has recently experienced, the resurgence of Mickelson and the return of Woods could prove to be the game's saving grace.

Woods and Mickelson are in the same bracket for next week’s Accenture Match Play Championship, thus creating the possibility of a showdown - wouldn't that be something!

It has been no big secret that the PGA Tour has been struggling recently in terms of television ratings, attendance figures, and sponsors.

The combination of a Tigerless tour and the economic meltdown the country has experienced has created the perfect storm for the PGA Tour.

With the return of Woods, and Mickelson appearing to have finally found his A-game, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem is probably saying, “Who needs a government bailout when you have Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson!”