MARANA, Ariz. — The golf course — replete with a convention of cacti, sagebrush, buzzards and dusty trails beneath Dove Mountain — looks as if it were set down in the middle of a Howard Hawks western.
But John Wayne ain’t riding into town to save the blacksmith, the barkeep, the banker and the schoolmarm.
Tiger Woods is, at two minutes past High Noon today.
The part of the unlikely villain, the pilgrim, the tenderfoot will be portrayed by Brendan Jones. It’s not the showdown at Rio Lobo, but, rather, the shootout at Ritz-Carlton.
In possibly the most heralded comeback since Wayne played Rooster Cogburn, Woods plays the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
“I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, and I won’t be laid a hand on,” said Wayne as “The Shootist.”
The modern-day shotmaker, Tiger, could utter the same line.
Instead, on Tuesday, after his practice round, the world’s greatest sports-action hero said: “I’m looking forward to the rush” of his first tournament in eight months. “I really am, waking up tomorrow and getting ready and focused and coming out here, warming up and getting fired up for my match against Brendan. I’m really looking forward to that more than anything else because I haven’t had that in a long time.”
Jones — who hails from Tuross Head, Australia, and is about as famous as his hometown — also looks forward to the match. “I’d bet the house on Tiger,” he said. “Pretty much everybody has told me if things don’t go my way, take out his knee.”
That knee would be the left, the severely injured one he won on at the U.S. Open and was cut on afterward.
When I last left Tiger, he was standing on a cliff hard by the Pacific Ocean and Torrey Pines. He had pulled off his most incredible victory in a major, among the 14.
I’ve been a witness to his amazing history in majors 10 times — his first at the Masters in 1997 when he became the first man of color to win (by 12 strokes). I was there when he won his first British Open at St. Andrews and didn’t land in any of the 144 bunkers on the Old Course. When he lapped the field to win his first U.S. Open at fabled Pebble Beach. When he beat the then-second best player in the world (David Duval, now of Denver) on the final day of the 2001 Masters to complete the Tiger Slam. When he won the British Open in 2006 months after the loss of his father/coach Earl. And when he beat Rocco Mediate in a playoff last June.
“This is the most gratifying,” he told me two hours after the incredible triumph. “The knee is a lot worse than I let on.”
But Tiger Woods was as good with a club and one leg as Rooster Cogburn was with a gun and one eye.
The ACL was torn. The knee was bone on bone. Tiger grimaced on every shot; the leg buckled on several shots, and he altered some shots and stopped his swing short on others.
The greatest player (ever) in the game went away. Interest in watching the game went with him.
Now Tiger is back, and interest has returned with him, and he may be better than (ever). Both knees work.
Tiger is playing in the Match Play, which he won on a deteriorating knee last year.
On Tuesday morning Woods pulled his approach to the green and was about 60 feet away. He threw four balls down to check speed, slope, direction and distance.
The second chip disappeared in the hole.
Roar.
“Both legs are stronger than they’ve ever been,” he said at Tuesday’s press conference. “Stability is something I haven’t had in years.”
He was asked what will be the biggest mystery today. “Well, I think just trying to get in the rhythm of the round.”
No, the biggest mystery will be Brendan Jones, who cannot be confused with Bobby Jones (for whom the bracket is named).
Jones is John Wayne’s Richard Boone — the guy in the black cowboy hat. Truthfully, nobody, except Australians and tumbling tumbleweeds — wants Jones to win. Even Phil Mickelson, who won last week and has been Tiger’s long-time nemesis, was praising the return.
“It’s amazing to me what he has done for our sport, and for us to have the most recognizable athlete in the world playing our sport is so fortunate for all of us. We’ve been able to benefit from it, and to have him back is awesome.”
The new Ritz-Carlton Golf Club is the site for the Match Play Championship for the first time, so Tiger, and Mickelson, and Jones, hadn’t seen it. “The greens are a little severe . . . and there aren’t a lot of pins that you can’t go to,” Tiger said.
Several miles away from the golf course is Old Tucson, a replica Western town that has served as the location for dozens of movies, including three starring John Wayne.
Wayne always won out over there.
The perfect scenario over here is that Woods will win out.
One British newspaper already has headlined: “Tiger’s coming back, and Aussie Jones is thrilled to be his first victim.”
In this script, Tiger dispenses with Jones, then Retief Goosen, Mike Weir and Rory Sabbatini (who once claimed he could challenge Woods for No. 1 in the world), then either Mickelson or Vijay Singh in the semis.
Which would lead to a final Sunday of Tiger Woods vs. Sergio Garcia or the winner of two majors in 2008 — Padraig Harrington.
And you know who shoots best and rides off into the sunset.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
