- Golf The Way It Used To Be:  Nope, not another traditionalist rant, but rather some thoughts on what the PGA Tour figures to be like for the duration of 2008 – a window in which Tiger Woods rehabs and the rest of the flock returns to the days when anybody could win and certain big-name stars (not named Rocco) didn’t dutifully collapsed in the Great Man’s wake on Sundays.  And this will, indeed, be interesting…  The reality is that while TV ratings and tournament gates generally do suffer when Tiger is absent, this has not always been the case, as the 2007 Nissan Open – a Tigerless event at Riviera that saw Phil Mickelson dutifully collapse for Charles Howell III instead – ably proved.  Even without Tiger, the right event, with the right field, on the right course can still succeed – at least enough for one go-round, anyway.  But there’s another factor which suggests to me that this eight-month Dark Ages may not really be so dark: with the exception of his absolute loyalty to prime sponsor Buick, Woods generally tees it up only at the Tour’s largest and most prestigious events – the sort of events that are going to draw elite fields regardless.  Thus while the status of traditionally Tigerless events will remain unchanged, the events that had anticipated his presence will still have Mickelson, Scott, Els, etc., which means that as long as form holds reasonably well into the weekend, there should still be plenty of interest in the proceedings.  And then there’s one final point: The difficult part of being a Tigerless event is attempting to market yourself when everyone knows he could have been there but chose not to; the result – an implied statement that this is a second-class tournament – makes selling it a tricky task indeed.  But this time around, there will be no questions as to whether or not he could have played.  He’s unavailable, period, which places every PGA Tour event from now until 2009 on identical footing relative to his absence.  Personally, I don’t think it’s going to be all that big a deal, though I’m sure that the folks at Buick, AT&T and FedEx would beg to differ.  And, of course, someone not named Woods will punctuate the “New Era In Golf” by winning the second FedEx Cup.  The excitement builds!