Tiger Woods Mastering His Comeback So Far

Tarnished golfer is tied for third heading into weekend play at the Masters; TV viewership up 50 percent over last year

But is he master of his domain?

Tiger Woods, playing in front of millions of TV viewers for the first time since hitting his marriage into the rough, easily made the cut at the Masters Friday after two days of all-star-caliber golf, including his best opening round ever at the storied tournament.

Nike's comebacking golden boy heads into the weekend six strokes under par, two shots behind coleaders Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, and tied for third place.

Whether he can hold up his end of the bargain he's made with America ("I'll keep kicking ass at golf and keep my pants zipped if you try to forget what a lousy guy I was and support me") remains to be seen, but you can bet America will be watching.

TV viewership for opening day of the Masters was up 47 percent over 2009—and Woods played in that one, too! Nielsen ratings showed that nearly 5 million people tuned into ESPN yesterday to catch Woods' return, making it the most-watched cable telecast of golf ever.

Can you imagine where those ratings are going to be this weekend, when tournament coverage switches to CBS?

And Woods certainly sounds like he plans to be in the hunt on championship Sunday, telling reporters after his second-round 70 today that he feels "very comfortable with everything." (He says he didn't even see those planes fly by yesterday.)

"I felt that I could put myself in contention," he said, regarding his feelings coming into the tournament. "My practice has been really consistent and progressing with Hank [Haney, his coach]. And as I said, I didn't have the luxury of playing tournaments coming in here. So I had to be more focused on my practice sessions coming into it and then take more out of them than most people would."

Sure, that's one way to describe the disadvantage he was at coming into the tourney.

(Originally published April 9, 2010, at 4:40 p.m. PT)