On Golf tinkered with one of those fashionable list columns to launch 2009 -- say, 10 story lines to watch in the coming PGA Tour season, which began Thursday in Maui. Only a boilerplate list might suggest all story lines are created equal, and that's clearly not the case.
Not when You Know Who is lurking in the lobby, restless to join the fray.
Talk all day about rising young stars such as Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas. Wonder all winter about whether Padraig Harrington can win another major or if Sergio Garcia will ever win one. Muse all summer about the possibility of high drama when the Presidents Cup comes to San Francisco's Harding Park in September.
They're all intriguing subplots, dwarfed by the zillion-dollar question: When will Tiger Woods return and how will he play?
Woods offered few clues last month, when he held a news conference and answered questions in his typically clinical, evasive way. He doesn't know how his surgically repaired left knee will respond as he intensifies his practice routine, he said, and that will largely determine when Woods plays in a tournament for the first time since his memorable U.S. Open victory over Rocco Mediate.
Woods wants to play before the Masters (April 9-12), so all logical speculation points to two events he historically enters: the CA Championship at Doral in Miami (March 12-15) and the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando (March 26-29). Those two tournaments would help Woods work off the rust, assuming his knee cooperates.
There are other players worth considering as the new season tees off, from Kim and Villegas to Harrington and Garcia to Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh. Mickelson didn't win any of his seven starts last year after Woods went down and hasn't contended down the stretch in a major since his 72nd-hole collapse in the 2006 U.S. Open. He also turns 39 in June. Will he even threaten to win a major again?
But as Mickelson plots his warm reunion with Woods' caddie, Steve Williams -- wait, maybe not -- and Greg Norman anticipates his unlikely return to Augusta National, all chatter about the '09 season still comes back to Tiger. He turned 33 last week, in the thick of his prime. He's uniquely driven, as his U.S. Open win last June illustrated.
So when Commissioner Tim Finchem sat in a conference room a few months ago, and openly wondered how Woods will cope with the emerging threats of the Kim/Villegas crowd, one thought surfaced: He's probably going to kick their tails, just like always.
TRANSGENDER WINNER: The women's long-drive world champion lives in Palm Springs, Calif., once was a police officer, now works as a bartender and -- she revealed recently -- used to be a man.
Lana Lawless won the title on Oct. 22. Then, on the eve of ESPN's recent telecast of the event, Golfweek ran a story in which the new champ -- whose winning drive into a 40-mph headwind traveled 254 yards -- shared her secret and defended her achievement.
"I am a woman," Lawless told the magazine. "I've lost muscle mass. I don't have big guns (biceps). ... That other person, that 245-pound SWAT cop I used to be, he's gone."
Lawless' disclosure apparently brought surprisingly few complaints in a sport fueled by strength and clubhead speed. As former women's world champion Lee Brandon told Golfweek, "The USGA approved transgender involvement in competition, so I don't see how we can dispute this. However, if a woman has the knees, hands and feet of a man, she has genetic real estate that is more gifted."
TAP-INS: Actor Greg Kinnear will play in next month's AT&T Pebble Beach National for the first time, joining fan favorites Bill Murray and George Lopez. Furyk, Perry and Davis Love III are among the big-name pros that already have committed; Mickelson also is expected to join the field. Singh plans to play at Pebble, even though he's scheduled for arthroscopic knee surgery next week. ... Seve Ballesteros, recovering from several surgeries for a brain tumor, said this week that he hopes to return next year as captain of Europe's Royal Trophy team. This year's competition (Europe vs. Asia) begins Friday in Thailand.
(E-mail Ron Kroichick at rkroichick@sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
ON GOLFMust credit the San Francisco Chronicle
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