When he's not playing golf Tiger Woods likes to race cars, bungee jump, dive in the deep blue seas and engage in all things dangerous (including marriage and fatherhood). Recently, PGA players were asked what they thought about such stunts. To a man they defended his right to do what he wants and then said but boy oh boy I hope he doesn't get hurt. You see, they know what Tiger means to ratings, what Tiger means to prize money, what Tiger means to golf. They know, in short, that Tiger is golf. Does anyone even care, absent a handful of nuts, what happens when Tiger's not in the field? Don't answer - that's what is called a rhetorical question.

Tiger evidently feels a kinship (though they are far from kin) with his fellow pros. He evidently felt bad about missing every tournament since The Masters and cringed (not unlike today on 1) when he watched ratings plummet. When he realized the US Open would be broadcast in prime time this weekend - this Father's Day weekend (ah the transparency of the USGA) - he must have decided to make amends. Last night, as the ocher skies turned inky here on the East Coast, he decided to hole an eagle putt of 60 feet on 13, chip in on 17 and hole another long eagle putt on 18. And people who usually avoid golf, whose Saturday nights typically include restaurants and deconstructed desserts, those people were forced to watch. And those people sat up and exclaimed - hey golf's pretty exciting, who knew.

Then for his Sunday encore Tiger, with the tournament his to win, hooked his second on 13 into the ice plants and revived the dying drama. Again those same people sat up and exclaimed - hey how about this game of golf. And then of course Tiger came to 18 needing a birdie to tie and not only did he make birdie but he made it with a curling-just-fall-in-the-right-edge putt of 12 feet. Tiger Woods, ever the dramatist. The likes of Mamet and Miller, Beckett and Behan pale in comparison. Those who play golf professionally must be giving a collective sigh of relief and - like the rest of us - wondering what Tiger has planned for tomorrow.