The great (if brief) British golf writer Patric Dickinson once wrote that “There is nothing new to say about St. Andrews, just as there is nothing new to say about Shakespeare,” and in this light, what is there really to add about Tiger’s win at Bay Hill that hasn’t already been reported, lauded, canonized and recorded for the ages?

Thus I will only add the following two thoughts:

1) The observation that I made to friends in 1996 upon the occasion of Woods’ third straight U.S. Amateur triumph (“The putting looks a tad shaky under pressure”) may not have been entirely on the mark...

2) Just once, I wish that upon holing one of these tournament-winning shots, he would act more like a golfer than a professional wrestler.

And with that, we move on.

Looking past Tiger, I originally anticipated leading this post off with one of two storylines that promptly went up in smoke: either Prayad Marksaeng’s closing 64 to win the Asian Tour’s Black Mountain Masters (rendered moot when Johan Edfors birdied the last two holes to snatch the title) or Jiyai Shin’s jump to number two (?) in the Rolex Rankings with her impressive win in Phoenix (unfortunately Karrie Webb – who’s now beaten Shin head-to-head twice in four months – had other ideas).

But while both of these would have tied nicely into previous posts on Prayad and Shin, Webb herself is a pretty good story, for much like Retief Goosen a week ago, this is a world-class, multiple Major championship winner who played herself back from the realm of “Can I do this anymore?” to victory, thus ending a two-and-a-half year drought in America. However, also like Goosen, Webb remained reasonably relevant on the world stage during her slump, winning the Australian Women’s Open in both 2007 and ’08, and finishing no worse the 22nd on the LPGA money list. And besides, she’s only 34 – which may look old next to Shin and some of the Tour’s other up-and-comers, but certainly suggests five or six more strong years ahead, at minimum.

But perhaps of even greater interest is the week ahead on both the PGA and LPGA circuits. The men return to Houston for the Tour’s final pre-Masters event, the Shell Houston Open , and it is fascinating to note that fully 15 of the world top 20 (though not the world number one) will be in attendance. Gone, apparently, are the days when most of the elite took the week off before a Major to rest and prepare, a method that seemed to suit men like Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus fairly well, and which appear to be further validated by Tiger Woods long having followed a similar routine. But much like the old Westchester Classic struck gold by tricking up the Westchester Country Club’s West course to USGA-like conditions, thus drawing numerous top players (especially foreigners) in the week before the U.S. Open, the Houston Open similarly now sets up Redstone golf Club to ape the conditions at Augusta National – apparently with some real success. Of course, Westchester is a quirky, old-fashioned northeastern test which, with a bit of window dressing, can reasonably approximate a U.S. Open layout. The Tournament course at the Redstone, on the other hand, is an overblown, oversized Rees Jones design whose flat terrain, 59 bunkers and near-complete lack of strategy bear no resemblance whatsoever to Augusta National.

Is it possible that some of our modern stars can’t tell the difference?

Despite Houston’s impressive field, however, the week’s major story lies in Rancho Mirage, California, where the Mission Hills Country Club plays host to the Kraft Nabisco Championship – women’s golf’s first Major – for the 38th consecutive year. The list of favorites is an obvious enough one – Lorena Ochoa of course, with Jiyai Shin, Suzann Pettersen, Yani Tseng and perhaps Angela Stanford making up a reasonable top five – but at a gut level, one really looks at defending champion Ochoa and the rapidly rising Shin as the stars of the show. Indeed, this may be the first in a long run of Major championship battles between the two, with the world number one ranking (which is still held comfortably by Ochoa) eventually hanging in the balance.

If things break right, it could make for some compelling golf indeed.